Fourth CAADP Biennial Review Brief: Eswatini. Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard Performance and Lessons

Hagos, Fitsum; Matchaya, Greenwell; Mamba-Hlophe, N. S. 2025. Fourth CAADP Biennial Review Brief: Eswatini. Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard Performance and Lessons. Kigali: Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS), AKADEMIYA2063. 11p.

The Malabo Declaration on accelerated agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods is a set of goals adopted by Heads of State and Government of the African Union in 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (AUC 2014). To translate the seven Malabo commitments into results, a call for action was made by the Heads of State and Government for the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Union Development Agency NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), in collaboration with partners, to initiate a review process to be conducted on a biennial basis starting 2017, with an objective of tracking, measuring, and reporting progress toward achieving the Malabo Declaration commitments by 2025.

Four Biennial Reviews (BR) have been conducted—the inaugural BR in 2017, the second BR in 2019, the third BR in 2021, and the most recent BR concluded in 2023.

As part of fulfilling Commitment 7 on mutual accountability, the fourth BR Report (BR4) and the Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard (AATS) were launched at the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU Heads of State and Government in March 2024 (AUC 2024).

This brief highlights Eswatini’s performance against the 46 indicators in the inaugural, second, and third BRs (2017, 2019, and 2021) and compares this to the fourth BR (2023) to track progress toward a fully transformed agricultural sector.

A key recommendation from the analysis indicates that the country needs to strengthen its efforts toward meeting all the Malabo/CAADP commitments. Agricultural investments can be increased by expanding the share of the national budget allocated to the sector and creating a conducive environment for attracting domestic and foreign private investors, as well as public-private partnerships.