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Dialogue Report on the (Eswatini)

“Multi-countries Smallholder Farmers High level Consultation on Gender, Agriculture policies and Budget 2018/19

in line with Malabo Declaration and Biennial report 2018”

6^th December 2017, Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg

                         Supported by

1. Introduction

ESAFF convened a small-scale farmers dialogue themed; “Multi country Smallholder Farmers consultation on Gender, Agriculture Policies and Budget 2018/19 in line with Malabo Declaration and Biennial reporting”. The event was held on 6^th of December 2017 in Johannesburg – South Africa. It brought together 30 smallholder farmers, CAADP Focal Persons from Eswatini (LSS) as well as ESAFF personnel from Tanzania.

The dialogue focused on the three countries performance in the agriculture sector, budget and gender as per the Malabo Biennial Reporting required by the African Union in January 2018.

The dialogue was organised by ESAFF Regional based in Tanzania with the support from the Southern Africa Trust (SAT) and Bread for the World (BfdW). One of the aims of the dialogue was to outline country progress in terms of the attainment of the 7 Malabo Declaration goals.

The conference was very enabling to farmers especially women and policy makers as the gender gaps that exist within the different countries came to light and action plans were made by each country. The dialogue also strengthened the advocacy spirit of farmers to push for change in national agriculture policies, budgets and promote accountability of government officials. The dialogue was moderated by a woman small scale farmer Ms. Mamalefetsane Phakoe (Lesotho), and the official opening and welcome note was done by the ESAFF Vice Chairperson, Mrs. Flora Maswanganyi (ESAFF RSA).

2. Relevance and objectives

The dialogue was organized with the purpose of the promotion of agriculture policy, plans and budget awareness in line with gender mainstreaming in Lesotho, South Africa and Eswatini. The event also was instrumental in providing input to the process of finalizing agriculture sector budgets, plans and programmes for implementation in 2018/19.  The  countries national budget expected to be tabled in early 2018.  The dialogue exposed the gaps that were existed in terms of the participation of women and the youth in policy formulation, planning and budgeting of the agriculture sector at grassroots, LSS national and SADC regional level. Action plans were laid down for future follow-ups. In a nutshell the dialogue aimed at the following points:

• Equip smallholder farmers with basic knowledge and skills related to agriculture policies, plans, budgets, programme implementation and monitoring with smallholder and gender lenses.
• Orient participants on National and SADC commitments in the area of agriculture and food security with gender perspectives and their performances per the current Biennial Reporting:
• Familiarize farmers with importance to participate at regional, national and district level in issues related to agriculture policies, plans and budgets
• Equip smallholder farmers with basic knowledge and skills related to agriculture policies, plans and budget 2018/19
• Determine and map actions to further influence plans, budgets, programme implementation at regional, national and district level

Small-scale farmers

Presentations and Discussions

3. Presentation on Agriculture policy frameworks at AU, SADC (RAIP) and National level

A presentation on the Agriculture policy frameworks at continental level, SADC and national level was done by ESAFF Coordinator as the SADC Regional Agriculture Policy (RAP) Coordinator, Mr. Martin Muchero could not attend as he had another commitment.

In his presentation, Mr Joe Mzinga said agriculture influence economic growth in the region and can help millions of people to overcome poverty. He said that the study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN concluded that the agriculture sector can alleviate poverty 11 times more than other sectors including oil and gas or mining and services (The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012).

He highlighted the general outlook of the continent, and the importance of agriculture for SADC in terms of Food security, Nutrition status and Poverty alleviation and wealth creation. He stated that 292 million people are homed in the SADC and 61 % live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for livelihood. SADC has the potential to feed the continent.  About 25.1 million people (8% of the total population) of the SADC are vulnerable to food insecurity with one meal per day. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe have high numbers of food insecure people.

He further highlighted that despite the policies and programmes being implemented across the continent, there is evidence of stunting and malnutrition in SADC. Malnutrition and stunting rates continue to quadruple. That the majority of the SADC Member States (12 out of 15) have stunting rates above 20%, the level deemed as unacceptable by the World Health Organisation (WHO). DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia have severely high stunting rates of above 40%, while Lesotho and the United Republic of Tanzania (URT) also have high rates of malnutrition of between 30% and 40%.

He then explained about the Agriculture Policy Frameworks at Global, Continental, Regional, National and Grassroots Level. He emphasized how goal 1 & 2 of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are tied to agriculture and reiterated their importance. He made mention of the Agenda 2030 and the goals we want to have achieved in Africa by then. He spoke of the Malabo Declaration and emphasised goal 2 which is more on finance investment. He said many countries have not reached the 10% budget allocation annually to the sector and even the small that is allocated, there are challenges in some countries to realise in full budget. He cited examples in some countries where less than 20% of the budgeted was only disbursed.

