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Africa: Strategy to Improve Food Security Plans in the Continent
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BuaNews (Tshwane)
9 April 2008
Posted to the web 9 April 2008
Addis Ababa
A three-day meeting on food security is expected to unveil a five-year strategy to scale up food security programmes in 15 African countries, including Ethiopia.
The meeting, which opened Tuesday, is organised by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
The head of the IFRC Disaster Policy and Preparedness Department, Mohammed Omer Mukhier, told journalists that $43.5 million had been earmarked for the implementation of the strategy, which is a Pan African initiative aimed at working with inter-governmental organisations, including the African Union (AU) and donor communities.
Some 20 percent of the budget would directly go to beneficiaries thereby enabling to build up the resilience of the most vulnerable communities in Africa, he said.
Some 3.2 million people would benefit from the strategy in the next five years, he added.
The President of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS), Shimelis Adugna, said the meeting was aimed at building the capacity of the societies and to some extent governments so that they could respond better to food security issues.
Climate change and the rise in the cost of living all over the world made the initiative timely, he said, adding that this international initiative would enable the ERCS to be better prepared to respond to the problem.
"It will equip us with the required training and technical support so that we will do our job better and reach more people."
Since it has a large population and is one of the most organised societies in Africa, Ethiopia is expected to be one the countries which will receive a large portion of the money.
The strategy would be officially launched on Thursday in the presence of representatives from the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the AU.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia and the World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday signed a Letter of Understanding (LoU) for providing food assistance worth $448.5 million to the country.
According to the LoU, the WFP would provide 595.325 metric tons of food assistance to support Ethiopia's productive safety net, relief targeted supplementary feeding and HIV and AIDS programmes during the next three years.
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The assistance is aimed at reducing malnutrition, rehabilitating children under the age of five years and pregnant women, improving the nutritional status of people living with HIV and AIDS and increasing school enrolment.
Minister of State for Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) Mekonnen Manyazewal and WFP Senior Deputy Country Director Abenzer Ngowi signed the LoU.
The assistance will be co-ordinated and implemented through federal and regional food security co-ordination bureaus, Federal and Regional Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agencies and Federal and Regional HIV and AIDS prevention and control offices. - BuaNews-NNN
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