Food Security and Nutrition Essential for Africa's Development - UN Agencies

Three Rome-based United Nations (UN) agencies have called for food security and nutrition to be placed at the core of the international agenda for African development. The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), José Graziano da Silva, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural development (IFAD), Kanayo Nwanze, and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, were speaking at the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) in Yokohama.

The three agency heads said that the most effective key to reversing hunger and poverty in developing countries lay in responsible investment by governments and the private sector in sustainable agricultural and rural development, noting that in sub-Saharan Africa, GDP growth generated by agriculture had been shown to be eleven times more effective in reducing poverty than GDP growth in other sectors. They stressed that it is time to invest in the critical agents of change: small producers and their organizations, family farmers, fishers, livestock keepers, forest users, rural workers, entrepreneurs, and indigenous people.

The agency heads commended countries that had made strong efforts to reduce hunger within their boundaries and on the African continent in general, and indicated that the discussions at TICAD would help inform the high-level meeting to be held on 30 June and 1 July in Addis Ababa, co-organized by the African Union and FAO and supported by the Lula Institute. WFP, IFAD, and other development partners will also participate in this event.

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