Kigali: Ministers of livestock and agriculture, along with representatives from eight African countries, have agreed to work together to strengthen livestock value chains, unlock investment, and expand trade across the continent.According to African Press Organization, they were meeting at the Second Ministerial Deep Dive on Livestock, convened by the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and hosted by AGRA at the Africa Food Systems Forum 2026. The theme was "Scaling What Works through Regional Value Chains, Partnership and Investment".Ministers and representatives from Nigeria, Uganda, Niger, Mali, Malawi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia took part, along with the Honourable Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, former President of Botswana, and leaders from financial institutions, industry, and development partners.The session followed the first Ministerial Deep Dive, held in Dakar in 2025, where ministers from nine countries aske d that the discussion continue and move from dialogue to action.At the meeting, AU-IBAR Director Dr. Huyam Salih described what she called Africa's livestock paradox. The continent holds about 73% of the world's camels, 45% of its sheep and goats, and 34% of its cattle. Livestock contributes some USD 210 billion to gross domestic product, between 30 and 40% of agricultural GDP, and supports close to 800 million producers, pastoralists, traders, and processors.At the same time, between 90 and 95% of the milk, beef, and poultry consumed in Africa is sourced from outside it, and formal intra-African trade stands at about 16%.Much of AU-IBAR's contribution at the session focused on the Integrated Regional Livestock Value Chain (IRLVC) Programme, the AU-IBAR flagship that runs to 2035 and reports through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) biennial review. The programme already supports more than 30 regional projects, including a dairy market programme in East Africa and a regi onal poultry health programme in West Africa, with partners such as the European Union, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the World Bank.AU-IBAR asked the Ministers to advance three things: political leadership, financing alignment, and industry co-investment. Ministers left with commitments rather than a joint statement. They agreed to pursue investment and financing tailored to livestock, break down cross-border barriers to trade and disease, build the data and traceability systems needed to show what is working, and raise livestock's institutional standing within government.Dairy was used as the illustrative value chain for the session, the first of several proof points the platform intends to examine in future editions. Ethiopia's experience anchored the discussion. Milk production there rose from 7.1 billion litres in 2022 to 15.7 billion litres in 2025/26, an increase of 122%, supported by the government's Yelemat Tirufat initiative, more than 36,000 new dairy villages, 5,000 dairy clusters, and new cross-border trade agreements.Every country that took the floor asked for the Ministerial Platform to continue. The session recommended formalising it as the political and learning home for delivering the Integrated Regional Livestock Value Chain Programme, anchored in the annual Africa Food Systems Forum, and building towards the First African Union Summit on Animal Resources Transformation. This would give ministers a standing role in continental delivery.Earlier in the Forum, Dr. Salih took the same argument to the Big Bets roundtable on Africa's food systems in 2046. She called for animal-source foods to be named explicitly in the CAADP-to-2046 proposition, with livestock, fisheries, and aquaculture treated as a pillar of food sovereignty, and for commitments to be written down, tracked, and reported at each CAADP biennial review.She closed the Ministerial by returning to the invitation to partners. Africa has the livestock assets, the growing demand, and an expanding contine ntal market, she said, and AU-IBAR is ready to convene the partnership that turns them into integrated markets, investment, and value retained on the continent.