Africa prodded to fund own agro growth

DOREEN NAWA, Accra, Ghana
IN a speech to delegates at the opening of the 12th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform (PP), former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo remarked: “Africa has all that it needs to transform agriculture and be food secure.”
General Obasanjo says the continent’s greatest challenge is ensuring that transformation is strengthened by sufficient and innovative sources of funding.
He was speaking in Accra, Ghana, during the opening of a five-day meeting held recently under the theme ‘Innovative financing and renewed partnerships to accelerate CAADP implementation’.
The meeting discussed ways of accelerating the CAADP implementation to transform African agriculture in the face of emerging trends that have a direct bearing on Africa’s abilities to deliver results.
The 12th CAADP meeting also sought to highlight how best to speed up implementation through financial innovation and partnerships to deliver the Malabo Declaration and the Africa Union Agenda 2063.
Indeed, agriculture has been Africa’s critical driver of well-being for centuries, ensuring food security central to human health and catalysing the productivity needed for economic prosperity. As such, agriculture has become one of the most powerful engines for Africa’s economies.
Africa is poised to become the world’s next food exporter. Across the continent, there has been a notable renewed commitment from governments, non-governmental organisations and the private sector to move agriculture from a development challenge to a business opportunity.
As a result, most countries are moving to once again become net exporters, rather than importers of agricultural commodities.
“Agriculture has become among the most powerful engines for Africa’s economies, many of which have experienced rapid growth over the last decade. But we need to do more by getting more innovative and smarter by strategising how we can mobilise our own funds for our own development,” General Obasanjo said.
Despite witnessing some notable growth in innovation, Africa is still faced with the demanding task of mobilising adequate resources to fund its growth and the Africa Union’s transformation Agenda 2063.
“Africa has awakened to the fact that it must rely on its own financial resources for the sustainable development of its agricultural growth. To do this, Africa needs to speed up the development of its financial strategies with a view to sparking the transformation of its economy through agriculture,” says African Union commissioner for rural economy for agriculture, Rhoda Peace Tumusiime.
Mrs Tumusiime says for a continent that spends some US$40 billion each year on commercial food imports, the need for Africa to be innovative and more strategic in mobilising and accessing its own private financial resources for sustainable investment cannot be overemphasised.
“Public investments would play a crucial catalytic role to mobilise more private investments in the sector. A renewed partnership built on mutual accountability would help governments, the private sector, farmers and farmers’ organisations as well as development partners to deliver on results and impact for a transformed agriculture and reach the targets set by the CAADP Malabo and the sustainable development goals,” she said.
Truly, more must be done to break down the barriers that remain to scaling up innovation and investing in farmers on a large scale.
Zambia’s lead agribusiness, trade, commodity marketing and policy professional Cris Muyunda says to do this, the continent must form new linkages and better align their visions at country level and implement innovative approaches to boost agricultural production.
He said Africa also needs to increase its supply inputs such as seeds, fertiliser, and water, and outputs including storage, processing and distribution facilities, and access to markets.
“Innovative financing is one of the most promising solutions to respond to the development needs of Africa, provide additional funds by exploiting an unexplored potential. This includes the mobilisation of non-traditional means to assemble funds for development. It thus provides a response to the defects and the decline in traditional official development assistance,” Dr Muyunda said.
But all hope is not lost, Africa still has great potential to transform its economy through agriculture.
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and CAADP co-ordinating agency senior advisor Abraham Sarfo, says Africa must come up with innovative financial products and set up effective national and regional financial institutions and services in order to generate enough funding to finance its agriculture agenda.
Mr Sarfo says to finance its development priorities, Africa must develop a financing framework that prioritises the needs for smallholder farmers.
He said many smallholder farmers, who form the backbone of Africa’s agriculture sector, remain trapped in poverty without access to financing and other tools to increase their productivity and profitability.
He said peasants still lack access to better seeds, healthy soils, profitable markets, storage and transport, and supporting policies to transform agriculture and drive sustainable economic growth in rural areas.
“Current policy, financing and investment patterns are not delivering the future we want. There are enormous unmet financing needs for sustainable development. It is time Africa realised that traditional sources of development finance, such as official development assistance and foreign direct investment, which have buoyed the continent’s development efforts over the years, keep reducing. Such a situation calls for innovation,” Mr Sarfo said.
