By Calistus K. Efukho
When the Africa Forward Summit 2026 convenes in May in Nairobi, Kenya, headlines will highlight investment figures and new continental initiatives. However, underneath those figures and pronouncements lurk far broader questions on how Africa can assert its full agency in the global economic order.
While economic diplomacy is a cornerstone in international development participation, agriculture, with its vast regional footprint and reach into every African household, lends it moral weight while also providing geopolitical depth.
For the past six decades, Africa’s commerce with Europe has followed a typical asymmetry. Raw materials are exported in return for finished goods and technology. This model increased dependency and reduced strategic autonomy.
The Nairobi Summit thus provides an opportunity to reverse that imbalance, with agriculture now a focal testing ground for this new approach to economic diplomacy.
Viewed through a diplomatic lens, agriculture is a tool of agency. It combines food security, industrialization, trade reform, and climate obligations into a coherent narrative of transformation—Africa as a co-architect of the global economy rather than a peripheral provider.
Yes, African nations might leverage the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to seek continental value chains and even develop foreign alliances, but the conversation is not about who owns the soil itself. It is about who owns the processing factories, who sets standards, and eventually who controls the logistics corridors.
The ability to negotiate these issues is what defines cooperation and co-creation. France’s stated intention to transition “from aid to co-investment” inspires cautious confidence.
Africa is responsible for defining the phrases. The discourse must change from development assistance to manufacturing partnerships, joint ventures that preserve value in African economies while providing equitable access to European markets.
The Africa-France Impact Coalition and Kampala Declaration on Food Systems (2025) offer relevant foundations. However, success will be determined by whether they incorporate African ownership, local equity, technological transfer, and transparent finance into their core.
For example, Kenya’s experience in the dairy, tea, coffee, and horticultural sectors demonstrates that when value addition occurs near producers, both income and political leverage increase. Trade and foreign policy converge, making economic diversification, especially in agriculture, more than a strategic imperative for Africa.
More than just aspirational rhetoric, the Nairobi Declaration will specify milestones, investment ratios, technology transfer benchmarks, funding schedules, and continental monitoring procedures post-summit. In diplomacy, clarity is key.
In this new dispensation, Africa’s link with Europe is one of continental enterprises rather than a linguistic or colonial inheritance.
The Africa Forward Summit will be successful only if it recognizes the broader context—that the true subject of negotiation is fairness, who participates, who profits, and who makes decisions.
We envision a relationship that recognizes Africa’s demographic strength, resource abundance, and policy maturity. The goal is reciprocity, not animosity. Africa now speaks as a builder of mutual prosperity.
The writer is Ag. Director General, Agriculture and Food Authority, and co-convener of the Roundtable on Agriculture.
About the Africa Forward Summit (AFS) 2026
The Africa Forward Summit is a joint Africa–France initiative, co-convened by the Republic of Kenya and the Republic of France, with African Union endorsement.
It takes place in Nairobi on 11–12 May 2026 and represents a structural shift in how Africa and France engage—from a donor-recipient dynamic to a partnership grounded in innovation, parity, and shared implementation.
It prioritizes African agency and serves as a catalyst for sustainable development and inclusive prosperity.
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