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Southern Africa: SADC Sets Up Food Security Task Force
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
21 April 2008
Posted to the web 21 April 2008
Paul Fauvet
Port Louis
Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have decided to set up a Task Force of Ministers of Trade, Agriculture and Finance mandated to achieve food security in the region.
This was one of the main decisions announced in a declaration read out on Sunday night at the conclusion of a SADC heads of state summit on poverty and development, held in the Mauritian capital of Port Louis.
The summit noted that recently the global economy had seen "new developments that are further frustrating efforts to combat poverty, in particular surging food and energy prices". Food security had this risen to the top of the agenda.
The new ministerial Task Force has been instructed "to focus immediately on the current food crisis". It should "encourage regional collaboration, by sustainably improving production capacity and productivity, and facilitating cross-border and internal food flows, based on improved infrastructure and distribution networks".
The summit also warned of the adverse impact that climate change will have on the fight against poverty, and called for regional and national plans on measures of adaptation and mitigation.
The declaration also said the leaders are determined "to promote relevant education and skills development at all levels in order to ensure higher general efficiency and productivity, and to boost the required innovative processes by bridging the digital divide".
Regional integration among SADC members must be stepped up, the summit said, "including intra-regional trade liberalization, cross-border investment and value addition through improving the business and investment climate".
The leaders also pledged "to enhance, expand and upgrade infrastructure with emphasis on labour intensive methods and Public-Private Partnerships".
The summit promised "to work towards the establishment of a Regional Poverty Observatory" which will monitor progress made in the fight against poverty, and to ensure "adequate capacity" both in the SADC Secretariat and within the member states "to ensure effective implementation of poverty eradication programmes"
The SADC leaders urged foreign donors "to provide predictable, additional and dedicated resources and encourage foreign direct investment in the SADC region". The summit wanted the region's foreign partners "to increase substantially financial and technical assistance" and "to reduce unnecessary impediments".
Closing the summit, the SADC chairperson, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, warned "our quest for deeper regional integration will be futile if high levels of poverty persist".
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"Economic growth and sustainable development are the preconditions for improving the living standards of our citizens", he insisted. "What is needed now is a pragmatic shift away from decisions and towards implementing the national and regional programmes". The time had come to switch from "policy dialogue" to policy implementation.
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| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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