Dakar, Jan. 27, 2023 – The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is committing $10 billion over the next five years to boost Africa’s efforts to end hunger and become a primary food provider for itself and the rest of the world.
Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the Bank Group President, said this on Wednesday at the Dakar 2 Africa Food Summit in Diamniadio, east of the Senegalese capital of Dakar.
He called on more than 34 heads of state, 70 government ministers, the private sector, farmers, development partners, and corporate executives to work out compacts that would deliver food and agriculture transformation at scale across Africa.
Adeshina advised them to take collective action to unlock the continent’s agricultural potential to become a global breadbasket.
“Today over 283 million Africans go to bed hungry every day. This is not acceptable. No mother should ever have to struggle with rumbling of the stomach of a hungry child.”
“We must raise the bar. We must raise our ambition. We must arise and say to ourselves: it is time to feed Africa. The timing is right, and the moment is now. Feed Africa; we must,” he said.
Adeshina urged the leaders to turn political will into decisive actions to deliver food security for Africa.
“We must strongly support farmers, especially smallholder farmers, majority of whom are women, and get more young people into agriculture.
“And we must take agriculture as a business, not a development activity, and boost support to the private sector.”
The Dakar 2 summit, with the theme: “Feed Africa: food sovereignty and resilience”, takes place amid supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
More than a thousand delegates and dignitaries attended, including the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.
The Government of Senegal and the African Development Bank Group are co-hosting the summit, eight years after the inaugural Dakar 1 summit where the newly elected Adesina announced the Bank’s Feed Africa strategy.
Opening the summit, President Sall, who is also the African Union chairperson, said the time had come for the continent to feed itself by adding value and stepping up the use of technology.
Sall said: “From the farm to the plate, we need full food sovereignty, and we must increase land under cultivation and market access to enhance cross-border trade.”
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said the Dakar summit was timely and would provide innovative solutions to help Africa become less dependent on food imports.
“Food sovereignty should be our new weapon of freedom,” Mahamat told the gathering.
He urged development partners to work together within existing structures, such as Agenda 2063 and the African Continental Free Trade Area, for sustainable transformation.
Mahamat commended AfDB for rolling out transformative initiatives, including a $1.5 billion emergency food production facility in 2022 to help African countries avert a potential food crisis following Russia’s war in Ukraine.
William Ruto, the President of Kenya, said: “It is a shame that 60 years after independence, we are gathered to talk about feeding ourselves. We can and we must do better.”
President Higgins of Ireland said with Africa’s young population accounting for about 20 percent of the world’s young people, the continent had great potential. He said the rest of the world would look up to it in the future.
“Let us make this century Africa’s Century, one which will see the continent become free from hunger,” Higgins said.
In his message to the summit, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres acknowledged that Africa is currently facing the challenges of climate change and food insecurity as the Russia-Ukraine war had caused the price of fertilizers to shoot up and made their supply difficult.
He pledged the UN’s support to help Africa become a global food powerhouse.
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria said countries must offer more robust support for farmers, dedicate a chunk of the national budget to agriculture, and motivate youth and women to farm. (GBN)
