28 March 2014, Tunis – A unique, Africa-led fund designed to improve food security across the continent has become a reality for the first six countries slated to benefit from the initiative. The Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, the Niger and South Sudan signed agreements in Tunis with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations today, to receive $2 million each from the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund. The contributions will be used to bolster a wide range of projects to improve food security, nutrition, agriculture and rural development. They include policies and programmes to increase opportunities for youth employment; improve natural resources management and the quality of food production; increase the resilience of livelihoods in conflict-affected areas; and rapidly increase the availability of nutritious food through programmes like cash transfers, school feeding and school gardens.