FAO Country Representative Miss. Coumba Sow, Hon. Dr. Abdi Ali Hassan, Chairperson of the EAPA FSN and Hon. Edda Mukabagwiza after a courtesy visit to the Speaker of the Parliament Right Honorable Mukabalisa Donatille

Members of the Eastern Africa Parliamentary Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (EAPA FSN) and other key actors are meeting at Rwanda Parliament for two days to deliberate on actions needed to advance the food security and nutrition agenda in the region.

The meeting that kicked off today started with a technical segment and will later be followed by General Assembly. Participants are currently deliberating on actions needed to advance the food security and nutrition agenda in the region through Parliamentary Engagement, family farming in Africa, and the role of parliamentarians.

The Representative of Rwanda Parliament Hon. Hon Nyirabega Euthalie reiterated that the parliamentary dialogue on food security and nutrition is a relevant forum to call for actions that will make respective constituencies to be resilient to the shocks emanating from food insecurity. She highlighted how innovative programmes deployed by the Government of Rwanda to deal with the issue of food and nutrition security are recording remarkable success.

“In Rwanda for example One Cow Per Family, Village Umurenge, Crop Intensification, and modernization of Agriculture through mobilizing the local population to own food processing units and subsidizing fertilizers are some of the government strategies that have worked well in ensuring food security to the needy families and results are there for everyone to see’’. Hon. Nyirabega said

Speaking during the opening of the technical seminar Honorable Dr. Abdi Ali Hassan, Chairperson of the EAPA FSN stressed the need for the alliance to focus on the elimination of hunger through climate-resilient approaches that respond to difficulties created by harsh weather.

“Lack of food security takes on special significance, particularly in Eastern Africa where the rainy season failed in the last four consecutive years. It is also important to note that the Eastern African agricultural sector problems are a result of poor agriculture policy institutions as well as the neglect of the sector by major actors. As lawmakers, we have to enact policies that provide solutions to these kinds of problems. Dr. Abdi stressed

The FAO country Representative in Rwanda  Coumba Sow indicated how the organization she represents regards parliamentarians as strategic stakeholders for accelerating achievements of SDGs especially SDG2, the Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy, the 2014 Malabo declaration on the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) as well as the Africa Union Agenda 2063. Noting that even though the number of people affected by food insecurity is still alarming, there is hope for change.

“We all know that hunger affected more than 278 million people in Africa in 2021, this means that 1 out of 5 persons were hungry at the time. These are, children, men, and women, who are not able to put food on the table as nutritionally required on daily basis.  However, even though the cited figures are still high, we are seeing positive actions including what we discussing today which gives us hope going forward. We also see emergency actions being taken both on a short and long-term basis to ensure continuous food availability, food accessibility, and food affordability through strong legislative initiatives”. Coumba Sow said

EAPA FSN seeks to unleash the potential of parliamentarians to accelerate the elimination of hunger and malnutrition. The alliance exists to promote experience sharing, strengthen legislative frameworks and policy coherence at regional, national, and subnational levels, promote the harmonization of legal and policy frameworks related to sub-regional and cross-border food security and nutrition issues as well as facilitate the creation and strengthening of national parliamentary alliance/caucuses to foster the improvement of the national food security and nutrition agenda.

The alliance also works to influence policy decisions that will prioritize resource mobilization and allocation towards food security and nutrition initiatives in individual member countries and Regional Economic Communities in the Eastern Africa region.