AU Agriculture Commissioner honoured

Oct 11, 2016

The award was also attributed to her support towards Africa’s efforts to create jobs and wealth for millions of young Africans

Rhoda Peace Tumusiime the African Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Economy was on Tuesday last week honoured by the African Agribusiness Incubator Network (AAIN) in Accra Ghana during the second Pan African Agribusiness Conference.

As part of the series of attributes, Dr Pamella Mbabazi, who ushered in the award on behalf AAIN, pointed out Tumusiime's relentless support towards Africa's agricultural transformation since she took office at the AU in 2008.

"As we all may know, the African continent has struggled to build policies and devise means of getting them implemented. She has an action-oriented approach with which she not only helped engineer the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), but engaged African leaders for action on the same," Mbabazi said.

Mbabazi added that Tumusiime's focus on popularising the CAADP initiatives also attracted more attention to the importance to improving nutrition, investing more in agriculture and joining efforts to end hunger in Africa by the year 2025.

"She is also a leader whose background is rich in experience in not only policy management but also practical agriculture. The fact that she has had an experience with the real practice in agriculture has made her the best possible candidate to champion the sector's development, with the inclusion of the rural poor, the women and the youth," Mbabazi said.

The award was also attributed to her support towards Africa's efforts to create jobs and wealth for millions of young Africans including agribusiness incubation which is the core undertaking for AAIN and the member incubators across the continent.

Amidst high applause, Dr Mbabazi invited the Ghanaian Minister for Agriculture Alhajji Limuna who handed over the honorary award in the company of Dr Alex Ariho the AAIN CEO and Prof Henry Bwisa the Board Chairperson.

Since taking office in 2008, Tumusiime has received a series of continental and global awards and is one of few AU commissioners to get a second term of office on unanimous vote.

She was also handed a Presidential award for Outstanding Women in Uganda courtesy of and given to her by President Yoweri Museveni at the International Women's Day Cerebrations at Kololo Independence Grounds in March for her contribution to women empowerment in the country.

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