Ce fonds d’étude va permettre d’identifier les leviers de l’intégration régionale et d’approfondir, à travers une ou deux études, certains volets sectoriels de la coopération régionale ciblés par le Comité de pilotage sur l’espace économique et commercial (CPEEC), récemment mis en place par la COI.

La sécurité alimentaire, l’autonomie énergétique, la gestion des flux (personnes, fret…), l’environnement (déchets, eau), l’aménagement du territoire et la construction, le tourisme, la valorisation de la biodiversité marine ou encore les technologies de l’information et de la communication figurent parmi les thématiques prioritaires d’études possibles. L’objectif de l’AFD est de choisir des sujets sur lesquels il est possible d’obtenir très vite des réalisations concrètes.

Une nouvelle étape de la coopération entre la COI et l’AFD

L’AFD intervenait à travers ses différents projets, sur la préservation des biens publics mondiaux (lutte contre les pandémies, changement climatique, biodiversité). L’accent mis sur le renforcement de la coopération économique et commerciale répond aux demandes des pays membres de la COI, exprimées lors du dernier Conseil des Ministres (6 octobre 2011), et aux attentes du secteur privé. L’AFD compte d’ailleurs accorder 1,5 millions d’euros de subventions en 2012 pour animer davantage le dialogue entre la COI et le secteur privé et en faire un moteur de l’intégration régionale.

Pour mémoire, ces quatre dernières années, la France a accordé 12 millions d’euros à la COI, à travers son dispositif d’aide déployé par l’AFD, le Ministère des Affaires étrangères et européennes, le FFEM et les collectivités locales réunionnaises.

La France est aujourd’hui le deuxième partenaire financier de la COI, après l’Union Européenne.

La revue Afrique contemporaine
a le plaisir de vous inviter à une Conférence-débat

"Les investissements agricoles en Afrique"

Le mercredi 21 décembre 2011 de 14h30 à 17h30

à l’Agence Française de Développement (AFD) – salle Jacques Alliot
7, rue Roland Barthes – 75012 PARIS
M° Gare de Lyon
 

Abandonnée par l’aide publique au développement, l’agriculture des pays d’Afrique subsaharienne fait l’objet d’importants investissements à l’initiative d’acteurs publics ou privés. Ces investissements aident à la transformation des processus d’élaboration des politiques agricoles et ont d’importantes implications en termes d’évolution des structures de production agricole, de revenus, d’emplois ruraux et de sécurisation foncière des producteurs ruraux. Au travers d’études de cas, les contributions réunies dans ce dossier donnent un éclairage sur la nature de ces investissements et leurs conséquences en Afrique subsaharienne en termes de sécurité alimentaire et de transformations du secteur agricole. Les conséquences des investissements dans des productions non alimentaires (agrocarburants, par exemple) dans des pays touchés par la crise alimentaire sont également posées.

La conférence présentera et discutera les articles publiés dans ce dossier. En plus d’offrir un large panorama des dynamiques à l’œuvre dans le secteur, elle sera l’occasion d’aborder des cas précis de projets agricoles à grande échelle comme à Madagascar et au Mali.
 

En présence de : Jean-Bernard Veron, Rédacteur en chef de la revue Afrique contemporaine, Pierre Jacquet, Chef des économistes de l’AFD et Directeur de publication de la revue, Perrine Burnod, chercheure au Cirad (Observatoire du foncier, Madagascar), Hermine Papazian, ingénieure agronome, François Pacquement, chargé de mission à l’Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Jean-Jacques Gabas, économiste et chercheur au Cirad, Vatche Papazian, ingénieur et membre du comité technique "Foncier et développement" (AFD), et Antonin Vergez, agronome, ingénieur des Ponts des eaux et des forêts et doctorant au CIRAD.

Télécharger l’introduction du dossier

S'abonner à Afrique contemporaine

Background
Greater Antananarivo has to face demographic growth that is among the highest in Africa. Almost all new urban dwellers are poor and as poor neighborhoods become more densely populated, living conditions deteriorate due to the chronic lack of infrastructure and facilities. For example, some neighborhoods have one standpipe for 6,000 inhabitants and it is difficult to enter or leave some housing areas during the rainy season as the roads are completely impracticable.
In terms of economic development, public health or easing social tension, the fight against poverty and extreme urban poverty therefore poses a major national challenge made more difficult by the political crisis that the country has been experiencing. The resulting social crisis has indeed led to an increase in poverty, unemployment and insecurity, which affect poor and particularly vulnerable urban communities.
 

