Government pledges support to FAO Hand in Hand Initiative to transform food systems.

On 3 July 2023, the Minister of Agriculture, Jabulani Mabuza has pledged his full support for the FAO Hand in Hand (HIH) Initiative in Eswatini, affirming that the Government will allocate resources and facilitate partnerships to achieve its objectives.

“I would like to express our gratitude to the FAO Director General, FAO Chief Economist and the whole FAO team for championing the Hand in Hand Initiative which is coming at an opportune time, where we aim to consolidate our country efforts to transform our agriculture and food systems to be more inclusive, sustainable and resilient to climate and economic shocks,” Mabuza said.

Mabuza was speaking at the launch of the HIH Initiative in Eswatini where he recognised the complementarities brought by the Initiative to the projects that his Ministry is currently implementing and called for collaboration amongst stakeholders to ensure significant positive impact in the agriculture sector.

A global and multi-country Initiative

Launched in 2019, the Hand in Hand Initiative is an FAO flagship programme that supports the implementation of country-led and country-owned programmes to accelerate agrifood systems transformations with the goal of eradicating poverty, ending hunger and malnutrition and reducing inequalities. It uses advanced geospatial, statistical modelling and analytics, as well as a robust partnership-building approach to accelerate the market-based transformation of agrifood systems.

Eswatini specific deliverables

“Hand-in-Hand Initiative is a global and multi-country Initiative but it has unique country specific deliveries as informed by the National Priorities, the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF). At country level this delivery is informed by a clearly defined framework i.e. Country Programming Framework (CPF),” highlighted Patrice Talla, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Southern Africa and Representative to Eswatini in his remarks on behalf of FAO.

Talla added that the HIH initiative in Eswatini adopts the following approaches as a means of delivering impact: Systems and Institutions Development and Agriculture Investment Facilitation.

“We understand that without strong and effective institutions to support any initiative there is limited scope for sustained growth, thus HIH focuses on addressing the systemic failures in the agriculture and food systems,” he said.

Talla added that considering the importance of profitability for any private sector, responsible investments in agriculture within the poverty hotspots supporting the co-creation of profitable inclusive value chain models is promoted. Adding that this approach makes the role of private sector very clear and relevant.

“Given the complexities of the challenges faced by Eswatini, we are blending market systems development models with Problem Driven Iterative and Adaptation (PDIA) techniques in coming up with solutions,” he explained.

Talla further emphasized how privileged Eswatini is to have a complimentary project called AgriInvest, which is an investment promotion and planning initiative.

“The initiative has laid a good foundation for introducing Hand-in-Hand Initiative in the country as it provides practical response measures to the GIS and statistical modelling support being brought in by the Hand-in-Hand initiative. The coming in of the Hand-in- Hand initiative in Eswatini catalyses the process of agriculture transformation in the country and fosters an enabling business environment in the country,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Minister Mabuza thanked FAO for being a key partner and technical advisor for this Initiative, highlighting that his Ministry, with support from FAO, is in the process of developing its national irrigation masterplan, which aims to:

• Increase the productivity and profitability of irrigated agriculture

• Enhance the resilience and sustainability of water resources

• Improve the livelihoods and food security of rural communities

• Support the diversification and transformation of the agricultural sector

The Minister encouraged the HIH Initiative task teams to collaborate with all stakeholders including the experts in the various departments of the Ministry of Agriculture as this process will directly enhance their capabilities in agriculture planning.

Delivery of the Hand in Hand Initiative by Themes 

1. Targeting of the Poor: HiH is an Initiative meant to support countries to identify micro-regions and target the poor with appropriate investments. Analysis of agro-economic potential of micro-regions has been initiated, and this process will allow effective identification and illumination of appropriate investment requirements in the different micro-regions. Twenty-three out of 47 countries have concluded the analysis of micro-regions and the results are extremely useful in supporting dialogue between investors and the government. 

2. Partnerships & Investments: collaborative and purposeful partnerships are being forged at both local and international levels – local partnerships between the government and private sector through their respective industry associations. Although a full-fledged matchmaking process is still under preparation, the HiH has observed early commitments. 

3. Country Ownership: governments are taking ownership of the HiH Initiative and they are applying the Initiative as a platform for consolidating partnerships that collectively work towards fighting hunger. The Initiative has been officially launched at higher levels. (i.e., at ministerial level in many countries). Indeed, Ministries of Agriculture are coordinating the activities of the HiH. 

4. SDG Targets: although it is too early to comment to the acceleration of the SDG targets, the Multi-Dimension GIS data platform will be a valuable tool to ensure effective delivery of investments by public sector, private sector and resource partners. 

5. National Data Systems/Big Data: availability of quality data is a particularly important enabler to an effective policy-making process in agriculture. The multi-dimensional GIS data platform will significantly improve agriculture policy formulation and implementation in participating countries. Through enhanced functions, like data visualization, the platform will improve the investment facilitation.