In 2003, African governments committed through the Maputo Declaration to increase public investment in agriculture to a minimum of 10 per cent of their national budgets and to raise sector growth by at least 6 per cent by 2008. Despite this commitment, hunger and poverty are on the rise in most parts of Africa. The Global and Regional Advocacy on Small Producers (GRASP) coalition commissioned studies in Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia to ascertain the level and type of public agricultural investment and whether national agricultural policies are beneficial to small producers. These findings and policy recommendations are relevant not only to African governments, but to donor countries, trading partners, and international organizations that are increasingly turning their attention to the global food crisis and to agricultural development. Transforming development policy alone is insufficient. Rather, the full spectrum of economic policies and structures – trade, finance, investment, aid – must be reoriented to the interests of the small producers who form the majority of Africa’s population living in poverty.

Brief report on our work with partners in Africa and the EU which calls
for African governments and the EU to respect human dignity, heed the
calls of the poor and marginalized, and craft an Economic Partnership
Agreement that gives priority to authentic human development over
corporate profits.