Report Evaluates Progress of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

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A new report by Timothy A. Wise evaluated the 20-year performance of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), finding that the initiative failed to meet its original goals of doubling productivity and incomes while halving undernourishment. Despite significant investment from the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations across 13 focus countries, the report concluded that undernourishment in those nations increased by 58% since 2006, with the number of hungry individuals nearly doubling over the last six years. AGRA rebranded in 2022 and shifted its focus to food systems and policy reforms, pivoting away from reporting on its original productivity and poverty reduction metrics toward tracking commercial outputs like seeds produced and enterprises launched.

Consequences

The shift in AGRA’s reporting metrics suggests a continued move away from original, measurable poverty and hunger reduction benchmarks toward industrial farming outputs. Governments may continue to face pressure regarding the efficacy of their agricultural investments, particularly as data indicates that focus countries have failed to meet Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) targets.

Sources

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