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“Enormous opportunity” for ending hunger in Africa

Proposed new partnership will build on successes, political commitment

22 April 2013, Rome – Ministers and senior delegates from five African Nations met today with FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva ahead of a High-Level meeting of African and international leaders in Addis Ababa next June  set to create a renewed partnership for intensifying efforts to end hunger in Africa.

“There is an enormous window of opportunity,” for eradicating hunger in the continent, Graziano da Silva told a side-event organized during a week-long Session of FAO’s governing Council here. The key lies in capitalizing on the successes of the many African countries who have already found solutions for food insecurity and malnutrition.

“By building on these experiences we can eradicate food insecurity and malnutrition in Africa. Together we can stop the suffering of the estimated 23 percent of all Africans who remain undernourished, and 40 percent of children under five who are stunted or malnourished,” he said.

One reason for optimism is the unprecedented political commitment of governments and the African people to end hunger. An example is the decision of FAO’s regional Conference for Africa to set up an Africa Food Security Trust Fund.  The Republic of the Congo, Angola and Equatorial Guinea have already announced they will contribute. Continue reading ““Enormous opportunity” for ending hunger in Africa”

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Disaster Stalking Children in Africa’s Drought-Prone Sahel Region, Warns UNICEF

A young mother and with her malnourished child at a screening centre in Gamdji. UN Photo/WFP/Phil Behan

16 March 2012 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is warning that more than a million children below the age of five in the Sahel are facing a disaster amid the ongoing food crisis in the drought-prone region of Africa.

They are among the some 15 million people estimated to be at risk of food insecurity in countries in the Sahel, including 5.4 million people in Niger, three million in Mali, 1.7 million in Burkina Faso and 3.6 million in Chad, as well as hundreds of thousands in Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, according to UN figures.

UNICEF stated that the dry, ‘lean’ season in the affected countries is imminent, and will be marked by rising numbers of children in feeding centres who will need life-saving treatment.

“A multiple disaster is stalking children in the Sahel,” said the agency’s Regional Director, David Gressly. “Even in a best case scenario we are expecting more than a million children suffering from severe and acute malnutrition to enter feeding centres over the next six months.

“More extreme conditions could see the number rise to around 1.5 million, and funding is still not coming at the rate we need to prepare properly,” he added.

The agency noted that it has so far received $24 million against an emergency appeal of $119 million for 2012.

UN agencies and their partners have been responding to the food crisis in the Sahel, which is the result of poor rainfall and failed harvests. The renewed conflict between Government forces and the Tuareg in northern Mali that has uprooted civilians has also increased demand for emergency assistance not only there, but in neighbouring countries that have received refugees.

“The upsurge of fighting in Mali, as well the acute insecurity in northern Nigeria and elsewhere, are complicating the aid operation,” said Mr. Gressly.

“Without a good emergency response and a sustained effort to reduce risk in the medium to long term, an entire generation faces a future of dependency, poverty and threatened survival.”

Earlier this month, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called for $69.8 million in additional funding to prevent a full-blown food and nutrition crisis from unfolding in the Sahel.

 UN News Center

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