African Agribusiness Leadership Dialogue 2020 in Zimbabwe on March 23-27

The theme of this year’s dialogue is “Reshaping agriculture and trade in Africa”, looking at 3 main areas: intra-African trade, agribusiness innovation, and agricultural financing and trade.

Zimbabwe is going to host the 31^st session of the Regional Conferences for Africa (ARC) organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on 23^rd-27^th March 2020. The ministers of the 54 member nations of ARC are expected to attend the meet to elaborate on challenges and priorities related to food and agriculture in the region. 

Besides, a good number of corporate players and private bodies are also expected to attend the event. The organizers have also planned to provide a platform for dialogues and consultations among private partners, the outcomes of which would be communicated to the ministers for policy formulation on agriculture and related issues. “The theme of the ARC is ‘Enhancing Policy and Regulatory Environments to Stimulate Investments for Rural and Agricultural Transformation’,” said the organizers. The three main objectives of the dialogues are – sparking innovative ideas, generate demands with stakeholders and build a lasting relationship. “We aspire to establish and reinforce significant return on investment for the private sector stakeholders, representing sufficient value-addition for sustained future engagement,” said a senior official.  

Furthermore, the Regional Private Sector Dialogue and African Agribusiness Leadership Dialogue 2020 ( AALD) aims to engage a broad range of private investors in agriculture and food systems in the Africa region in order to obtain their perspectives on trade and investment opportunities. In addition, the constraints in two specific areas which are respectively Africa Continental Free Trade Area; and Investment in agricultural and rural transformation, including intraregional trade would also be discussed. According to the recent data the African food market is estimated to be growing at USD 1 trillion by 2030. The increasing internet penetration in the region is being looked upon as a huge opportunity for investment and agriculture transformation in the African region.