FLOOD: ALeP urges NEMA, Anambra State govt to assist Awba-Ofemili victims - NaijaAgroNet

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The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Anambra State government led by Prof. Chukwuma Soludo have been asked to urgently assist flood victims in Awba-Ofemili town among others.

Awba-Ofemili is a community in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State and was heavily ravaged by the recent flood, sacking some villages including in Umuosite and some parts of Ege, Nkpuocha, Oka-akwu, Ngene Nkpumekwu communities to name a few.

Agriculture, lifeline for millions of Syrians war victims

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has urged countries attending an international pledging conference for Syria to invest in agriculture as an engine of stabilization and recovery, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO Deputy Director-General for Programmes, Daniel Gustafson told NaijaAgroNet in a statement that despite significant setbacks, agriculture continues to sustain almost half of the food supply in Syria, serving as a lifeline for millions vulnerable Syrians.

"This is a powerful testimony of the resilience of the people of Syria and of the agriculture sector,"  "Without additional assistance to the agriculture sector and to resilience programmes in rural areas, food insecurity will continue to rise as well as migration, and stability will remain elusive," he said.   

"We must address the root causes of the vulnerabilities that have contributed to exacerbating the crisis and their impacts. These include in particular the urban-rural gap in poverty and access to social services, escalating water scarcity and climate change which are drivers of massive rural unemployment and migration," Gustafson added. "While everyone recognizes the relevance of the resilience approach in responding to the Syria crisis and the imperative of bridging humanitarian and development interventions, we continue to face major funding shortfalls".

FAO is appealing for $120 million under the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria and has received just one quarter of the total.

The European Union and the United Nations are co-chairing the pledging conference in Brussels (24-25 April) to mobilise humanitarian aid and to garner political support for the UN-led peace process. 

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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Africa ranks second in global hungry people with 243m victims

NaijaAgroNet:

The African continent has been ranked second in the number of hungry people in the world which the United Nations (UN) said was 815 million, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The UN in its latest hunger and food security key numbers made available to NaijaAgroNet, which has overall number at 815 million, saw Asia continent with 520 million, over 100 per cent of African quota.

Also, NaijaAgroNet gathered that in the top three continents in the hungriest people in the world included Latin America and the Caribbean with 42 million.

The global hungry population as shared in percentage, NaijaAgroNet gathered showed that Asia has 11.7 per cent; Africa has 20 per cent with eastern Africa lone scoring 33.9 per cent, while Latin America and the Caribbean got 6.6 per cent.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered this was the first time that UNICEF and WHO join FAO, IFAD and WFP in preparing The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report. This change reflects the SDG agenda's broader view on hunger and all forms of malnutrition.

The UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, established by the General Assembly, is lending focus to this effort by motivating governments to set goals and invest in measures to address the multiple dimensions of malnutrition.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017 has been re-geared for the SDG era and includes enhanced metrics for quantifying and assessing hunger, including two indicators on food insecurity and six indicators on nutrition.

Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops 

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