New IGAD framework seeks to transform agrifood systems in the region
Business
By
Maryann Muganda
| Dec 23, 2025
The Horn of Africa is finalising a decade-long strategic framework to transform its agrifood systems, even as the region grapples with an escalating humanitarian catastrophe driven by recurrent droughts, food insecurity and mortality.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is currently validating the Regional Agrifood Systems Investment Plan (RASIP) 2026–2035, which will replace the Regional Agricultural Investment Plan (RAIP) 2016–2020.
The plan is designed as a regional roadmap for policies, investments and partnerships aimed at strengthening resilience, inclusiveness and sustainability across member states at a time when climate shocks and hunger are hitting unprecedented levels.
Once adopted, the RASIP will be the guiding framework to tackle systemic weaknesses in agrifood sectors, including low productivity, inadequate infrastructure, limited access to technology, weak value chains and insufficient finance for farmers, pastoralists and small-medium enterprises. It expands the focus from traditional agriculture to a holistic food systems approach linking production, processing, logistics, markets and social inclusion.
“This dividend is a critical one to ensuring that the implementation of this RASIP, and also for directly contributing to the sustainable peace in the region, where our region faces a lot of challenges, conflict, drought, desert invasion, locusts, and also issue of food security,” said Dr Mohy Tohami, IGAD director of economic cooperation and regional integration.
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Experts point out that agricultural transformation cannot occur in isolation. “Agriculture depends on infrastructure, energy and finance,” said Dr Sylvia Henga, IGAD policy and food security specialist. “Thus, we need a system approach from production to packaging and value addition.”
The push for agrifood system reforms come against a grim backdrop as millions of lives have been disrupted and lost due to severe drought, resulting to food insecurity across the Horn of Africa.
According to the IGAD Regional Focus of the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, at least 42 million people in six member states are facing acute food insecurity, more than triple the 13.9 million in 2016. Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan are among the hardest hit.
Four IGAD countries, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, are experiencing deepening nutritional crises, including 11.4 million acutely malnourished children under five.
Drought conditions linked to successive failed rainy seasons have pushed people and livestock to the brink. In 2023, prolonged drought left 23.4 million people acutely food insecure and 5.1 million children severely malnourished across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, displacing 2.7 million people.
An estimated 13.2 million livestock across the region have died due to drought-induced shortages of water and pasture, devastating the livelihoods of pastoralist communities.
Despite escalating needs, humanitarian aid gaps persist. Funding shortfalls have forced reductions in food assistance and nutrition programmes in countries like Ethiopia and Somalia, risking further loss of life.
The World Food Programme warn that an additional one million Somalis could face crisis-level hunger without sufficient aid, further stretching limited resources in drought-stricken communities.
However, these are the challenges IGAD’s RASIP aims to address: A forward-looking strategy that aligns agricultural transformation with climate adaptation, market integration, youth and women’s empowerment, and digital innovation in agrifood sectors.
Linkages with water, land, environmental and blue economy strategies are also central to the framework’s integrated approach.