FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY, POVERTY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: STILL A CHALLENGE IN AFRICA

AGNES W. MWANG’OMBEUniversity of Nairobi

Food and Nutrition security and poverty status

• Until the poor and vulnerable are assisted with problem of food insecurity, hunger will continue to block their prospects to invest and develop themselves out of poverty.

• Food insecurity in Africa, as one of the major causes of hunger and malnutrition, continues to deter economic growth and limit progress in reducing poverty.

M(I)DGs and NEPAD

• African countries are committed to both MDGs and at least 6% annual GDP growth rates.

• The region needs to seriously start integrating climate change issues into its developmental strategies.

• The impacts of either droughts or floods are immense.

Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP):

the African response (2003)

Dublin initiative discussing aligning CGIAR AND CAADP

• AUC has been involved in a key engagement on the broader efforts of advancing African Agriculture through CAADP by aligning the work of the CGIAR to African Agriculture.

• CGIAR SLOs:– Reduce rural poverty– Improve food security– Improve nutrition and health– Sustainably manage natural resources

through high-quality international research and partnerships-CRPs

Tackling complex issues with collaborative research-15CRPs

Proposed way forward: Just to name a few areas to focus on

• Create effective seed systems(vegetatively propagated germplasm ) to facilitate uptake of high yielding varieties- dryland cereals, indigenous vegetables, tuber crops etc)

• Leverage for Support for Human (attracting and retaining the youth and including Farmer education/exposure) and Institutional capacity building.

• Support processing/value addition initiatives to reduce wastage of harvested farm produce

• Create and support Effective partnerships

Thank you