According to NEPAD statistics, African countries raise more than US$527.3 billion annually from domestic taxes, compared to US$73.7 billion received in private flows and US$51.4 billion in official development assistance.
Globally, Africa is the only region which faces ongoing challenges to improve agricultural productivity, due to under-investment, poor infrastructure, insecure land tenure, unfavourable price policies and weak institutions.
However, agriculture has huge potential in making unused land arable, using untapped water resources, improving yields, expanding local value chains and contributing to meeting Africa’s and the world’s increasing demand for food.
Despite Africa’s economic potential in the agriculture sector, the structure of many economies has changed very little. Yet agriculture has been noted as one of the sectors destined to transform Africa’s economy.

Itezhi Tezhi Contistuency enjoying rapid development

DOREEN NAWA, Itezhi Tezhi
IT IS home to Zambia’s second largest man-made water body, Lake Itezhi Tezhi, created in 1977. The lake lies on the Kafue River with a surface area of 370 square kilometres.
Itezhi Tezhi constituency boasts of a fishing heritage that is well acclaimed within the local angler community with many species of bream including the elusive three spot bream that attracts people to the waters.
The waters in the area provide not only fishing but hydropower and transportation.
Once faced with a seemingly inevitable slow strangulation, Itezhi Tezhi is today one of Zambia’s beacons of hope: a vast reserve with diverse habitats, impressive tourism lodges and other supporting infrastructure, and wonderful wildlife and birds.
Itezhi-Tezhi has the potential to become an investor destination in Zambia, if the challenges it has been facing for a while are addressed.
Despite the constituency being blessed with mineral resources such as copper, coal and other gemstones as well as wildlife, it remained under developed for years.
But now Itezhi Tezhi is seeing some steady development trickling into the locality.
One of the notable developments in the area is the on-going tarring of the D79 road under the Link Zambia 8000 project at a cost of K285.5 million.
The road joins the Lusaka- Mongu road in Mumbwa but it had not received a facelift in the last 30 years. As such, the movement of goods and people was adversely affected for many years.
Other projects in motion are the tarring of 10 kilometres of township roads, construction of a bus station and a market at a cost of K16 million.
“The road once complete will be a light to this area. It will bring a lot of development. Currently, we struggle on the transportation of our produce like fish and agricultural produce. This road has actually been one of the major challenges in service delivery and development,” Daala Siamuna, a resident of Itezhi Tezhi said.
Mr Siamuna said as a rural area which depends on other provincial centres for most goods and services, access has been a challenge.
“The long distance to Livingstone, the former Southern Province capital, and the deplorable state of the 109km Mumbwa – Itezhi Tezhi road (D79), are the major factors that adversely affected development and service delivery in the area when it fell under Southern Province,” Mr Siamuna said.
And commenting on the road, area Member of Parliament Greyford Monde who is also minister of Livestock and Fisheries says once completed, the road will change the face of the area.
“The road is the best infrastructural development that has ever happened in Itezhi Tezhi. As you may be aware it is said where there is a road, development follows. True to this adage, development is now coming to the area,” Mr Monde said.
Mr Monde said because of the urgency of the road to the area, Government ensured that the construction of the road was put on the Link Zambia 8000 project.
“Because of the rains and some challenges in resources, the road had stalled a bit but I’m glad that the contractor is now on site and works will soon start. The road has not been abandoned at all,” Mr Monde said.
The contractor engaged to do the road now is BuildTrust Zambia limited.
Itezhi Tezhi is a constituency as well as a district. It is one of the 11 districts in Central Province. Itezhi Tezh i constituency is located in the south-western part of the province.
It lies about 175 kilometres north of Mumbwa and 62 kilometres west of Namwala district across the Kafue River on the north bank.
Itezhi Tezhi constituency shares borders with other districts namely; Luampa in the west, Kazungula and Kalomo in the south-west, Choma in the south-east and Mazabuka in the east.
