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Monday, August 13, 2018

FARA, NEPAD in high level joint advocacy for nutrition in Africa - NaijaAgroNet

As part of efforts to promote Food and Nutrition Security for Sustainable Agriculture on the continent, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), have joined forces in a high level advocacy for nutrition in Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.

They jointly organised a one-day high level advocacy event during the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) in in Cairo, Egypt, which saw notice on increased efforts and support from governments and stakeholders to improve nutrition and food systems are still needed.

The FARA Executive Director, Dr Abdulrazak Ibrahim noted that African governments and stakeholders have over the years been implementing several strategic interventions, among which include food fortification, dietary diversification, vitamin and mineral supplementation, public health interventions such as deworming and of late, biofortification.

He also said embracing food-based approaches should encompass biofortification in national and regional agriculture and nutrition policies, strategies, programmes and investment plans,’ was the theme of this event.

Chairperson of the PAP Committee on Agriculture, H.E Hon Kone Gognon, opened the meeting, saying that the theme for the meeting was pertinent, with a focus on ensuring food and nutrition security, pointing out that biofortification was already flagged as crucial in Africa.

Further, Dr. Ibrahim disclosed that FARA recognised the debilitating effects of hidden hunger, and highlighted FARA’s efforts, over the last years, in mainstreaming FNSSA within the National Agricultural and Innovation System (NAIS).

This was echoed by Dr Rose Omari, from FARA’s Building Nutritious Food Basket project, who elucidated the fact that micronutrient deficiency and its consequences are not widely known, as this is ‘hidden hunger.’

“Therefore, enhancing micronutrients content of staple crops during production is a critical intervention,” Dr Omari said.

Senior Advisor on Nutrition, Ms Bibi Giyose, who spoke on behalf of the NEPAD Agency’s CEO, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, brought to the fore the fact that nutrition should not be viewed as a technical issue, as it also has political, structural and numerous other dimensions that dictate the need to find multi-sectorial solutions.

Prof Francis Zotor from the University of Health and Allied Sciences and African Nutrition Society, expressed a similar sentiment with a call to strengthen synergies in moving the nutrition agenda forward on the continent.

Present at the event were legislators from the following countries: Central African Republic; Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Niger, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.

The meeting concluded that while hidden hunger is real, reversing it is also possible to increase micronutrient content of commonly consumed foods through biofortification, especially to improve nutritional status of low income households will go a long way in redressing hidden hunger.

African Parliamentarians were called upon to follow up on declarations made by governments to ensure their implementation.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops

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