The theme of the
conference was “Accelerating Implementation for Results and Impact”

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development
Programme (CAADP) is the Africa owned and Africa led initiative to boost
agricultural productivity. CAADP is an agricultural development arm of the New
Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). NEPAD is the development arm of
the African Union (AU).

With support from CAADP, 29 countries have signed
Compacts and more than 20 countries have established Agriculture and Food
Security Investment Plans.

CAADP advocates for more inclusive participation of
all relevant players in sectoral planning, raising the political profile of
agriculture, more specific, purposeful and incentive-oriented agricultural
policies, improved donor coordination, harmonisation and alignment to country
priorities, increased resources allocated to targeted high-potential programmes,
stronger regional co-operation, mechanisms for M&E, peer review, dialogue
and accountability and growing public sector budget commitment to agriculture.

During the meeting, Akugizibwe advocated for
increased access to land for youth for agricultural development, modernization of
the agricultural sector so as to make it more attractive to the youth and more
involvement of youth in agricultural sector decision making to enable their increased
participation hence reducing unemployment rates among the youth.

The meeting resulted in a communiqué where
issues concerning youth participation in agricultural development in Africa
were highly reflected. The communiqué will be presented to the AU heads of
state and government meeting in June, 2012 in Addis Ababa – Ethiopia for
adoption in their national agricultural development policies.