The African Union’s Plan: business as usual in a shiny, new suit

Once they were going, Tafi pulled a bulky document out of his smaller bag ... they mostly just entitled: “African Union Climate Change and Resilient Strategy and Action treated symptoms of the Plan”. This had been sent to all delegates going to AFSA’s convening in Addis. crisis, tweaking current He read through the document, making small notes in the margins. Tafi had practices here and there always been a reader. He knew that some people said that ‘People don’t read these days’, but he also knew that reading had opened his mind to many things. but not really changing He liked some of the principles in the AU plan. For example, the principles or transforming of ‘African-led and African-owned’ and ‘Leave no one behind/a just anything. They called transition’. It was in the ‘how’ that he found himself differing from the AU it Climate Smart perspective. But even in the ‘how,’ there were many statements to agree with. It was when you read closely that you could see that many of the proposed Agriculture actions are too technology-oriented. And they mostly just treat symptoms of the crisis, tweaking current practices here and there but not really changing or transforming anything. They call it ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’, but what he could see was business as usual in a shiny, new suit. Knowing the reality on the ground, it was easy to see that they were misleading, even false solutions. He was looking forward to hearing the presentation from Salamatu in Ghana, which would look specifically at these false solutions.

Trying, learning and trying again

Tafi paused from reading and looked out the window. What was different about his community’s approach compared to these ‘impressive’ AU strategies and plans?

The bus had been travelling steeply downhill, and they were now in the district’s low, hot, drier part. There were many trees on the slopes, but the ground beneath them was bare, rocky and hard. He imagined what happened every time it rained. Most of the rainwater would run quickly down the slope, carrying any loose soil or leaves with it. Not much grass would grow for the cattle and goats in that area to eat.