At Kenya conference, FAO leader highlights role of agriculture in preventing conflict, enabling recovery

Food security and agriculture have an essential role to play in preventing conflicts and crises on the African continent, blunting their impacts and acting as engines for post-crisis recovery.

This was the central message of FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva to African leaders and international development actors gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, today for one of the foremost summits on African development.

“Ending hunger and malnutrition, addressing humanitarian and protracted crises, preventing and resolving conflicts, and building peace are not separate tasks, but simply different facets of the same challenge,” Graziano da Silva said at a side-event on ‘Peace and Food Security’, hosted by FAO, at the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI, 26-28 August 2016).

Graziano da Silva was among the high level delegations who attended in the opening ceremony of TICAD VI, this morning, launched by the President of the Republic of Kenya and the Prime Minister of Japan. The conference – which brings together policy makers, UN agencies and financial institutions, among others – aims to promote high-level policy dialogue between African leaders and their partners and mobilize support for African-owned development initiatives.

The link between conflict prevention and development is of particular importance in the region, which is host to nearly 60 percent of active UN Peacekeeping Missions. And whilst armed conflicts across Africa as a whole have decreased in recent years, this trend has been uneven across the continent.

“Much of FAO’s work aims at promoting sustainable development and building the resilience of rural populations,” Graziano da Silva said, giving concrete examples of countries where agricultural support helped secure the transition from wars to sustainable peace, including Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“By supporting agriculture and rural development, we help create jobs, provide income and boost youth employment. This can help prevent distress migration and radicalization, as well as mitigate disputes over depleted resources,” he said.

No peace without freedom from want

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, FAO has worked with partners on the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (D-D-R) of former combatants by providing them with the agricultural skills, knowledge and supplies – an approach proven to lower the risk of ex-combatants rejoining militias once they are empowered with access to food and income-generating activities.

Graziano da Silva underscored the many opportunities to replicate this strategy in other post-conflict situations and stressed recent conversations with leaders in the Central African Republic aimed at putting agriculture at the center of the country’s recovery by providing food security and jobs for rural youth.

“Conflict prevention and resolution require secure and resilient conditions that meet the needs of rural people, both in terms of nutrition and livelihoods,” he said.

In two other examples, FAO and partners are working in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia to support the peaceful use of natural resources and prevent the spread of transboundary livestock diseases, while in the Sahel, pastoralism and the economic empowerment of rural women are central parts of the agency’s roadmap to increase resilience in the region.

Food security, stable livelihoods and peace are interdependent, Graziano da Silva argued, referring to the words of FAO’s founding fathers, who professed that “Progress toward freedom from want is essential to lasting peace.”

Launch of new nutrition initiative

In this context, FAO also welcomes the launch today at TICAD of the Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (IFNA) to accelerate international efforts to alleviate hunger and malnutrition on the African continent.

Over the last 25 years, the proportion of Africans facing hunger decreased from 28 to 20 percent, despite a growing population – an achievement that can be largely attributed to a high level of commitment of the continent’s leaders to tackling the issue.

The new initiative, officially launched by the Deputy President of Kenya William Ruto and developed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, aims to build on these achievements with inclusive, people-centered projects – projects that empower women and bring together the agriculture, health, education and private sectors to help build more resilient communities across Africa. This will be done with the collaboration of regional organizations including the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD).

The initiative is also relevant in light of ongoing efforts to implement the recommendations coming out of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) across Africa (Rome Declaration on Nutrition and Framework for Action), which will be boosted by IFNA. In this regard, FAO joins forces with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Rights & Emergency Relief Organization (UNICEF), the International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD) and other partners through the (ICN2) Steering Committee on Nutrition (SCN) for future action.

TICAD – which takes place every three years – is co-organized by the Government of Japan, the United Nations Office of the Special Advisor on Africa (UN-OSAA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), African Union Commission (AUC) and the World Bank. 

This year’s session marks the first time the conference takes place on African soil. FAO was enlisted by TICAD organizers to take the lead in organizing the conference’s third main theme: “Promoting social stability for shared prosperity.”

---

Japan, Africa teaming up to boost food security, nutrition

Opinion by José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the FAO

Boosting agricultural productivity and food security in Africa will require collective efforts by African countries and their partners.

Japan already plays a significant role in boosting sustainable agricultural development on the continent. The country’s strong commitments, combined with the political will manifested by many African nations to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, will help to propel progress towards achieving zero hunger on the continent.

Sub-Saharan Africa represents the greatest food security challenge in the world today with the highest prevalence of undernourishment at almost 25 per cent, or almost one in every four people.

By 2050, the population in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to exceed two billion and even if food production grows as projected by about 170 per cent, this would still leave some 120 million people undernourished. Clearly, efforts to improve food security and malnutrition need to be stepped up.

Yet, climate change effects, such as higher temperatures and extreme weather events, will hamper food production in various regions. Countries acting alone cannot resolve these enormous challenges. Strong collaboration with other nations, international organisations, NGOs, civil society and the private sector will be key to find sustainable solutions.

Japan is an essential ally for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in promoting rural development, food security and nutrition worldwide. The country is not only one of FAO’s major resource partner in Africa, it also provides skilled Japanese workers for various agricultural projects in the region.

Japan is also supporting FAO in building resilience in African countries, where threatening levels of food insecurity result not only from climatic hazards but also from ongoing internal conflicts. Civil unrest must come to an end to achieve food security and improving food security will in turn help build sustainable peace in Africa.

Japan and FAO believe that with a predominantly young and rural population and over 11 million youth expected to enter labour markets over the next decade – Africa’s agricultural sector should be a catalyst for inclusive growth and improved livelihoods in the region. Therefore, major efforts should focus on making agriculture attractive and profitable for young people.

Africa’s future depends very much on the development of its rural areas.

Strengthening the capacities of poor farmers by providing them access to modern technologies and best agricultural practices will enable them to increase their agricultural output and income, and contribute to rural economic growth.

In 2013, Japan committed to supporting African countries with $32 billion to boost agricultural production and productivity, especially for rice, and “empowering farmers as mainstream economic actors” including through the Coalition for African Rice Development (Card) initiative. Its aim is to double rice production in sub-Saharan Africa between 2008 and 2018, and disseminate the New Rice for Africa (Nerica) a high-yielding hybrid rice.

Another example of such co-operation is a closely related five-year $2.5 million project aimed at strengthening agricultural statistics in the Card countries.

Holding the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) in Nairobi is strong proof of how determined Japan is to expand its partnership with African countries. For the first time the TICAD meeting is held in Africa.

The conference takes place at a very important moment – as 2016 marks the first year of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which recognises partnerships as a key mechanism towards international growth.

In this sense, TICAD VI provides an opportunity for Asian and African nations, as well as international stakeholders such as FAO, to work together towards Africa’s sustainable development. In addition, the Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (IFNA) will be launched during the TICAD VI. IFNA is an ambitious initiative that aims to bring African governments together to swiftly implement food and nutrition security policies and programmes.

I would like to highlight Japan’s strong leadership in organising this important meeting together with the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank and the African Union Commission, which will help to explore ways of leveraging the collaboration between Asian and African countries to end hunger once and for all.

I am convinced that this is the right moment for working harder than ever towards these objectives. FAO is committed to joining efforts for the success of TICAD VI, which ultimately must result in a more sustainable development for Africa and its people.