By NKOLE CHITALA
THE three agriculture and food arms of the United Nations (UN) agencies have called on Africa to place food security and nutrition at the centre stage if the continent is to develop.
They say special attention should be given to supporting smallholder farmers to improve global food security and empowering rural women, address gender inequalities and enabling them to transform their own lives and the lives of their families and communities.
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO) director general Jose Graziano da Silva, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) president Kanayo Nwanze and World Food Programme (WFP) executive director Ertarin Cousin were speaking at the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) in Yokohama over the weekend.
The three agencies say the most effective key to reversing hunger and poverty in developing countries lay in responsible investment in sustainable agricultural and rural development by both governments and the private sector.
They note that in sub-Saharan Africa, gross domestic product (GDP) growth generated by agriculture had shown to be 11 times more effective in reducing poverty than GDP growth in other sectors.
They say it is time to invest in the critical agents of change: small producers and their organisations, family farmers, fishers, livestock keepers, forest users, rural workers, entrepreneurs and indigenous people.
The agencies commended countries that have made strong efforts to reduce hunger within their boundaries and on the African continent.
They indicate that the discussions at TICAD would help inform the high-level meeting to be held on June 30 and July 1, 2013 in Addis Ababa, co-organised by the African Union (AU) and FAO.
WFP, IFAD and other development partners will also participate in the event.
They decided that hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty should remain at the core of the post-2015 agenda, following the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals, and expressed confidence that the world could overcome the twin scourges of poverty and hunger within a generation.
However, they issued a warning that this will not be achieved unless underlying causes of gender inequality are addressed.
We should lift the barriers to empowerment of women who are the main producers, processors and traders of food in Africa, despite the fact that 85 percent of agricultural land is owned by men.
The Rome-based agencies are also expected to give joint statements to three of the five thematic sessions of TICAD, covering Strengthening Secretarial Bases for Growth, Toward the Post 2015 Development Agenda and Gender quality: Advancing empowerment of women.
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