Itezhi Tezhi or ‘Itezhyi tezhyi’ which means a slippery rock is home to the Ila speaking people and has six chiefdoms namely Shezongo, Musungwa, Kaingu, Shimbizhi, Chilyabufu and Muwezwa. Muwezwa is the only female chief in the constituency.
The constituency has one district made up of 13 wards namely Itezhi Tezhi, Luchena, Mbila, Basanga, Kaanzwa, Itumbi, Masemu, Lubanda, Luubwe, Banamwaze, Makunku, Nyambo and Kabulungwe.
The constituency shares borders with other districts such as Mumbwa in the north, Kaoma in the west, Kazungula and Kalomo in the south-west, Choma in the south, Namwala in the south-east and Mazabuka in the east.
Itezhi Tezhi came to prominence in the 1970s during the construction of Itezhi Tezhi dam for the purpose of holding and regulating the flow of water in the Kafue River for use by the Kafue Gorge Upper Power Station.
This dam has paved way for the construction of a 120-megawatt hydro-power station by Zesco Limited and Tata Africa Group at a cost of US$245 million.
On education, Itezhi Tezhi has 53 primary schools, 24 community schools and four secondary schools. The secondary schools are Mbila, Shimbuwa Mboombo, Uphill Day and Itezhi Tezhi Boarding.
Mr Monde says many primary schools in Itezhi Tezhi that were built using mud, tree branches and grass are now changing to modern structures.
“We have put up more than 30 one by three classroom blocks to phase off the mud and thatched school infrastructure. Itezhi Tezhi is changing its face. I made a vow that by the end of my first term, my area should not have a mud and grass thatched school infrastructure,” Mr Monde said.
These structures are now being replaced with better ones using the Constituency Development Fund.
On the health sector, Itezhi Tezhi has one district hospital and 13 health posts.
Of the 650 health posts, Government is constructing countrywide, eight will be built in Itezhi Tezhi.
Like many other rural constituencies, Itezhi Tezhi too depends on agriculture. The constituency has 58 percent of arable land, a conducive climate and abundant water.
Currently, only maize and cotton are mainly grown in Itezhi Tezhi.
Livestock on the other hand accounts for about 35 percent of the total agricultural production with the district having an estimated 120,000 cattle. Other than cattle, farmers keep goats, pigs and also do poultry.
On tourism, the constituency has seen a lot of boom in this sector because of its position.
“Itezhi Tezhi lies in the heart of the Kafue National Park. It has the second largest man-made dam and it has the Kafue River making it a tourist attraction. Itezhi Tezhi has potential to be the country’s second major tourist destination. The area has abundant water, wildlife, a beautiful landscape, forests, heritage sites and monuments, as well as bird sanctuaries at Blue Lagoon,” Mr Monde said.
The area has a population of 64,593 according to the 2010 census of population and housing.
Like many places with river frontage, settlement patterns in Itezhi Tezhi are greatly influenced by the geographic nature of the area, with some people having settled in the urban area for formal employment and trading and others around the river.
The rest are scattered all over the plain for purposes of cattle-rearing and other agricultural activities. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON APRIL 3, 2016

Child marriages in Kazungula’s Nsongwe

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
IN MOST rural parts of Zambia, people value marriage more than the education.
In Nsongwe area in Kazungula district of Southern Province, the situation is not different.
A significant number of school dropouts at Nsongwe Basic School located 20 minutes’ drive from Livingstone, Zambia’s tourist capital, off the Victoria Falls road.
In fact, the number of girls dropping from school as a result of child marriages is not a new phenomenon.
“We have never had a whole year without cases of child marriages or early pregnancies in school. We lose four to five girls each year. We are still a long way from achieving the Education for All goal of equality in education for girls and boys.
“One of the barriers to achieving this goal is child marriage, or the marriage of school-age children. The gap between girls and boys education in accessing education remains a challenge,” Nsongwe headteacher Regis Makala says.
Statistics on the UNICEF website indicate that Zambia is 10th on a global ranking of prevalence of early marriages among girls and boys.
Particularly, notable is the vast gender discrepancy with 42 percent of women aged 20-24 years, married before age 18 compared to only five percent of men, indicating that girls are often married to older men.
