Launch of the Year of Nutrition and Food Security

Excellencies,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

All protocol observed.

It gives me great pleasure to address this audience on account of the launch and commemoration of the Africa Year of Nutrition and Food Security for Nigeria.  I want to congratulate Nigeria, the country with the largest population in Africa, for being the trailblazer when it comes to issues of Food Systems and Nutrition.

 As we are all fully aware, 2022 was declared the Africa Year of Nutrition and Food Security under the theme “Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent: Strengthening Agri-Food Systems, Health, and Social Protection Systems for Acceleration of Human, Social, and Economic Capital Development”.

This theme is building on the outcomes of the United Nations Food Systems Summit and the Africa Common Position on Food Systems as adopted by the African leaders in 2021.

We all know that nutrition is the very cornerstone of human, social political and economic development. Adequate nutrition is essential for people and our planet’s wellbeing. Every person on this earth and continent has a right to food that is safe, sufficient, and nutritious and to be free from hunger and malnutrition.

Yet, 1 in 3 persons globally suffers from at least one form of malnutrition, ranging from undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity.   Therefore, combatting malnutrition in all its forms is one of the greatest challenges that countries face.

In Africa, aside from malnutrition figures, FAO confirm that 1 in 7 people are hungry, yet, ironically, one third of food produced annually is wasted. According to the 2018 Global Nutrition report, which analysed 141 countries, 88% (124 countries) have experienced more than one form of malnutrition, with 29% (41 countries) having multiple forms of malnutrition.

In Africa, according to UNICEF, sub-Sahara Africa succumbs to 200,000 maternal deaths per year which is equivalent to 533 deaths on average per day attributed to some extent to  maternal iron deficiency anaemia; 4,000 children die due to vitamin A deficiency, and over 50,000 infants are born with reduced mental capacity due to a combination of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The rollout of Agenda 2063 stipulates the bold vision to eliminate hunger and food insecurity. However, current interventions are under-resourced, often implemented in silos, fragmented and not coordinated; hence not as impactful as we would like them to be. The AUDA-NEPAD Nutrition and Food Systems Implementation Plan (2019 -2025) aims to catalyse and address these challenges through a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach involving an array of synergistic actions by several sectors and through multi-stakeholder coordination.

AUDA-NEPAD’s is committed to AU’s vision of reducing hunger and malnutrition by 25 percent by 2025 and as such the mission of the AUDA-NEPAD Nutrition and Food Systems Strategic Programme is focussed on catalysing food and nutrition security actions for greater impact on the African continent.   

For acceleration to happen, we need to work together as one!  We need to deliver as one!   Let AUDA NEPAD be your partner of choice! And let us do business differently.  

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

We need a paradigm shift in the way we do business:

The political environment should be made conducive to reducing malnutrition through conducive policies and practices in the many sectors that intersect with nutrition – from education to agriculture to climate and the environment.  Coordination, Collaboration, and harmonization of policies and actions are critical.  

This call to action for better nutrition and food systems therefore seeks to engage multiple actors along the different development pathways including:

1. African Governments and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to catalyse food and nutrition security actions for positive and greater impact through alignment of policies, increase of budget allocation for nutrition and food security, coordinated planning, implementation and building and strengthening the capacities and capabilities of national systems.
2. Young People, Women and Persons with Disability constituting the larger percentage of the population in Africa and being the key stakeholders, and agents and leaders of transformation need to be nurtured and their potentials as innovators, inventors, harnessed.  We therefore call upon Youth Councils, Youth Organisations, Students, Women and People with Disabilities and Young Artists to get engaged and involved and mainstream Nutrition and Food Security in their strategies and programs, to make Africa a great and self-sustaining continent.  This Call to Action also seeks to recognize the Africa Young Champions on Nutrition and Food Security.
3. We call upon all media institutions, and journalists at all levels -  community, provincial, national, regional and continental levels- to amplify the call to action and  louden and boost the voice for nutrition and food security. The call to action also seeks to encourage the capacitation of both online and mainstream media players including social media on the agenda of nutrition and food security.
4. We also call upon Research and Academia to prioritize evidence-based solution-oriented research, to enhance continent-wide sharing of knowledge and best practices for better policy and programme design. We call upon this group to support the production of policy briefs that help governments in agenda setting,  support the promotion of nutritious African Indigenous traditional foods, and the preservation of African culture and heritage.
5. We invite Civil Society Organisations across Africa to engage in capacity building of communities, campaign on nutrition and food security, support the implementation of  governments’ national nutrition programs, and advance the aspirations of Agenda 2063 on food security and nutrition. We also call upon Civil Society Organizations to intensify consultations with communities in view of shaping national policies, monitoring and evaluation of government targets, tracking budget allocations to nutrition and food security and ensuring compliance with agreed regional and international instruments.  To this effect,  we encourage CSOs to make use of  Nutrition Scorecard to promote transparency and accountability.
6. AUDA NEPAD welcomes the private sector to increase investment in nutritious food production and food systems, to make capital available to small-scale farmers and food processing companies.  We also call upon captains of industries and companies to honor their corporate social responsibilities to meet the challenges of nutrition and food security, realizing that a Healthy Africa is a profitable Africa. The private sector should partner with governments and CSOs in diversified agricultural production, improved value chains to deliver healthier diets for all.  We are all in this TOGETHER.
7. With COP-27 taking place in Africa, we call upon all stakeholders to contribute to the adaptation and mitigation programs to minimize the effects of shocks as a result of climate change.   Whole society approach is required for mainstreaming of environmental sustainability and climate change in all policies and  programs. We need to promote sustainable agriculture and green economy, in general, TO protect the environment as well as PROMOTE THE Blue economy which produces fish and other sea foods which are regarded as prime factors in nutrition.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, as I wind down my remarks, let me say that I have no doubt that this Call to Action will spur us all to do the right things for people, planet, and prosperity for the current and future generations…  It is a noble call for action!  It is a call for survival!   Let us Act now, Let us Act Today!

I thank you and wish Nigeria and its citizenry the best Year of Nutrition. 

WATCH the call to action video here