The role of food security and
agriculture have an essential role to play in preventing conflicts and crises
on the African continent, blunting their impacts and acting as engines for
post-crisis recovery, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The Director-General, Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Mr. José Graziano da Silva gave this highlight
in address to African leaders and international development actors in Nairobi,
Kenya, at the foremost summits on African development.
"Ending hunger and malnutrition,
addressing humanitarian and protracted crises, preventing and resolving
conflicts, and building peace are not separate tasks, but simply different
facets of the same challenge," Graziano da Silva said at a side-event
on ‘Peace and Food Security', hosted by FAO, at the sixth Tokyo International
Conference on African Development (TICAD VI).
Graziano da Silva was among the high-level
delegations who attended in the opening ceremony of TICAD VI, led by the
President of the Republic of Kenya and the Prime Minister of Japan.
NaijaAgroNet also reports that the conference which brings
together policy makers, UN agencies and financial institutions, among others aimed
at promoting high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and their
partners and mobilize support for African-owned development initiatives.
The link between conflict prevention
and development is of particular importance in the region, which is host to
nearly 60 percent of active UN Peacekeeping Missions. And whilst
armed conflicts across Africa as a whole have decreased in recent years, this
trend has been uneven across the continent.
"Much of FAO's work aims at
promoting sustainable development and building the resilience of rural
populations," Graziano da Silva said, giving concrete examples of
countries where agricultural support helped secure the transition from wars to
sustainable peace, including Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"By supporting agriculture and
rural development, we help create jobs, provide income and boost youth
employment. This can help prevent distress migration and radicalization, as
well as mitigate disputes over depleted resources," he said.
Pix; FAO D-G, Mr. José Graziano da Silva
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