Marriage takes place for economic, cultural, religious, social and emotional reasons. In many remote areas, especially among the rural poor, marriage at a young age is common.
“Usually, it is girls who marry early and not the boys. The gender inequality present in all aspects of society, including education, leads to girls often lacking life skills and negotiating power. Therefore, while most boys have a say in when and who they marry and what they do once they are married, many girls do not get the chance to make these decisions here in our area,” the headteacher says.
Child marriage can be a violation of children’s basic rights to a childhood, to an education, to good health and to make decisions about their own lives.
According to Ms Makala, the physical, emotional and social effects of child marriage are varied, but one of the most common outcomes is the withdrawal of girls from formal education.
“While marriage does not have to mean that a girl’s or boy’s education finishes, the attitudes of parents, schools and spouses in many societies mean that it often does.
“But I am glad because as Nsongwe Basic School, we have made sure that the girls that still want to attend school even after getting married can do so without any hindrance. We have done enough of sensitisation to our pupils,” Ms Makala says.
Ms Makala says one challenge is that husbands of young wives are often older men, who expect their wives to follow tradition, stay home and undertake household and child-care duties.
A girl may be unable to go against her husband’s wishes and his family may refuse to invest their scarce resources in her continued schooling.
Schools in Zambia have a policy of allowing married or pregnant girls or girls with babies to return under the government’s re-entry policy.
Through this policy, is hailed as a good measure aimed at taking the affected pupils back to school.
One of the beneficiaries of the re-entry policy at Nsongwe Basic School Bessy Muchindu, had this to say, “Even if they do permit us to return, the school environment – rules, timetables and physical conditions – make it too difficult for us to attend school and perform the duties as wife and mother at the same time. Intimidation and abuse by some teachers, pupils and other parents further reduce our confidence and sense of security, forcing us to give up on schooling.”
When girls drop out of school to get married, there is a felt effect for the community as a whole, and for future generations.
Girls who marry young inevitably become mothers early and therefore have many children because their knowledge of contraception is poor and their power to negotiate its use is weak.
Evidence suggests that children of young, uneducated mothers are less likely to have a good start to their education, do well in class or continue beyond the minimum schooling.
The daughters especially are likely to drop out, marry young and begin the cycle again like their mothers.
“The idea of forcing the girls to marry for wealth is not good. I got married early, too, and have lived to regret the action my parents took by stopping me from continuing with my education because they wanted cattle,” says Beatrice Muyaba, a resident of Nsongwe village.
According to Ms Muyaba, child marriage can be a significant barrier for communities seeking to raise education levels and break the cycle of poverty.
“It is not just girls who see their life chances reduced by early marriage. The community, too. I have seen communities where educated girls have become role models to the younger generation. They become the talk of the village thereby encouraging other girls to work hard in school,” Ms Muyaba says.
Government encourages girls’ education, raises awareness on gender equality issues in schools and communities, and states that married and pregnant girls must be readmitted to school.
Early pregnancy poses many challenges for young girls. Because pregnancy suppresses the immune system, pregnant girls are at an increased risk of acquiring diseases.
Livelihoods of the people of Nsongwe revolve around cross-border trade and crafts.
Despite international agreements and national laws, marriage of girls aged below 18 years of age is common worldwide and affects millions.
Investing in education for girls yields perhaps the best returns of all investments in developing countries.
To stop child marriages, policies and programmes must educate communities, raise awareness, engage local and religious leaders, involve parents, and empower girls through education and employment.
This reality has fortunately dawned on the Toka leya people of Nsongwe village, who have realised that educating the girls is the deadliest weapon against poverty. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON APRIL 2, 2016

‘I am a treasure and not trash’

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
SPEAKING with passion and composure, Mutinta Chilikwela, 37 describes her experiences as a survivor of gender-based violence with tears in her eyes.
This passion has driven her to write a book based on her 13 years of abuse in her marriage. She has titled the soon to be published book as “I am a treasure and not trash.”
Ms Chilikwela, a mother of three (two boys aged nine and five, and a girl aged three) got married at 24 in 2002 and lived happily with her husband for only six months.