SADC RAP and RAIP Priority Programmes were outlined, the focus of the SADC agricultural policies is tied directly to National agricultural policies. The even RAIP investment instruments were also highlighted such as the Value Chains, disaster preparedness, etc.

On the SADC Regional Agriculture Policy (SADC RAP), Food and Nutrition Security Strategy (FNSS) and The Regional Agriculture Investment Plan (RAIP), he said the SADC Development fund is set to enhance self-sustenance, however only 7 Member States have so far signed the agreement on the operationalization of the fund. He added that no country had deposited instruments of ratification with the Secretariat with Mauritius indicating its willingness to sign.

The 7 countries that have signed the SADC fund agreement are Angola, DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

He then, posed three key questions to the small-scale farmers;

• Can SADC fully realise Malabo Declaration by 2025?;
• What would be the role of small scale farmers in the push for the realisation of the Malabo goals?
• What are the opportunities to influence agriculture policy plans, policies and budgets?

4. National Presentations on Small scale farmers involvement in Agriculture Policies, Plans and Budgets issues: Involvement and challenges with gender lenses.

The presentations started with a role-play presented by the farmers of each respective country before national coordinators could begin. The brief role-play was highlighted all about outlining the journey that the farmers went through when doing Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) and dealing with government officials in their countries. The key message sent by the role-play was the exposure of challenges that still limit women farmers in Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa.

4.1 ESAFF Eswatini

ESAFF Eswatini did the presentation and the journey that the organization had travelled throughout the year was narrated by the coordinator. Mr. Maswati Dludlu said the engagement started with training on Public Expenditure Tracking Survey and setting up PETS committees in four districts of HhukwiniI, Ludzeludze, Siphofaneni and Mtsambana. Farmers also engaged policy makers, parliamentarians and media in order to influence budgeting processes and finalization of agriculture projects. The following were among the burning issues and challenges;

• Poor participation of farmers on budgetary and plenary meetings
• National budget still below 4% with a large chunk goes to livestock;
• No land for some farmers & water resources;
• Subsidized farming inputs is not benefitting farmers
• Farmers are not getting subdized tractors on time;
• Sugar farmers are given more attention than other farmers;
• No programme to support youth interested in farming

Proposed solution

• Government must engage the farmers and farmers organise to engage the government
• Since human rights in Eswatini are said to be used to deny farmers right to do advocacy, small-scale farmers to help each other protect farmers from laws in some countries
• ESAFF Eswatini must strengthen its position on the ground and implement its activities successfully by working with local and central government entities.

Deliberations and clarifications

ESAFF Eswatini coordinator then explained how one of the government officials felt left out when PETS was mentioned and thus it had to be clarified further. The farmers from the other countries then queried How the CAADP team of Eswatini will account for their fruitless contributions when reporting to the region. It was thus cleared out that the farmers want to be sure of the amount their giving to agriculture, the government must show clearly if its 10%.  

CAADP FOCAL PERSONS 

Presentations and Discussions on the

National Agriculture Food and Nutrition Security Programs (NAFSPs) performance against the 7 Malabo Declaration Goals and Biennial Reporting

• Country presentation on National Agriculture Food and Nutrition Security Programs (NAFSPs) performance against the 7 Malabo Declaration Goals and Biennial Reporting.

The session was composed of presentation by CAADP focal points on the achievements towards reaching the 7 Malabo goals in Eswatini.

• Eswatini Malabo Implementation – by Tandazani Sibiya, CAADP Focal Point Presentation

The presentation focus was on the performance of agriculture and food security action plan of Eswatini done by Mr. Thandazani Sibiya from the Ministry of Agriculture in Eswatini. It was revealed that only 25% participation of stakeholders in Eswatini. The challenge that led to poor participation of stakeholders was stakeholder fatigue/dying momentum. The budget in Eswatini stands at 3.7% and the value added is 15.4% (target of 19%minimum). There are other programmes in other departments such as department of education on school feeding programmes and they directly impact agriculture and can thus be considered as part of the Malabo target. Development partners contribute $18,100,000 and towards agriculture. Few women are in Agriculture as a recent study revealed that 58% of men are in agriculture.

Eswatini is promoting organic farming as a country, it currently stands at 5.8Kg/Ha (target 50Kg/Ha). There are still gaps in communication with farmers on the ground. Eswatini is at 0.06% level of investment on R&D (target of 1%: Malabo) Farm households ownership of land is at 5% in Eswatini. Post-harvest losses (PHL) in Eswatini is at 35% the losses are experienced more when transporting goods.

