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Tuesday, February 14, 2017

7.3m Yemenis suffer food insecurity, nutrition deterioration - UN

The Yemen’s food crisis has deteriorated, according to the United Nations (UN) agencies who are not calling for urgent assistance to avert reaching a catastrophic situation, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The number of food insecure people in Yemen, NaijaAgroNet gathered, has risen by 3 million in seven months, with an estimated 17.1 million people now struggling to feed themselves, according to a joint assessment by three UN agencies.

Of the 17.1 million food insecure people, about 7.3 million are considered to be in need of emergency food assistance.

The preliminary results of the Emergency Food Security and Nutrition Assessment (EFSNA) show that food security and nutrition conditions are deteriorating rapidly due to the ongoing conflict.

More than two-thirds of Yemen's population of 27.4 million people now lack access to food and consume an inadequate diet. 

The EFSNA is a joint survey conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) in cooperation with the authorities in Yemen. It is the first national, household-level assessment conducted in the country since the escalation of the conflict in mid-March 2015.

Rates of acute malnutrition were found to have passed the "critical" threshold in four governorates, while agricultural production is falling across the country.

"The speed at which the situation is deteriorating and the huge jump in food insecure people is extremely worrying," said Salah Hajj Hassan, FAO Representative in Yemen. "Bearing in mind that agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the majority of the population, FAO is urgently calling for funds to scale up its agricultural livelihoods support to farmers, herders and fishing communities to improve their access to food in 2017 and prevent the dire food and livelihood security situation from deteriorating further."

"We are witnessing some of the highest numbers of malnutrition amongst children in Yemen in recent times. Children who are severely and acutely malnourished are 11 times more at risk of death as compared to their healthy peers, if not treated on time. Even if they survive, these children risk not fulfilling their developmental potentials, posing a serious threat to an entire generation in Yemen and keeping the country mired in the vicious cycle of poverty and under development," said Dr Meritxell Relano, UNICEF Representative in Yemen.


"The current level of hunger in Yemen is unprecedented, which is translating into severe hardship and negative humanitarian consequences for millions of Yemenis, particularly affecting vulnerable groups," said Stephen Anderson, WFP Country Director in Yemen. "Tragically, we see more and more families skipping meals or going to bed hungry, while children and mothers are slipping away with little to sustain themselves. WFP is urgently calling for support to provide food for the seven million people who are severely food insecure and may not survive this situation for much longer."

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Monday, February 13, 2017

Oil-producing communities, potential hubs for refineries - Osinbajo

Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), has stressed the potentials to transform oil bearing communities in the Niger Delta into hubs for refining petrochemicals and related activities, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Speaking during his visit to the Bayelsa State, at the weekend as part of his consultative and confidence building tour of the Niger Delta states as mandated by President Muhammadu Buhari, Osinbajo said the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in collaboration with the oil companies are working on a 40-point agenda and other initiatives for the oil producing communities.

Osinbajo challenged youths of the region to set up a Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce and Entreprenuer Council to attract local and foreign partnerships, stressing that part of the agenda was to build modular refineries and acknowledged the need to make Bayelsa a hub for power generation as it is a nutural location of gas deposits.

In his remarks, Governor Seriake Dickson called for synergy between the state and federal governments on the development of critical infrastructure, such as the three senatorial roads, airport and other projects for rapid development to take place.

Governor Dickson, who aligned his administration's position with the 16 point agenda of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), reaffirmed his earlier call on the federal government and stakeholders of the region to embrace dialogue rather than confrontation in resolving issues.

Commending Prof Osinbajo for facilitating the meeting between the oil multinationals and the state government, the Governor urged the federal government to prevail on the oil companies to comply with the tax laws of the state.

In their separate presentations, the PANDEF and the Ijaw National Congress, urged the federal government to urgently address the evident socio-economic imbalances and inadequacies for the attainment of sustainable peace and development.

President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Comrade Udengs Eradiri highlighted some projects that could create massive job opportunities in the state to include,  Brass Fertilizer,  Brass LNG,  Agge deep sea port, Pipe Mill and power projects in Gbarain and urged the federal government to make them come on stream.

Speaking through its representative, King Frank Okoroakpor, the Traditional Rulers of Oil and Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria, TROMPCON called for the speedy passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill.

Others who made presentations at the town hall meeting include, Minister of State for Agriculture,  Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Petroleum Resources Minister, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Uguru Usani, Environmental Rights Action group, Host Communities of oil and gas, HOSTCOM.

Dignitaries, who attended the event include members of te National Assembly from the State, former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, former NDDC Managing Director, Chief Timi Alaibe, Alaowei Brodericks Bozimo, who represented Chief Edwin Clark, former Military Governor of old Bendel State, Gen. John Yeri and an elder ststesman, Prof. Ebiegberi Alagoa.

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Friday, February 10, 2017

Childhood Christmas with measles outbreak

Features@NaijaAgroNet: 

Christmas, the annual festive season ended but most children affected by the north-east conflict celebrating it amidst the outbreak of measles, which may affect their future reports REMMY NWEKE.
Foreword:
Yearly, especially by end of the serial 12-month period, there follows Christmas festival which is largely celebrated across the world, culminating into the New Year. This period is usually marked with holidays and occasions with some going out on the 26th known as Box Day to exchange gifts with friends, family and the less privileged in the society. In Nigeria, this celebration was not different, only but for measles.
Defined as also called rubeola, Measle is a highly contagious respiratory infection condition that's caused by a virus. It causes a total-body skin rash and flu-like symptoms, including a fever, cough, and runny nose, according to experts at KidsHealth.org.
And talking of less privileged in our Nigerian society includes those cut-up in the conflicts ongoing in the north east, but mostly affected are the children in their early stages, otherwise known as childhood.
What is childhood:
An open source online encyclopedia, Wikipedia described childhood as “the age span ranging from birth to adolescence,” which according to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, childhood consists of two stages: preoperational stage and concrete operational stage.
Although in developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood, which entails learning to walk; early childhood which means the playing age; the middle childhood which encompasses the age when the child starts school; and adolescence also known as puberty through post-puberty. It is agreed widely that various childhood factors could affect a person's attitude formation, including conflict, war and lack of infant medicare to name a few.
Worthy of note is that the concept of childhood emerged during the 17th and 18th centuries, through the educational theories of the philosopher John Locke and the growth of books for and about children.
Thus, during the just concluded end of year festivity known as Christmas, many at Internally Displaced Camps (IDC), may have witnessed a beehive of activities with some spirited individuals and religious organisations in commemoration of the season visiting such camps to donate various food items including medical materials as well as offering medical treatments.
4.7m vaccinated against measles:
Therefore, it was not surprising that as the year 2017 begins, an estimated 4.7m children have been earmarked to benefit from vaccination campaign against measles in northeastern Nigeria, following a major vaccination campaign concluded in the first month of this year by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and partners.
According to UNICEF and development partners, some 4.7 million children were vaccinated in response to a measles outbreak in northeast Nigeria via a campaign which covered the three states mostly affected by the Boko Haram conflict, namely Adamawa, Borno and Yobe; where insecurity has limited vaccination efforts.
In 2016, for instance, UNICEF said, there were approximately 25,000 cases of measles among children in Nigeria; 97 per cent of the cases were in children under the age of 10 and at least a hundred children died.

The UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Mr. Mohamed Fall, said security has improved in some areas which encouraged the workforce act quickly to access places they could not previously reach and protect children from the spread of a very dangerous disease, even as he declared “We are still extremely concerned about children living in large areas of Borno state that are not yet accessible.”

Measle, a silent threat to childhood:

Measles infections, he explained, tend to increase during the first half of the year because of higher temperatures, especially in the north. Measles vaccination coverage across Nigeria hence, remained low, with a little over 50 per cent of children reached, but in areas affected by conflict, children are particularly vulnerable. As said by Mr. Fall, the risks for malnourished children who have weakened immunity are further heightened. The conflict and resulting displacement have left over 4.4 million children in Nigeria in need of humanitarian assistance, with an estimated 450,000 children likely to suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in 2017. 

He further said that the vaccination campaign, conducted in partnership with the Nigerian government, World Health Organisation (WHO), and several non-governmental organizations, also includes a vitamin A supplement for children under five to boost their immunity as well as de-worming tablets, even as most of the funding for the campaign was provided by the Measles and Rubella Initiative.

He pointed out that the campaign was part of UNICEF’s wider emergency health response in the three northeast Nigerian states, emphasizing that in partnership with Nigerian authorities, UNICEF has provided primary health care services for both internally displaced persons and the vulnerable host communities within which they have sought shelter. Health clinics have been rehabilitated, damage from the fighting has been repaired and temporary clinics have been set up, equipped and stocked in camps for the displaced, reaching more than 4.2 million people with services that include routine vaccination, ante-natal care and midwifery support, and treatment for common illnesses such as malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia, as well as measles.

In addition, NaijaAgroNet gathered, UNICEF has trained over 1,000 health workers on emergency primary health care services; in areas that have become accessible more recently to humanitarian workers, and recruited 60 nurse-midwives and deployed six doctors to strengthen health services.

Conflict displaces 1.6m people:
NaijaAgroNet further gathered that the predicament in northeast Nigeria remains acute with over 1.6 million people displaced because of the conflict. Although UNICEF has made significant progress in reaching children and their families with healthcare, treatment for malnutrition, safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, education and child protection, a persistent lack of funding continues to hamper the response effort.
Just as out of the US$115 million called for in 2016, only US$51 million was received; in 2017, UNICEF is seeking 150 million to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs in northeast Nigeria.

Malnutrition, silent threat to children:
All things being equal, an estimated 48 million children living through some of the world’s worst conflicts and other humanitarian emergencies will benefit from UNICEF’s 2017 appeal, which was launched on January 31, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Chief of Communication, UNICEF, Doune Porter, said that from Syria to Yemen and Iraq, from South Sudan to Nigeria, children are under direct attack, their homes, schools and communities in ruins, their hopes and futures hanging in the balance; Paving the way to declare that “In total, almost one in four of the world’s children lives in a country affected by conflict or disaster.”

For UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes, Manuel Fontaine, “In country after country, war, natural disaster and climate change are driving ever more children from their homes, exposing them to violence, disease and exploitation.” 

This position was corroborated by the UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children, which he pointed out had set out the agency’s 2017 appeal totaling $3.3 billion, and its goals in providing children with access to safe water, nutrition, education, health and protection in 48 countries across the globe. He stressed that an estimated 7.5 million children will face severe acute malnutrition across the majority of appeal countries, including almost half a million each in northeast Nigeria and Yemen.

“Malnutrition is a silent threat to millions of children. The damage it does can be irreversible, robbing children of their mental and physical potential. In its worst form, severe malnutrition can be deadly,” Fontaine said.

UNICEF pointed out that the largest single component of the appeal is for children and families caught up in the Syria conflict, soon to enter its seventh year. UNICEF is seeking a total of $1.4 billion to support Syrian children inside Syria and those living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

Breakdown of priorities, accomplishments:
NaijaAgroNet gathered from UNICEF that in total, working alongside its partners, their priorities in 2017 involve providing over 19 million people with access to safe water; reaching 9.2 million children with formal or non-formal basic education; immunizing 8.3 million children against measles; providing psychosocial support to over two million children; and treating 3.1 million children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).

Noteworthy, NaijaAgroNet reports that UNICEF and partners’ support in the first 10 months of 2016 showed that some 13.6 million people had access to safe water; 9.4 million children were vaccinated against measles; 6.4 million children accessed some form of education; 2.2 million children were treated for severe acute malnutrition.

Conclusion:
Only time will tell if the dream for 2017 to help garner support for children in the Internally Displaced Camps (IDCs) could have a new song, or shall we let the future, our future die due to lack of medicare, whilst some politicians and their families spread dollars at public social functions?
It is convincingly a fact that those children who may have benefited from this aids either through medicare or supplement in form of food in the battle against malnutrition, or yet those who have to return to the class room, they will never forget to build a better society in order to add their quotas in making the society and our Nigeria, a better society and country.
 
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Pix:A small child is vaccinated against measles at the Malakachalla clinic in Maiduguri, during the vaccination campaign in northeast Nigeria recently.

Monday, February 6, 2017

UNICEF says Osun, Ebonyi top chart in Female Genital Mutilation, calls for actions

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has listed two Nigerian states of Osun, and Ebonyi as those topping chart in rates of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) reports NaijaAgroNet.

Disclosing this in commemoration of 2017 International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on Monday, February 6, the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria Mohamed Fall said that there are some five states in Nigeria with over 60 per cent FGM/C, with Osun and Ebonyi highest at 77 and 74 per cent respectively.

According to the 2013 National Demographic and Health Survey, UNICEF noted that the other states are Ekiti, 72 per cent; Imo, 68 per cent; and Oyo, 66 per cent.

Hence, UNICEF called on governments at all levels, civil society organisations, and traditional and religious leaders to join together and end the scourge of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting in Nigeria.

“Every study and every bit of evidence we have shows there is absolutely no benefit to mutilate or to cut any girl or woman for non-medical reasons. It is a practice that can cause severe physical and psychological harm” Fall lamented.
UNICEF also explained that FGM/C comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other cutting of or injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that in February last year, Wife of the President Mrs. Aisha Buhari launched a national campaign to end FGM/C, calling on all parties to work together to halt this harmful practice. Her call underlines the need for collective action at every level.
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Thursday, February 2, 2017

Malnutrition poses ‘silent threat’ to children, UNICEF, partners send 2017 appeal

An estimated 48 million children living through some of the world’s worst conflicts and other humanitarian emergencies will benefit from UNICEF’s 2017 appeal, which was launched on January 31, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Chief of Communication, UNICEF, Doune Porter, made this disclosure to NaijaAgroNet, saying that from Syria to Yemen and Iraq, from South Sudan to Nigeria, children are under direct attack, their homes, schools and communities in ruins, their hopes and futures hanging in the balance.

“In total, almost one in four of the world’s children lives in a country affected by conflict or disaster,” she said.

Buttressing this position, she quoted the UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes, Manuel Fontaine, as saying that “In country after country, war, natural disaster and climate change are driving ever more children from their homes, exposing them to violence, disease and exploitation.”

UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children, Porter pointed out had set out the agency’s 2017 appeal totaling $3.3 billion, and its goals in providing children with access to safe water, nutrition, education, health and protection in 48 countries across the globe. Stressing that an estimated 7.5 million children will face severe acute malnutrition across the majority of appeal countries, including almost half a million each in northeast Nigeria and Yemen.

“Malnutrition is a silent threat to millions of children. The damage it does can be irreversible, robbing children of their mental and physical potential. In its worst form, severe malnutrition can be deadly,” said Fontaine.   


UNICEF pointed out that the largest single component of the appeal is for children and families caught up in the Syria conflict, soon to enter its seventh year. UNICEF is seeking a total of $1.4 billion to support Syrian children inside Syria and those living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

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Thursday, January 26, 2017

4.7m children to benefit from vaccination campaign against measles in northeast Nigeria

In a major vaccination campaign concluding this week, 4.7 million children are being vaccinated in response to a measles outbreak in northeast Nigeria. The campaign is covering the three states most affected by the Boko Haram conflict – Adamawa, Borno and Yobe – where insecurity has limited vaccination efforts. In 2016, there were approximately 25,000 cases of measles among children in Nigeria; 97 per cent of the cases were in children under the age of ten and at least a hundred children died.

“Security has improved in some areas so we have acted quickly to access places we could not previously reach and protect children from the spread of a very dangerous disease”, said Mohamed Fall, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria. “We are still extremely concerned about children living in large areas of Borno state that are not yet accessible.”

Measles infections tend to increase during the first half of the year because of higher temperatures. Measles vaccination coverage across Nigeria remains low, with a little over 50 per cent of children reached, but in areas affected by conflict, children are particularly vulnerable. The risks for malnourished children who have weakened immunity are further heightened. The conflict and resulting displacement have left more than 4.4 million children in Nigeria in need of humanitarian assistance, with an estimated 450,000 children likely to suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition in 2017. 

The vaccination campaign, conducted in partnership with the Nigerian government, WHO, and several non-governmental organizations, also includes a vitamin A supplement for children under five to boost their immunity as well as de-worming tablets. Most of the funding for the campaign was provided by the Measles and Rubella Initiative.

The campaign is part of UNICEF’s wider emergency health response in the three northeast Nigerian states. In partnership with Nigerian authorities, UNICEF has provided primary health care services for both internally displaced persons and the vulnerable host communities within which they have sought shelter. Health clinics have been rehabilitated, damage from the fighting has been repaired and temporary clinics have been set up, equipped and stocked in camps for the displaced, reaching more than 4.2 million people with services that include routine vaccination, ante-natal care and midwifery support, and treatment for common illnesses such as malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia, as well as measles.

UNICEF has trained more than 1,000 health workers on emergency primary health care services; in areas that have become accessible more recently to humanitarian workers, UNICEF has recruited 60 nurse-midwives and deployed six doctors to strengthen health services.

The emergency in northeast Nigeria remains acute with more than 1.6 million people displaced because of the conflict. Although UNICEF has made significant progress in reaching children and their families with healthcare, treatment for malnutrition, safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, education and child protection, a persistent lack of funding continues to hamper the response effort. Of the US$115 million called for in 2016, only US$51 million was received; in 2017, UNICEF is seeking 150 million to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs in northeast Nigeria.

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Photo caption information:
A small child is vaccinated against measles at the Malakachalla clinic in Maiduguri, during the vaccination campaign in northeast Nigeria concluding this week.

Pix: UNICE/Nigeria/2016/van den Berg

AGRA goes to Francophone

The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has revealed that in 2017, its African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) will be heading to a Francophone country, Cote d’Ivoire, reports NaijaAgroNet.
AGRF, NaijaAgroNet gathered has been scheduled to take place between September 4 and 8, 2017.
NaijaAgroNet reports that every year, the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) brings together stakeholders in the agricultural sector to develop concrete action plans for moving the continent’s agricultural agenda forward.
“This year’s AGRF is co-hosted with the government of Cote d’Ivoire and is being held for the first time in Francophone West Africa,” President of AGRA, Dr Agnes_Kalibata said.

According to her, AGRF plays host to an expected 750 delegates, sponsors and speakers including heads of state, development partners, academia, investors, business leaders will share their insights on how to align, create and leverage financial, technical, policy and market expanding resources to develop game-changing and inclusive agribusiness models for Africa to counter the major challenges facing the agriculture sector on the continent.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017

FAO, Japan strategise on how to bolster stronger partnership

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Japan have concluded a high-level meeting meant on bolstering stronger partnership, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The talks, NaijaAgroNet gathered centred on Sustainable Development Goals and improving outreach to Japanese public.

The meeting hosted by FAO saw a delegation from Japan attending in a bid for both sides to commit to a strong relationship between the UN agency responsible for fighting hunger and its second-largest contributor to the core budget.

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries sent a number of senior officials to the meeting, one of a series aimed at crafting a strategic plan for further advancing the key partnership. The broader Japanese delegation underscored the increasingly geopolitical nature of assuring food security and putting agriculture on a sustainable and responsible footing in an era of globalization and border-hopping challenges such as climate change.

Japan is a major advocate of the Sustainable Development Agenda, which targets the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger everywhere by 2030.

Along with being the No. 2 donor to FAO's regular budget after the United States of America, Japan has been a major funder of emergency relief projects, notably in Afghanistan and in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. It also by choice boosts FAO's resources for work on the Codex Alimentarius - the world's food safety guidelines - as well as capacity-building efforts to help developing countries assess their vulnerability to climate stress, South-South cooperation initiatives sharing Japanese rice-growing and aquaculture techniques with African nations.

Japan is also a robust sponsor of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems conservation effort and is home to eight of those designated sites.

The meeting aimed at advancing coordinated approaches to key goals, including concrete actions and longer-term plans that can further strengthen the partnership and make progress towards the SDGs.
In addition, NaijaAgroNet reports that Japanese officials including those in charge of economic security, international organizations and agriculture, were briefed on FAO's resilience-boosting programmes for emergency efforts, the ongoing effort to combat desertification in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, nutrition initiatives in Africa, various developments in the fisheries and forestry sectors, as well as on FAO's work in linking smallholder farmers to commercial markets, its partnership strategy with the private sector, and on the guidelines for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems.

The visitors also discussed FAO's Strategic Framework and 2018-21 Medium Term Plan and the results-based management of the Organization's current activities.


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Shittu commiserates with Oyo NUJ, BCOS, family, over Alawaye’s death

ITRealms:
Minister of Communications, Barr. Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu has commiserated with the Oyo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), management and staff of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS), family of the late Alhaji Tunji Alawaye, over the death of the ace broadcaster, reports ITRealms.

The minister in a press release by his Special Assistant on Media, Victor Oluwadamilare, said the journalism profession has lost a brilliant journalist, adding that the death of Alawaye is a great loss to the broadcast industry.

According to the minister, “ Alhaji Tunji Alawaye died at a time when his services could be sought after by the numerous newly opened private radio stations in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State and other neighboring states”.

“Experienced old hands like the late Alawaye serve as a veritable recruiting ground for newly opened fm stations that has make the broadcast industry in Ibadan and environ competitive, but it is unfortunate that the cold hands of death snatched him away at this period in time”.

“There is nothing we can do but to submit to the will of Almighty Allah who created us all and has the power to take us at his will. We beg Allah to grant his soul a repose and grant him Aljanah fridous . We pray Allah to give his wives, children and other members of the family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss”.

Meanwhile, the minister admonished journalists to always submit themselves to medical check -up periodically to forestall harbouring terminal diseases like high blood pressure and heart related problems due to the nature of their job.


Barr. Shittu also urged the management of the BCOS and NUJ Oyo State chapter to take heart, while he prayed that Allah will put an end to sudden death in their midst.

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Tuesday, January 24, 2017

NEPAD set to launch hunger, nutrition commitment index

The stage is set for the formal launch of the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI) for Africa by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and partners, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Senior Communications Officer at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Ms Mwanja Ng'anjo, disclosed this to NaijaAgroNet, saying that NEPAD is partnership with the Institute of Development Studies on this project.

She also said that HANCI-Africa measures countries’ efforts to deliver on the African Union Malabo Declaration commitments of 2014 and other international commitments.

“It measures the efforts that 45 African governments undertake in terms of law, policy and spending, and identifies what they do well and where they need to go further in addressing hunger and undernutrition,” she said.

As said by her, through publicly available evidence, HANCI-Africa seeks to empower stakeholders to hold one another accountable, stressing that all is set for the launch this Thursday in Midrand, South Africa.

During the launch, Nganjo said, HANCI-Africa will be presented as a tool for advocacy, commitment monitoring and accountability.


In addition, she said, discussions will also centre on how the African Union, NEPAD, national governments, regional authorities and stakeholders can adopt, adapt, own and sustainably use the HANCI-Africa for monitoring the Malabo Declaration and other commitments towards addressing hunger and malnutrition.

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