Over 2 million Africans tell African leaders at AU Summit to Do Agric

As the 23rd African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government Summit gets underway in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, ONE.org’s Do Agric petition — which calls on African leaders to recommit to spending at least 10% of national budgets on effective agriculture investments — has gathered more than 2 million signatures of support from African citizens across the continent.

The petition has been hand delivered to a number of Heads of State, including Presidents JakayaKikwete of Tanzania, YayiBoni of Benin, John Mahama of Ghana, MahamadouIssoufou of Niger, and MackySall of Senegal. The petition has also been hand delivered to Vice-President Guy Scott of Zambia, to Prime Ministers Moussa Mara of Mali and BrigiRafini of Niger, as well as to Minister for Agriculture of Nigeria AdesinaAkinwumi, Minister for Agriculture and Food Security of Burkina Faso MahanaZougrana, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister for the Economy, NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, and South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, SenzeniZokwana.

ONE.org officially launched its “Do Agric, It Pays” campaign on 20 January 2014 along the margins of the 22nd Ordinary Session of the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in support of the 2014 AU Year of Agriculture. The campaign encourages African governments to keep their 2003 Maputo promise to invest at least 10% of national budgets in agriculture, and makes a case for better strategic policies and transparent public investments that will better support smallholder farmers, especially women, and lift millions of Africans out of poverty.