FAO Regional Office for Africa

Investing in innovation - key to build-back better from multiple crises in Eastern Africa

A Panel Discussion held to commemorate the World Food Day and FAO’s 75 Anniversary

The virtual Panel Discussion was held in commemoration of the World Food Day, which is observed every year on 16 October . ©/FAO

20 October 2020, Addis Ababa - Innovation, with strong leadership, must take place to avoid the worst food shortage in times of multiple crises of COVID-19, desert locust and flooding that are ravaging the Eastern Africa subregion, underscored participants of the Panel Discussion, organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The Panel Discussion, held on 15 October 2020, under the theme: Building back better: towards a sustainable and resilient recovery after COVID-19 in Eastern Africa,brought key policy-level actors together to discuss ways to mitigate and recover from the current threats and future shocks. Participants exchanged good practices for improving responses and recovery to future disasters, as well as improving agricultural productivity, inter and intra-regional trade, and building sustainable resilience.

Opening the Panel, David Phiri, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Eastern Africa and Representative to the African Union (AU) and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), remarked that Eastern Africa remains the epicentre of crises, emanating from climatic shocks, desert locust invasion, conflict and instability, macroeconomic difficulties and now COVID-19, exacerbating the prevailing insecurity. 

“The Eastern Africa subregion contributes more than 50 percent of the chronically hungry people in Africa, and yet the region is home to only under 25 percent of Africa’s population. Something is clearly very wrong. This  calls for our urgent action in investing in innovation, data and information, as well as ensuring good governance to protect the most vulnerable groups, including women and the youth. Improving access to safety net programmes, keeping food supply chains alive, protecting and even ramping up food production, and building resilient communities, would require our quick interventions,” noted Phiri.

Ambassador Josefa Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission (AUC), in her address, indicated that AUC is rolling out interventions in the area of social protection, crop production, domestic and regional trade and agricultural supply chains.

“FAO and AUC collaborated to consult and urge ministers responsible for agriculture in Africa, through the African Union policy platform, and came up with a common declaration, which guides our actions in the fight against multiple challenges, ranging from crop pests to COVID-19 that African agriculture has faced. The declaration has also guided the development of short, medium and long term strategies and action plans to ensure that the continent is not transiting from a health crisis to a food crisis as a result of the worsening trend of COVID-19 and other threats,” remarked Ambassador Sacko.

A call for global cooperation and partnership

Recognizing the severity of the impact of the triple threats that the subregion is grappling with, the high-level panellists drawn from ministries of agriculture of Rwanda and Somalia, the East African Parliamentary Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, East Africa Farmers FederationEastern Africa Grain Council, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) called for a strong partnership and innovation capacity that can salvage the subregion from the current and further crises. They also stressed the significance of regional and global cooperation and new way of resource mobilization to ensure that the threats COVID-19 and other crises pose to food security, nutrition and agricultural livelihoods are confronted, and the most vulnerable are able to get back on their feet, and better than before the crises.

Representatives from the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and UNECA also stressed the need for action-oriented partnership and synergy among key stakeholders to build-back better from existing food insecurity and malnutrition challenges that the subregion is encountering during this trying time and in the future.   

About the World Food Day

The virtual Panel Discussion was held in commemoration of the World Food Day, which is observed every year on 16 October – marking the day when the Food and Agriculture Organization the United Nations (FAO) was founded to tackle global hunger.

World Food Day 2020 (WFD20) coincides with the 75th Anniversary of FAO. This year, the WFD20 is being celebrated at a crucial time when member countries globally, including Eastern Africa nations, are grappling with widespread effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises. That is why, the WFD20’s theme is coined: Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together. Our actions are our future. The theme is reflecting the fact that only nine plant species account for 66% of total crop production, despite the fact that there are at least 30 000 edible plants. FAO urges nations to grow a variety of food to nourish people and sustain the planet. But, realizing this goal does not only lie with governments, FAO calls for everyone to have a role to play, from making food choices that improve both our health and our food system, to encouraging sustainable food  and agriculture habits.