“My husband beat me badly only after staying in the marriage for six months, all because I had asked when I will start my school. For 13 years, I endured violent assaults and emotional abuse from my husband,” Ms Chilikwela said.
Coming from a poor family and without income, and at a time when she had lost her mother, Ms Chilikwela agreed to get married to a man who was not as educated as she is.
Ms Chilikwela had studied journalism at Evelyn Hone College before getting married, and had intentions to further her studies by studying for a degree in mass communications at the University of Zambia.
After getting married, her vision of upgrading her tertiary education was suppressed because of her jealous husband.
“My husband didn’t want me to go back to school and this is what sparked the beating for the first time, just six months after our wedding. He would tell me that journalism is a bad profession because it encourages promiscuity,” Ms Chilikwela said.
Ms Chilikwela didn’t disclose the first beating to anyone and the abuse continued. Because of the traditional teachings, she found it hard to tell anyone.
Three years later, she was beaten severally and this time, she chose not to keep quiet.
“I sustained deep cuts and bruises and I told my relatives. They talked to him and I was told to go back to our home,” she said.
She says even though she went back home after the family meeting, she was scared for her life because signs of violence continued.
“The physical abused stopped but verbal, economical and emotional abuse continued. He never gave me money and his fear was that I could use it for school. Whenever I requested for money, he would say I was too demanding. He would not even pay for the children’s school fees. I could not even look for a job because of his jealous,” Ms Chilikwela said.
In 2006 after saving some money she went back to school and instead studied social work.
When she started her school, the abuse was even more. Ms Chilikwela remembers being hit by her husband during her second pregnancy with twins.
“I started school against his wish and this time, I was pregnant with twins, but still he used to beat me and this affected the unborn babies. After giving birth, five days later, the girl died and the doctor couldn’t find the cause of death. I suspect it was because of the beatings I was subjected to,” she said.
Ms Chilikwela noticed that living together became difficult and dangerous because she had nowhere to run to that she was an only child who did not even know her father.
“When my relatives were against the divorce, I thought of committing suicide to escape the violence. The end finally came when my husband agreed to the divorce, provided that I release him from the pending assault cases that were yet to be tabled by the police,” she explains.
Her mission to leave the marriage began in February 10, 2015. On this day, her husband beat her severally and her children screamed and one of them helped to untie their mother.
“It was around 02:00 hours, he went out and came to wake me up and told me about his sexual escapades and when I told him that I wanted to sleep, he started beating me. My second born child heard the noise and started screaming and everyone woke up. It was then that my niece, untied me and I escaped,” she says.
Severally, Ms Chilikwela took her husband to the police but nothing tangible came out of it until she made her decision to leave the home amid opposition from family and friends.
“I was the one who was burdened and for a victim of GBV, very few people will support the decision to leave a matrimonial home. I was tired and just wanted to be out. In the 13 years of marriage, I withdrew from friends and blamed myself for a failed marriage. I had plans and goals which I did not achieve these traditions women are expected to follow. Traditionally, women are taught not to discuss whatever happens in their homes,” she said.
She says she lived a miserable life and was angry all the time even with her own children.
For Ms Chilikwela, the worst form of violence is verbal because it doesn’t go away and it is difficult to justify when you decide to take it to the police.
“I remember an incident that broke my heart. I went to a police post near where we lived and there, the police officers I found started making sexual advances at me. I was shocked because these are the people who are supposed to protect me but instead they told me they would book a room for me. But after threats of reporting them to various media houses, they gave me the police report,” she said.
Ms Chilikwela could not narrate everything and that is why she has decided to write an eight-chapter book which will be published and launched by the end of January 2016.
She says now she feels empowered and is rebuilding her life after experiencing violence at home.
“I work actively to win my life back and start over. I want to use my survival to help someone,” she says cheerfully.
Whenever she has time, she offers counselling to victims of gender and domestic violence and their families because she believes that once a victim talks to some, the burden seems lighter.
Ms Chilikwela’s new-found self-reliance and optimism shines through as she talks about her work. She has become a passionate advocate for the rights of GBV survivors, insisting that “the whole world must eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, embody equality and respect, and empower women to stand for their own rights. What happened to me should never happen to anyone.” PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON JANUARY 3, 2016