Assembly/AU/ 7 (X)I Page 11 Overall, the number of countries that have reached or exceeded the 6 percent CAADP growth target for agriculture has gone up from 5 to 11 since 2003. 21. The recent positive changes notwithstanding, the current trends in Africa’s economic and agricultural sector performance would need to be accelerated and broadened in order to achieve the desired changes in poverty and malnutrition levels within the timeframe defined under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The key message is that the recent growth performance in Africa needs to be sustained, broadened, and accelerated in order to significantly reduce poverty. What is necessary for African countries to do is to learn from the successes of the last 10 years and undertake the necessary policy and investment measures to accelerate and broaden the growth process. 22. Agriculture remains the sector through which broad growth and poverty reduction can be achieved. The growth performance of the agricultural sector over the last 10 years indeed indicates that the required changes to significantly reduce poverty and eliminate malnutrition should be within reach for many African countries. Projections by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) indicate, in fact, that African countries could achieve significant progress towards poverty reduction and food and nutrition security over the next 15-20 years by targeting policies and investment strategies to: (i) raise the average growth rate of crop yields by 50 percent; and (ii); accelerate overall GDP growth rates to the range of 6.5 to 8.0 percent, in addition to a 50 percent increase in livestock numbers. 23. For the foreseeable future and the large majority of African countries, agriculture will remain the most important sector in the battle to reduce poverty and achieve food and nutrition security. The vast body of research on economic growth and poverty reduction has shown that the most effective way to sustainably reduce poverty is to raise the productivity of and returns to resources that poor people depend on for their livelihood. In almost all African countries, these resources are agricultural land and labor and off-farm rural labor. V. ONGOING INITIATIVES BY THE AFRICAN UNION THAT ADDRESS HIGH FOOD PRICES 24. Working with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the AU Commission, through its Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA), has undertaken to initiate, promote and facilitate the implementation of policies, strategies and programs that contribute to the transformation of the rural economy by increasing agricultural productivity, conserving and protecting natural resources as well as enhancing environmental sustainability. Within the framework of CAADP, the Sirte Declaration of 2004 on Agriculture and Water, the Abuja Declaration of 2006 on Fertilizer, the Abuja Declaration of 2006 on Food Security and the Millennium Development Goal No. 1 to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, the Commission is currently implementing a number of initiatives that aim to increase agricultural productivity and reduce food and nutrition insecurity. 25. The Commission’s Action Plan for agriculture identifies four strategic objectives as follows: