FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY, POVERTY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: STILL A CHALLENGE IN AFRICA
AGNES W. MWANG’OMBEUniversity of Nairobi
Food and Nutrition security and poverty status
• Until the poor and vulnerable are assisted with problem of food insecurity, hunger will continue to block their prospects to invest and develop themselves out of poverty.
• Food insecurity in Africa, as one of the major causes of hunger and malnutrition, continues to deter economic growth and limit progress in reducing poverty.
M(I)DGs and NEPAD
• African countries are committed to both MDGs and at least 6% annual GDP growth rates.
• The region needs to seriously start integrating climate change issues into its developmental strategies.
• The impacts of either droughts or floods are immense.
Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP):
the African response (2003)
Dublin initiative discussing aligning CGIAR AND CAADP
• AUC has been involved in a key engagement on the broader efforts of advancing African Agriculture through CAADP by aligning the work of the CGIAR to African Agriculture.
• CGIAR SLOs:– Reduce rural poverty– Improve food security– Improve nutrition and health– Sustainably manage natural resources
through high-quality international research and partnerships-CRPs
Tackling complex issues with collaborative research-15CRPs
Proposed way forward: Just to name a few areas to focus on
• Create effective seed systems(vegetatively propagated germplasm ) to facilitate uptake of high yielding varieties- dryland cereals, indigenous vegetables, tuber crops etc)
• Leverage for Support for Human (attracting and retaining the youth and including Farmer education/exposure) and Institutional capacity building.
• Support processing/value addition initiatives to reduce wastage of harvested farm produce
• Create and support Effective partnerships
Thank you
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