Project objectives
The aim of the Lalan Kely project is to improve living conditions in Greater Antananarivo’s poorest neighborhoods. It breaks down into five core objectives:
(i) Improve pedestrian mobility, including for disabled persons or those with reduced mobility,
(ii) Clean up neighborhoods,
(iii) Promote access to essential services,
(iv) Build the capacities of the municipalities in the city covered by the project, and
(v) Strengthen community management of community facilities.
 

Planned project
The project will be implemented in roughly 79 neighborhoods in 14 of the city’s municipalities, including the main municipality, Antananarivo. It mainly concerns the construction of a total of roughly 130 km of alleyways (Lalan Kely in Malagasy). They will be equipped with drains to evacuate wastewater and rainwater and, in some cases, lighting to improve security.
Depending on the needs of each neighborhood, the project will finance the construction or rehabilitation of standpipes, latrines, ablution units, washing-places and will install waste bins. The high labor intensive works phase will, as far as possible, employ residents from the neighborhoods who are often young and unskilled.
The neighborhoods were selected on the basis of different criteria reflecting their level of poverty, particularly that of density and of the level of facilities. Finally, the project does not concern neighborhoods located in areas prone to flooding or where construction is not allowed.

Operating method
The project cost stands at €9m, including €7.6m for the works. The contracting authority will be the Ministry of Land Development, which will delegate to the AGETIPA via a Contracting Authority Delegation Contract. The project will start in 2011 and will be completed by 2015 at the latest.
In order to benefit the entire community, all the alleyways, stairs, and facilities will be built following the recommendations of Handicap International, which contributed to project preparation under a service financed by AFD. Their routine maintenance will be provided by the implementation of community management supported by NGOs and local associations.
The results of previous experiences of community management in Antananarivo, mainly by the NGO ENDA, are indeed extremely positive, as they contribute to filling a void and to combating social exclusion, which affects many new urban dwellers.

Total project amount: €9m grant 100% financed by AFD.

These investments help change processes to define agricultural policies and have major consequences on the development of agricultural production structures, income, rural employment and land tenure security for rural producers.

The contributions in this publication use case studies to provide insight into the nature of these investments and their consequences in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of food security and changes in the agricultural sector.

They also raise the question of the impacts that investments in non-food production (agro-fuels for example) have on countries affected by the food crisis.

President Goodluck Jonathan, Henri de Raincourt, French Minister of Cooperation, Ngozi Onkonjo-Iweala, Nigerian Minister of Finance, and Didier Mercier, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of AFD, marked their visit on 25 November by signing the first financing agreement between the Nigerian State and AFD. This $100m loan will finance the construction of a rapid bus line, which will reduce congestion in the City of Lagos.

Lagos is a coastal city located in the southwest of the country. Today, it is the most densely populated city in Sub-Saharan Africa, with over 15 million inhabitants and an annual growth rate of 6%. Its infrastructure network and transport services are sized for a city of roughly 6 million inhabitants, i.e. its population in the 1980s. Urban congestion has become a major challenge for the city. It affects both the cost of producing and distributing products and the quality of life of its residents.

First operational example of an integrated and coherent approach to improving public transport in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Back in 1992, Lagos State set out to tackle this situation by conducting an extensive sectoral and institutional study. In March 2008, its action led to the launch of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)-Lite system, which will create a rapid bus service running on exclusive right-of-way lanes. It is the first operational example of an integrated and coherent approach to improving public transport in Sub-Saharan Africa.

AFD has been operating in Nigeria since 2008 and has made urban development one of its priorities in the country, in partnership with the Nigerian authorities. The financing agreement signed today is for a $100m loan to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which will be reallocated to the Federal State of Lagos. It is part of the second Lagos Urban Transport Project (LUTP II), which amounts to $329.5m and is cofinanced by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility. AFD is financing one of the two planned corridors, i.e. the 22 km corridor linking up the communities of Oshodi, Mile 12 and Ikorodu. This section, which will link up downtown Lagos with the northeast of the State, is considered to be a priority by the local authorities.

The urban transport project has been hailed internationally a success and makes a major contribution to the plan to develop sustainable cities in Sub-Saharan Africa.