Assembly/AU/Decl.2(XIII) Rev.1 Page 4 iii. Building regional and country level capacities for quality management and certification services; iv. Strengthening capacity in international trade advocacy and negotiations skills. 8. Facilitate the creation of Agricultural investment and enterprise development platforms in member states and the organization of Agribusiness joint venture fairs to: i. promote the required public-private partnerships and business to business alliances to accelerate the development of competitive value chains and raise market shares in domestic, regional, and foreign export markets; ii. foster commercial bank financing for all segments of the agribusiness value chain, in particular support the expansion of financial services to the rural areas. 9. Accelerate the emergence of cost competitive input procurement and delivery systems by: i. fast tracking the implementation of the African Fertiliser Financing Mechanism, in particular making the required contributions to bridge the US$ 2.5 million gap for its immediate operationalisation; ii. scaling up ongoing regional seeds alliances to ensure broad access by smallholder farmers. 10. Facilitate increased investment in Agriculture Research and Development (ARD) and support to strengthening Africa’s scientific and technical information and knowledge base, including: i. the creation of centres of excellence for Agricultural Research and Development along the value chain of strategic agricultural commodities and animal resource products; ii. the establishment, in rural areas, of vocational training and workforce development systems to upgrade smallholder farming skills, raise long Adopted by the Thirteenth Ordinary Session of the Assembly in Sirte, Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on 3 July 2009

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