NewswatchNigeria can report that without wholistic interventions from across the globe, Africa may not likely to achieve zero hunger even by the year 2030.
Abebe Haile-Gabriel, Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Regional Representative for Africa, on Wednesday, stated this while addressing a review meeting to assess progress made by the continent towards attaining the goal so far.
Haile-Gabriel said that the results remained unsatisfactory, given the many challenges due to climate change, the poor economic situation and the negative impacts of COVID-19, as well as the lack of public investment.
The meeting was part of the seventh Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD) that got underway in Congo Brazzaville and monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from Lagos.
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He, however, said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offered a unique window of opportunity for the transformation of the continent’s food system.
“The transformation of the African food system is crucial to help end hunger,” he said.
To address the issue of hunger in Africa, Haile-Gabriel said, political will and commitment at the highest level were key, just as national and local level actions and investments were also critical.
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He also said that there was an urgent need for the continent to build back and forward better, after the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that this was achievable if governments were to invest in social protection measures, to save the most vulnerable in society.
On the whole, Haile-Gabriel added that adoption of holistic multi sectoral approaches were also needed.
Chris Toe of the World Food Programme (WFP) said African countries needed to prioritise and scale up investments in rural transformation, sustainable infrastructure and human capital development.
He noted that these steps would work to eliminate hunger and food insecurity, as well as help to sustain ongoing progress and assist the continent’s quest to achieve zero hunger, as espoused in the SDGs commitments to end hunger by 2025 and achieve Africa’s Agenda 2063 aspirations.
NAN reports that the review meeting was co-organised by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the WFP, in collaboration with the government of Congo.
