Africa Regional Dialogue - Joint Action on COVID-19: Boosting our Africa Food and Agriculture Response


29/07/2020 - 

African Ministers for Agriculture have emphasized the importance of ensuring food security and nutrition, and continuing agricultural activities during the response to COVID-19 – including production, marketing, harvesting, storage and value addition.

Safe food and nutrition are essential to the health response: in the African context, the COVID-19 crisis is being compounded by a food crisis. This calls for a holistic approach to address public health concerns and ensure food security in a comprehensive and coordinated manner. Urgent, strategic and coordinated action is needed to minimize disruptions in food supply chains in the short-term, and improve the resilience of agriculture production in the medium and long term.

On 14 July 2020, FAO’s Chief Economist Maxímo Torrero Cullen unveiled the global FAO COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme with its seven priority areas of intervention. This meeting will present FAO’s work across all seven areas in the African context.

The objectives of the dialogue are to:

  • Consult with resource partners on strengthening the agri-food sector response to COVID-19 in the Africa region;
  • Demonstrate partnership opportunities in responding to immediate humanitarian food crises, as well as medium- and long-term development actions;
  • Mobilize all available resources and partnerships to catalyse results at the country, sub-regional and regional levels.

The dialogue will be moderated by Abebe Haile-Gabriel, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, with speakers including Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director-General, and H.E. Josefa Sacho, African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture.

Other high-level speakers will include representatives from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, African Development Bank (AfDB), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), European Union Delegation to the African Union, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), United States of America (USA) Embassy to the African Union, World Bank, World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO), the private sector and farmer organizations.

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