AUC Urges African Countries to Speed up Efforts to End Hunger by 2025 - ENA English
AUC Urges African Countries to Speed up Efforts to End Hunger by 2025
Addis Ababa , October 25/2019 African Union Commission urged member states and stakeholders to speed up efforts to eliminate hunger by 2025 in Africa.
A ministerial segment of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDWA) held its third session in Addis Ababa on Thursday.
In her opening remark, AUC’s Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture Ambassador Josefa Sacko said African countries should engage in an enhanced political commitment to end hunger across the continent.
The call and commitment, according to her, is "to achieve food security, eradicating hunger and reducing chronic malnutrition in Africa."
African leaders and stakeholders have renewed their call for action to end hunger by 2025 last year in January, during a high level forum held on the margins of the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Governments of the African Union, it was indicated.
Sacko noted that “bi-annual review report informs all the poor performance of our continent. So, we really need to speed up the move.”
However, she stressed that “these plans and projects are facing a number of challenges, notably; shortage of funds and lack of capacity of member states.”
The commissioner briefed the media that “Our main focus is increasing productivity because the productivity in Africa is the weakest compared to other continents in the globe.”
The countries need to dedicate at least 1 percent of total national income for agricultural research, she pointed out.
Some 40 percent of the total crop produced in Africa is losing in post harvest, according to the commissioner.
AUC is working to establish an African food safety agency to coordinate and provide leadership, and support to meet the urgent needs for enhancing food safety in Africa, it was indicated.
The Specialized Technical Committee (STC) is an organ of the department happening every two years to supervise, monitor and evaluate if the department is on track.