The Malabo Declaration signed by African Governments in 2014 represented a re-commitment to the CAADP principles and goals adopted earlier in 2003 with the Maputo Declaration. But Malabo went further by identifying specific goals and targets to be achieved within a period of ten years. The targets include ending hunger, tripling intra-African trade in agricultural goods and services, enhancing resilience of livelihoods and production systems, and ensuring that agriculture contributes significantly to poverty reduction.

In particular, the Declaration introduced a specific commitment on Mutual Accountability to Actions and Results which calls on AU Members State to:

(i) conduct a biennial Agricultural Review Process that involves tracking, monitoring and reporting on implementation progress;

(ii) foster alignment, harmonization and coordination among multi-sectorial efforts and multi-institutional platforms for peer review, mutual learning and mutual accountability; and

(iii) strengthen national and regional institutional capacities for knowledge and data generation, and management that support evidence-based planning, implementation, monitoring and Evaluation. Subsequently, the African Union (AU) institutions, together with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Member States, in collaboration with partners have carried out two Biennial Reviews. The most recent report was adopted by the AU summit in February 2020.

The findings and recommendations of the Biennial Report allow countries to review the progress made towards the targets set for 2025 in the Malabo Declaration, and then adopt appropriate collective actions to accelerate Agricultural Growth and Transformation.