The former Prime Minister of Ethiopia and current Board Chairman of AGRA, Hailemariam Dessalegn, on 1st August 2022 met with Malawi’s President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, for dialogue on his country’s food system priorities.
During their meeting Hailemariam Dessalegn proposed the establishment of an Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) in Malawi.
“We need multiple agencies to work together and this calls for an institution to have binding effect on delivery. ATA is an important institution that IFAD, AGRA, BMGF and McKinsey are supporting to establish to unlock bottlenecks by Malawian institutions… Support can be accessed through the ATA on transforming the economy through the establishment of agro-processing areas to double production and resolve market and processing issues as was experienced in Ethiopia through the ATA,” said Hailemariam.
President Chakwera said “Working with AGRA is a great advantage for us as a nation that will enable it not only to feed itself but also move from subsistence to commercialization. So, when you talk of ATA, this is more than welcome, and we could fast track that because local cooperatives and anchor farms will benefit a lot… With AGRA and ATA, we can succeed!”