NEPAD TV schedule

The next programme schedule for the NEPAD TV slots on the SABC Africa channel (DSTV Channel 286) is :

African Views 5 December 8pm-9pm (SA time) This phone-in panel discussion will feature Evelyn Change of the APRM Secretariat. The topic will be an update on the African Peer Review Mechanism. Source : NEPAD

NEPAD gearing up regions to tackle food security and nutrition problems

Food security is a complex and multidimensional issue requiring careful policies, strategies and actions to address the multifaceted and interrelated causes of hunger and malnutrition. Food security is also a pre-requisite for development, but global experience confirms that a sufficient food supply alone is not enough.

Dietary diversity, food quality, maternal knowledge, caring practices for young children, access to health services, water and sanitation and other public health measures have proven to be indispensable.

Improving nutrition requires multiple channels, integrating contributions of the public and private sectors, to provide a strategic mix of food, health care, education and other “enablers” of good nutrition.

Agriculture is the mainstay of most African economies. Through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which was endorsed by African leaders, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), business, civil society and development partners in 2005, NEPAD has taken the lead in highlighting the critical role of agriculture to successfully reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition.

Thus, one of the key short-term priority areas of NEPAD is to facilitate the implementation of food security and agricultural development programmes in all sub-regions.

The Framework for Africa Food Security and the Africa Ten-Year Strategy for the reduction of vitamin and mineral deficiencies have been under development following the Abuja Food Security Summit in December 2006. A validation process through regional stakeholder consultations to discuss these instruments took off in May 2007 and inputs continue to be received from various partners.

Through seed funding from key partners, substantial progress has been made in raising awareness about malnutrition and hunger among African leaders, and preparing a framework for African food security and nutrition.

At the Abuja Food Security Summit, African Heads of State committed themselves to ensuring the systematic integration of nutrition considerations into agricultural and food security interventions.

There is a commitment from the member states, the RECs, NEPAD and the African Union (AU) to ensure a radical reduction in food insecurity and malnutrition in Africa. This commitment is matched by heightened interest on the part of development partners to support such an effort.

A draft Framework for African Food Security which would guide harmonisation and implementation of food security and nutrition strategic actions has been prepared for discussion by the RECs and finalisation by December 2007.

The Framework for African Food Security addresses the challenges of CAADP Pillar III — “Increasing food supply, reducing hunger, and improving responses to food emergency crises” — and prioritises strategies and responses to these challenges to assist decision-makers in finding best practice solutions to addressing hunger and malnutrition in ways that support the CAADP agenda.

Pillar III specifically targets the chronically food insecure (people with inadequate access to food or the means to purchase or acquire nutritious food) and those affected by emergencies and crises.

The challenge of reducing hunger and malnutrition cannot be met without achieving the goals of the other CAADP pillars. Pillar III therefore also seeks to ensure that the policies and strategies of the other pillars support efforts to reduce and/or eradicate hunger and malnutrition.

Overall the aim of the Framework for Africa Food Security is to assist decision- makers to find solutions to the unique food security and nutrition conditions their countries and regions face. It proposes nine Pillar III framework principles, in line with the decisions and principles of the 2003 Maputo Summit, 2004 Sirte Summit, 2006 Abuja Fertilizer Summit, and the 2006 Abuja Food Security Summit.

These principles provide an overarching framework for more detailed food security and nutrition strategies elaborated in the Pan African Nutrition Initiative, the Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy and the Ten-Year Strategy.

The principles are :

Protect the right to food for all citizens of Africa.

Focus on the chronically hungry and malnourished in order to address short-term crises and in the long-term integrate them into broad agricultural development.

Ensure that all parties and players seek to understand and address hunger and malnutrition.

Mainstream considerations of human diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB.

Ensure that emergency responses promote growth and reduce chronic hunger (i.e. do no harm to the overall CAADP agenda).

Protect and promote the resilience of the livelihoods of the vulnerable.

Ensure that gender dimensions of hunger and malnutrition are addressed.

Promote intra-regional trade, particularly in food staples to raise food supply, food quality and moderate price volatility.

Integrate regular review and broad-based dialogue to ensure successful. implementation of this Pillar.

The Framework for Africa Food Security is currently being fine-tuned with inputs from the RECs, member states, development partners, civil society and the private sector.

The Framework and the Ten-Year Strategy will be tabled at the AU in 2008 for consideration and endorsement by the Heads of State and Government. Source : NEPAD, november 30, 2007