NEPAD, Pardee: Zero Hunger in Africa by 2025 is possible

NaijaAgroNet:

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has reiterated determination of Africa Union on the possibility of having zero hunger in the next nine years, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The NEPAD Agency’s CEO, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, gave this indication on the premise of the goals set in the 2014 Malabo Declaration through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), is ending hunger in Africa by 2025.

Speaking in Pretoria, South Africa at the unveiling of the Zero hunger in Africa by 2025 in collaboration Pardee Center for International Futures, he noted that nearly one in five people is hungry, even as hunger has decreased steadily since the mid-1990s, due to population growth, but has actually increased in absolute numbers.

In addition, Mayaki said, net food imports since the early 1990s have grown to about 14 per cent of the total demand, maintaining that one of the goals set in the 2014 Malabo Declaration through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), is ending hunger in Africa by 2025.

He emphasised that success in Africa will therefore be through regional integration, be it in ending hunger, agriculture or infrastructure, highlighting the major levers in policies, investments, technologies as well as human and institutional capacities necessary to sustain desired levels of supply and demand-access to food.

“We cannot continue doing business as we are doing it today, since growth in Africa has not been inclusive enough. We need improved capacity to implement various interventions to do things differently if we are to deliver on Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the goal of eliminating hunger by 2025,” Dr. Mayaki underscored.

Dr Lindiwe Sibanda , CEO of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), noted that hunger affects women and children disproportionately, while women are the backbone of agriculture in Africa.

“The face of hunger in Africa is that 32 percent of under-5 children are stunted – the numbers have stagnated instead of going down. If the cognitive capacity of children in Africa is reduced for life, who are the future leaders for the continent? Agriculture needs to be more nutrition sensitive. Hidden hunger challenges are therefore critical and need to be addressed,” Dr. Sibanda said.

Speaking at the same event, Lynette Chen, CEO of the NEPAD Business Foundation also maintained that food security and the trajectory of economic growth need to be balanced with nutrition sensitive agriculture.

During the launch of the report on ending hunger in Africa, it was recognised that while the goal of eliminating hunger by 2025 might be very ambitious, it is not impossible. Steve Hedden, Research System Developer from Pardee Center maintained that how we define hunger will dictate how we get there and how we reach our targets.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Feed Africa focuses on 4 goals, targets 2025

NaijaAgroNet:

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has disclosed that the Feed Africa initiative will drive transformation of African Agriculture into a globally competitive, focuses on four goals to be delivered by 2025, reports NaijaAgroNet.

These four goals, NaijaAgroNet gathered include to end extreme poverty, eliminate hunger and malnutrition, make Africa a net exporter of agricultural commodities and attempt to move to the top of key agricultural value chains.

AfDB also revealed that these four goals have appendage of aspirations comprising that for the continent to end extreme poverty, there must be corresponding contribution towards alleviating poverty though job creation and providing sustainable livelihoods, while targeting to lift some 130 million out f extreme poverty by 2025.

The second goal of Feed Africa, NaijaAgroNet reports, centres on eliminating hunger and malnutrition tend to bring forth food security for all Africans that are ‘undernourished’ even as the goal targets zero hunger and malnutrition before the end of next nine years.

On the third goal, AfDB informed that making Africa a net exporter of agricultural commodities will be ambitiously matched by eliminating large scale imports of commodities that could be produced in Africa, and selectively begin to export, such that Africa’s target will be to net trade balance in the billions of dollars.

Whereas the fourth goal, NaijaAgroNet reports is to move the continent to the top of key agricultural value chains, by becoming Number 1 in either processing or the overall value chain, by market share and by value addition, thereby positioning Africa’s share of the market value for processed commodities to about 40 per cent, for instance with cocoa grinding.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet learnt that Feed Africa is to further turn agriculture into inclusive and business-oriented sector that creates wealth, generates gainful employment, and improves quality of life.

Thus, Feed Africa echoes the commitments made under the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) as articulated in the Maputo (2003) and the Malabo (2014) Declarations.

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