Despite Africa often being referred to as the world’s future food basket, many Africans are still vulnerable to hunger and malnutrition. Sharing knowledge and expertise on how to achieve food and nutrition security has been identified as a key factor in ensuring access to sufficient and nutritious food. 

It is for this reason that food and nutrition security stakeholders met in Johannesburg last week, to set up a knowledge sharing platform in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The objective of the NEPAD-led platform is to capture, synthesise and disseminate relevant information on food and nutrition security, including risk management,  as well as the exchange of knowledge and expertise on different policies, programmes, coordination mechanisms and investments in the area of food and nutrition security within SADC.

The workshop was attended by participants from 12 SADC countries, representatives from Helen Keller International, Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, REACH, World Food Programme, World Health Organisation,  ADRA-SA and the European Centre for Development Policy Management, among others.

Dr Augustin Yamdjeu, Coordinator of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), remarked that the knowledge-sharing initiative is envisaged to foster regional coordination in improving food and nutrition security.

CAADP’s Food and Nutrition Security Programme promotes the integration of nutrition into national agriculture plans. The goal is to ensure that nutrition interventions are planned, budgeted for and implemented as part of National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans.

Dr Tobias Takavarasha, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Representative for South Africa said that FAO has been supporting the CAADP process in mainstreaming nutrition in National Agriculture Investment plans. 

Dr Takavarasha also highlighted that the SADC Food and Nutrition Strategy is a window of opportunity to monitor progress in the implementation of CAADP through a knowledge platform hosted by NEPAD.

In his closing remarks, Mr Symerre Grey-Johnson, NEPAD’s Chief of Staff reiterated that the value add to the existing platforms, which are not only virtual, but also physical is the fact they are African-owned and led.