AU Summit: FAO DG says Africa needs collective effort to transform - NaijaAgroNet

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The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu has called for a collective sustained effort, political will and renewed commitment across the African continent, and globally, to transform agrifood systems and deliver better nutrition.

Qu was speaking at a High-Level event on addressing malnutrition in Africa during the 36th ordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“It is now more crucial than ever to support vulnerable communities with multiple and innovative solutions to build their resilience and transform agrifood systems to deliver better nutrition,” he told the gathering attended by over a dozen of African heads of state and government, and high-level officials from international organizations including UN agencies and development banks.

The event, co-hosted by FAO, the Kingdom of Lesotho, the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank, and the African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN), aimed to evaluate the progress and achievements in addressing malnutrition in Africa.

According to the last joint report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, led by FAO, 281 million people in Africa are undernourished, nearly 60 million African children under 5 suffer from stunting and 14 million suffer from wasting.

The FAO Director-General further warned that 1 billion people in Africa could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, and the impacts of the climate crisis, conflicts, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine are raising levels of malnutrition and hunger.

“Unfortunately, we know that Africa is falling behind in meeting the Malabo nutrition targets and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” he noted.