Stunting is at 22%, underweight stands at 5.8%; wasting at 2%; Proportion of children who meet minimum diet is 69%. What needs to be done is create awareness on health issues and nutrition especially among pregnant women. Eswatini poverty level is at 63% and agricultural growth 1.7%. Total number of farms, pastoral and fisher households 108 164.

Challenges

• Budget Constraints i.e. ceilings & disbursements (Officials are told not to inflate too much)
• Overreliance on the Southern Africa Custom Union (SACU)
• Slow growth in economy
• Prioritization by Government-Other countries need to share how they deal with this one, but blame cannot be put on the government because their decision is based on what is happening on the ground and in the government, itself.

Discussion and way forward

• Eswatini must improve stakeholder knowledge and ensure that Malabo Declaration is mainstreamed in various sector to improve country performance.
• Women must regroup to gain bargaining power
• The CAADP team must be continuously engaged especially on issues relating to the implementation of CAADP.
• More Forums are needed to empower the voice of farmers participating in budgeting and planning meetings.
• The budgeting process must be inclusive of farmers maybe if there can be a memorandum of understanding between the farmers and government.

 Presentations and Discussions on the

National Agriculture Budget Priorities for the year 2018 and main beneficiaries

• Presentation on national budget 2018/19 and priorities

The presentations were done by the CAADP Focal Persons.

6.1 Eswatini 2018/19 Budget Priorities

The Eswatini CAADP Focal Point, Mr. Thandazani Sibiya proceeds with the budget for Eswatini in 2018/19. He highlighted that more money is being channelled towards infrastructural support of farmers. He made mention of some of the key achievements that were made in the 2017/18 financial year with the limited budget they had namely, Dam construction in the year 2017/8 and rehabilitation of dams; livestock- fences erected to prevent the spreads of diseases such as food and mouth, and Irrigation development- the land under irrigation was increased.

He then went to shed light on how more farmers can benefit from the budget. He also made note that most farmer groups are benefitting from the irrigation development programme. If the budget is improved there can be legislation and policy enhancement, improved market access and stronger agricultural value chain. Increased productivity and food security.

Deliberations on Eswatini

To get figures from the department of health and look at figures from the agricultural health and the department of home economics. The CAADPteam commissioned a study that revealed that the men are always first to access finance and they are just accompanied by the women. During death of husband many women tend to spend about 3 years in mourning and that sometimes also hinders access to finance. Land is mostly owned by men.

On issues of advocacy the government officials must ensure the farmers to participate meetings. Some farmers don’t even know what CAADP is and they don’t even know that the NAIP is tied to Malabo and CAADP.

The CAADP Focal Point said that as a country Eswatini must come up with climate change mitigation strategies, like irrigation agriculture. Eswatini is strengthening its early warning system to ease the dissemination of information. In the case prioritizing on budget expenditure, Eswatini is trying as a country to engage the private sector to implement/ partner with the government in implementing projects. The deliberations ended with a highlight that government has plans of making summits where farmers will be able to voice their views, from such summits agriculture can be prioritized. 

Country group discussion, Way forward and Action plans

What can we do to improve agriculture budget priorities and expenditure in LSS countries from 2018/19 onwards?

7. Country group discussion, Way forward and Action plans

After country group work, farmers from each country with their CAADP focal person had discussions on what should be done to improve agriculture budget plans, budget and expenditure from 2018/19 onwards. The following are the action plans agreed by each country:

ESAFF Eswatini

• Mobilise farmers within the constituencies
• Educate farmers on government budget process and the role they need to play
• Engage with the tinkundla committees i.e. MPs at constituency level including community leaders
• Engage with MPs at regional level
• Strengthen relationship with MPs and the ministry of agriculture and finance and economic planning
• Also, develop partnerships with the media to champion the farmer’s issues.

8. In Conclusion

In conclusion, the small-scale farmers were urged to be proactive and continue to make the government accountable. Farmers were encouraged to work harder to contribute to the growth of the economy make relationships with the governments, work hard to build those relationships. It was added they must not work in isolation and must organise so that the government can take them serious. The CAADP Focal Points were humbled by the value that ESAFF see in them as country CAADP FP and they further added that if ESAFF and SAT continue with such forums then a lot will be learnt and a lot will come out. Lastly the farmers were hinted with the saying that “You cannot change the way government work, but rather know how it works to influence it. Government officials must not get tired of CAADP, what we must know is that change takes time”. ESAFF Regional was once more commended by the small-scale farmers and CAADP FP on the exemplary leadership to its country members, and urged to continue to nurture the growth of its country members