ADDIS ABABA, Feb 9 (NNN-ENA) – Around 239 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, a senior official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.
“The only way we can bring it to zero is through peace and security. Let us silence the guns by working hand in hand for peace and development.” said Marina Helena Semedo, Deputy Director General of FAO, on the sidelines of the 33rd Ordinary Session, of the Executive Council of the AU in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
Semedo said, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), put in several key targets, including dramatically reducing the high number of sub-Saharan Africans suffering from poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
“SDG aims at accelerating progress towards eradicating poverty, as well as, ending hunger and malnutrition by tapping into the under-supported potential of agriculture to boost individual country’s efforts, to achieve the 2030 agenda for sustainable development,” she said.
The FAO Deputy Director General also emphasised, the UN body is currently implementing various initiatives to raise incomes of the rural poor.
“In this context, FAO’s hand in hand initiative identifies the best opportunities to raise incomes of the rural poor through agricultural transformation.”
In Sept, 2019, FAO launched initiative, to help achieve SDGs, especially ending poverty and hunger.
The initiative aims to use innovative technology and methodologies, to identify the best opportunities to improve the livelihoods of rural population.
Josefa Sacko, AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union, said, “Two intertwined challenges of our time, keep persisting on the continent. It’s time to admit that business as usual and doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different result defeats the tents of wisdom.”
The AU Commissioner also emphasised, ending various conflicts in the African continent is crucial, if the food security goals across the continent are to be realised.
“We need to creatively find the common ground and common mechanism for addressing the nexus between conflict and food security,” said Sacko.
