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African Union Commissioner Josefa Correia Sacko reaffirmed in Harare, Zimbabwe, the need to develop human capacities and innovative practices to accelerate the implementation and expansion of successful models to achieve resilient agri-food systems in Africa.
Josefa Sacko, who was speaking at the commemoration of the fifteenth African Day for Food Security and Nutrition and the twentieth Partnership Platform of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP PP), said that these annual continental forums bring together stakeholders in agriculture and food security to build on the successes achieved and address the challenges facing the sector, to consolidate and accelerate progress in transforming the sector on the continent.
The diplomat emphasised that this 2024 edition is of particular importance for Africa, as it falls in the year that reflected on the two decades that have passed since the adoption of CAADP in Maputo in 2003 as Africa’s political framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food and nutrition security, economic growth, and prosperity.
“Since its adoption, CAADP has guided policies, strategies, investments, and actions in the field of agriculture and food security. We should be proud to note that Africa has set a great example worldwide, being the only continent to have a unified framework addressing agriculture and food security,” she emphasised.
Despite having committed to making agriculture a priority, successive biennial review reports indicate that the continent is not on track to fulfill the Malabo 2025 objectives and is failing to meet key targets to end hunger and malnutrition after 20 years of implementing CAADP.
She added that in fact, the number of hungry people in Africa has increased since 2014, reaching the sad situation of one in five people, or 20 per cent of the continent’s population facing the dilemma of hunger every day.
According to the AU Commissioner, this wrong trajectory of hunger is unacceptable as we commemorate Africa Day for Food Security and Nutrition, which was created to attract new commitments to achieve the goal of ending hunger in Africa and encourages Member States to focus on improving persistent challenges.
“We need to turn the page to ensure that our efforts translate into tangible results on the ground. We need to overcome the challenges facing Africa’s agricultural and food systems so that we can move on to other levels,” she emphasised.
The Commissioner therefore believes that the situation should change with the CAADP strategy and action plan, associated with the ‘Kampala Declaration’ on advancing the inclusive transformation of Africa’s agri-food systems for sustainable economic growth and shared prosperity developed through an inclusive process and by the AU’s specialised technical committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and the Environment.
It should be noted that the overall theme of CAADP PP and ADFNS 2024 is: ‘CAADP Agenda Two Decades On: Cultivating the Nexus of Nutrition, Agri-Food Systems and Education for Africa’s Growth’.
