On November 26-27, 2001, IFPRI hosted "Future Opportunities for Rural Africa" on behalf of USAID at which experts from USAID, IFPRI, and numerous other entities discussed USAID's renewed commitment to African agricultural development. The workshop took stock of current and emerging issues, synthesized existing knowledge, examined alternative development pathways, identified processes for developing a comprehensive investment strategy for rural Africa, and reviewed support systems for guiding and monitoring these investments.

A presentation on key trends and future prospects for Sub-Saharan Africa opened the workshop, followed by expert panels on trade and market liberalization, technology, public infrastructure and human capital development, equitable growth, and natural resource management. Several themes emerged from the panel presentations and discussions over the course of the workshop including broadening participation, redressing institutional gaps, and building upon existing yet underutilized linkages. It seems clear that smallholders and others in rural communities can play a much greater role in technology development and diffusion, infrastructure delivery, and natural resource management.

Top-down approaches have had very limited success over the past several decades; a fresh approach highlighting participation of stakeholders at all levels, particularly rural people, is more likely to yield agricultural growth. Institutional gaps seem to be the common problem in almost all aspects of agricultural development. Facilitating the development and maintenance of regulatory, information, governance, and coordination institutions-especially those that involve smallholder participation-may be central to developing agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, acknowledging and building upon existing linkages is necessary. Stakeholders have much information to exchange. Ignoring the potential gains from researcher/farmer, or NGO/researcher dialogues hampers agricultural productivity.

USAID's strategy targets additional funding to a few "high priority" countries within each sub-region (east, west, and southern Africa), but with complementary regional programs to achieve greater leverage effects from the priority countries. Focus countries include Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania from eastern and central Africa; Nigeria, Mali, and Ghana from western Africa; and South Africa, Mozambique, and Malawi from southern Africa. The program will further embrace sub-regional challenges such as increasing the efficiency of intra-regional trade; developing a framework to borrow and share knowledge, capacity, technology, and infrastructure; and creating information systems to access global markets and knowledge systems. Six potential areas for USAID intervention are technology applications, agricultural markets and trade systems, community-based organizations, human and institutional development, addressing the market and service needs of vulnerable groups, and sustainable environmental growth.

This workshop was the first step in mapping an agricultural strategy for Africa. In early 2002, USAID will hold several consultations at the sub-regional and country levels in order to facilitate dialogue. This will point the way for USAID and other donors to make major investments to propel agricultural growth and reduce poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa.