Fresh off the plane from Abidjan, I’m still thinking about what I saw — and didn’t see — during the African Development Bank’s annual meetings last week in Côte d’Ivoire.
Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s leading cocoa producer, alongside neighboring Ghana. Together, they supply nearly half of the global market for cocoa, the essential ingredient in chocolate. But in Abidjan’s supermarkets, what stood out was how little of that cocoa is processed locally. Most of it is exported in raw form, with the biggest profits captured elsewhere.
“We can increase processing overnight, but you have nontariff barriers in exporting into some of the markets. Unless they bring a processor from outside, from Europe, who comes and sets up a processing plant,” Ghanaian President John Mahama said at the meetings.
“That's why sometimes you notice that the world economic order is rigged against Africa.”
The sense that Africa is largely on its own — that it must mobilize its own resources and solutions — was a recurring theme throughout the week. It was even baked into the gathering’s official slogan: “Making Africa’s Capital Work Better for Africa’s Development.”
Still, with 1.5 billion people across 54 countries, the continent isn’t short on partners. The challenge — and opportunity — is in deepening cooperation, tearing down internal trade barriers, and acting collectively. One of the most talked about avenues for doing so is the African Continental Free Trade Area, or AfCFTA, which is slowly gaining traction. There’s widespread agreement that strengthening intra-African trade could significantly improve food security. (Stay tuned — I’ll be digging into how that rollout is going.)
Another major focus is on backing young agripreneurs, but the barriers are steep: Only 5% of youth-led enterprises have access to formal credit, says Beth Dunford, AfDB’s vice president for agriculture, human and social development. To change that, the bank is doubling down on youth-focused financing and has already funded 120 agri-startups, she says. Through its ENABLE Youth program, AfDB aims to create 300,000 agribusinesses and empower young people with skills and funding. So far, it’s supported nearly 100,000 youth and generated 237,000 jobs across 18 countries.
The broader strategy, Dunford says, is to prioritize innovative finance, skills development, market linkages (including public-private partnerships), and climate-smart agriculture to build a more self-sufficient, resilient food system — powered by African talent.
More from the AfDB meetings: Tariffs and aid cuts jolt Africa’s growth — but the overall outlook is upbeat
This month’s Financing for Development, or FfD4, conference presents another pivotal opportunity for policymakers and influencers to chart a new path for development funding. If you’ll be in Seville, Spain, for the conference, drop by Casa Devex. From June 29–July 1, Devex will host an exclusive gathering space for FfD4 delegates featuring nightly networking, journalist-led briefings, and partner dinners. Request your invitation or learn more about partnering with us.
Carpe diem
Indeed, the push for self-sufficiency is something African advocates of agroecology — which calls for agricultural models that work in sync with nature, as opposed to industrial agriculture — are trying to harness. With the dismantling of USAID and a broader shift away from traditional official development assistance, these activists see an opening to reshape the future of African agriculture.
For the entire continent, this moment, as Million Belay, general coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, puts it, is ripe for “taking charge of its food policies and freeing land ownership from external influence.”
That vision includes building food systems rooted in sustainability, local control, and public interest. Activists are pushing for policy reforms that strengthen local institutions, prioritize nutrition-sensitive strategies, and promote meaningful public-private partnerships — systems that work better for Africans, as Devex contributor David Njagi reports.
One key area of focus is reducing dependence on imported farming inputs and expanding the use of farmer-managed seeds — seeds that are saved, selected, and exchanged by farmers locally, often outside formal commercial systems. For years, governments have backed the influx of industrial fertilizers, chemicals, and corporate seeds — which are often pushed on farmers who may prefer indigenous crops and local innovations. Seed laws, in many cases, compound the issue by criminalizing locally developed systems in favor of imports from multinationals such as Bayer and Syngenta.
This push for local control doesn’t stop at the farm level. Activists say true self-sufficiency also depends on stronger intra-African trade — which, again, they argue the African Continental Free Trade Area could help unlock.
After all, self-sufficiency isn’t just a short-term strategy — it’s central to ensuring long-term, sustainable growth and development, activists emphasize.
“Aid is like somebody putting a big stone around your neck and throwing you into the ocean,” says Chris Macoloo of World Neighbors. “We shall never come out of the debt cycle if we continue relying on external financing of our resources.”
Read more: Aid cuts spark a rethink of African food systems rooted in agroecology
Opinion: Food aid is in crisis. So let’s stop funding agrochemicals
See also: How the seed sector can step up for food security
And don’t miss: 300 groups launch strategy to transform food systems through agroecology
IFAD’s migration pitch
As traditional aid budgets contract, International Fund for Agricultural Development President Alvaro Lario is doubling down on a strategy that could define his agency’s future.
“We were not one of them,” Lario said of Germany’s recent aid cuts, during a conversation with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference this week. IFAD was spared, he argued, because it’s delivering on one of Europe’s top political priorities: reducing migration by addressing its root causes.
The pitch is straightforward — but risky: Invest in smallholder farmers before they abandon drought-hit fields for dangerous journeys to richer nations. IFAD claims every dollar it spends generates $1.80 through co-financing, but that math only works if new partners keep coming to the table.
That’s where the pivot comes in. With Western donors pulling back, Lario is looking elsewhere: “We're partnering more with institutions such as AIIB, OPEC Fund, [and the] Saudi Fund,” he said.
This strategy unfolds as broader U.N. reform looms. Lario predicts the deepest cuts will land at the United Nations Secretariat in New York, where thousands of mandates have created layers of bureaucracy. His bet? That specialized agencies such as IFAD, with a clear mandate and results to show, will avoid the worst of the fallout.
But the question remains: Can IFAD’s prevention-first approach — tackling rural poverty to reduce migration — continue to win over governments under pressure to cut?
ICYMI: As aid budgets shrink, how did support for this UN agency grow? (Pro)
See also: UN chief outlines ‘painful’ survival plan for world body
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Cuts and consequences
What’s the latest on those food aid cuts, you ask? The U.S. Department of Agriculture, currently sporting a massive banner of President Donald Trump across its Washington, D.C., facade, has canceled dozens of agreements under two key aid programs.
According to a USDA spokesperson, that includes 27 projects under the Food for Progress program, which supports agricultural modernization, and 17 under the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program, which provides U.S. commodities to feed schoolchildren abroad. Fourteen Food for Progress and 30 McGovern-Dole agreements remain in place, spanning 39 countries and over $1 billion in funding.
Implementers are warning of serious fallout. Catholic Relief Services warns that the move will be “life-altering,” especially as kids rely on these meals to stay in school. For CRS, the cancellations mean over 780,000 children across 11 countries will lose access to school meals.
What’s unclear is how the administration is deciding which projects serve U.S. interests — and which don’t.
Related: 'No children are dying on my watch,’ says Rubio
All hands on deck
Bringing home the bacon
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Food Security Manager, Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture Activity
RTI International
Ethiopia
With World Ocean Day on June 8 and the Third United Nations Ocean Conference, or UNOC3, kicking off June 9 in Nice, France, attention is turning to the health of the world’s oceans.
And the challenges are mounting: more than 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean each year; over a third of global fish stocks are overfished; and climate change is accelerating acidification, sea level rise, and ecosystem collapse.
Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, UNOC3 is expected to draw global leaders, scientists, and advocates. France is pushing for tangible progress on three fronts, as Jérôme Bonnafont, France’s ambassador to the U.N., outlines in a Devex opinion piece: ratifying the high seas treaty, aka the BBNJ Agreement, to close the legal vacuum on the high seas; scaling up innovative financing; and expanding investment in ocean science and research.
Bonnafont emphasizes that action is urgent — and central to ensuring food security and long-term planetary health. “The ocean has carried humanity for millennia. Now it's our turn to carry the ocean,” he writes.
Opinion: The ocean is in peril. In Nice, we have a chance to protect it
Chew on this
Five humanitarians — contractors for WFP and UNICEF — were killed on their way to deliver aid into El Fasher, in the North Darfur region of Sudan. This would have been the first aid delivery to Fasher in over a year. [UN News]
Massive infestations of locusts appear to be headed for North Africa. [Context News]
At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near a food distribution site in southern Gaza yesterday. [Reuters]
What is a famine and who declares one? [AP]
The World Resources Institute has updated its NDC Tracker to show not only which countries have submitted new national climate commitments, but also how much emissions they would reduce if fully achieved. [Climate Watch]
About the author
Ayenat Mersie
Ayenat Mersie is a Global Development Reporter for Devex. Previously, she worked as a freelance journalist for publications such as National Geographic and Foreign Policy and as an East Africa correspondent for Reuters.
