“UM6P shares the vision of a strong and resilient Africa. This is why we joined the Paris Peace Forum as an active member, bringing a perspective from the South to enrich this global alliance,” he underlined at the opening of a meeting on the future of African agriculture, held at the headquarters of the Paris branch of the UM6P as part of the thematic events organized on the second day of the Peace Forum which opened Monday at the Palais de Chaillot, in the heart of the French capital .
Mr. El Habti points out in this regard that UM6P France, the first international branch of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University launched last January, embodies the ambition to create “solid bridges between Africa and Europe in the areas of research, executive training, entrepreneurship and innovation”.
Oriented towards training and research, while cultivating close partnerships with the industrial sector, promoting innovation and development in entrepreneurship, the UM6P, he assured, “is resolutely committed to the training of a new generation of talents destined to shape the future of the African continent” and “firmly believes that Africa can provide solutions to global challenges”.
“Today, we are gathered to address crucial issues, including the resilience of smallholder farmers to climate change and the financing mechanisms needed to promote sustainable agricultural practices in Africa. These issues are essential to ensure food security, strengthen the livelihoods of rural populations, and build a more equitable future for our continent and for the world,” noted the president of UM6P who listed the themes of the meeting.
For Mr. El Habti, UM6P’s commitment was illustrated during the launch of the ATLAS initiative for African agriculture at its Benguerir campus last June, in partnership with renowned institutions such as J- PAL, BCG, CGIAR, AFD and CAP-A.
It is, according to him, “an ambitious project designed to promote investment in African agriculture” and which also aims to “provide an annual and detailed barometer to monitor investments and help decision-makers implement effective agricultural strategies.
“Through rigorous data and qualitative analysis, we hope to transform the agricultural sector in Africa, by supporting the development of sustainable and resilient practices,” he concluded.
The ATLAS initiative for African agriculture, a permanent platform for political dialogue and collaboration between the North and the South launched last June in Morocco, announced Monday, on the first day of the Paris Peace Forum, the launch in December of its investment barometer, we recall.
According to a Forum press release, ATLAS “gained new momentum at the November forum, announcing that in December it would launch its investment barometer, which measures for the first time all public, private and philanthropic investments dedicated to African agriculture every year, a tool which is currently lacking to assess the financing gap and monitor progress made.
Remember that the Agricultural Transitions Lab for African Solutions (ATLAS) was launched during the spring meeting of the Paris Peace Forum in June 2024 in Benguerir.
The initiative, which brings together a coalition of actors aiming to double their investments in African agriculture by 2030, will advocate “for a globally shared vision on the sustainable transformation of African agriculture, based on a better understanding of African needs, by overcoming North-South divides and by considering agriculture and the climate as partners rather than adversaries,” according to the same source.
