Take action on food security:Kerry tells African Leaders
U.S Secretary of State, John Kerry has told African leaders to live by their words and put into action initiatives for food security in Africa as the whole world experiences a climate change.
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"I want to re-emphasise the degree to which President Obama and the whole administration are genuinely excited about these several days. This summit has been long in the making. It is a historic gathering, and we want it to be as substantive as productive — in the end, as agenda driving as possible," he said.
Mr Kerry was addressing African presidents, prime ministers and their representatives at a working session on resilience and food security in a changing climate at one of the main opening sessions of the three-day U.S-African leaders summit in Washington.
Climate change and food security
He said climate change, food security and resilience were interrelated challenges that all of them needed to consider as they planned for the future, and expressed delight that many African leaders were at the session “to sort of take idea from laboratory to shelf and, in some cases, augment what is already on the shelf.”
"We know the challenges. We know what it’s going to take to address them. It’s a matter of all sectors coming together, applying their energies and efforts to make sure that we make the right decisions, the right commitments, so that millions of families living in poverty – really, an anachronism – it’s so contrary to everything that’s possible when we look at the affluence in so many parts of the world,” he said.
He recalled that more than a decade ago, the AU launched the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, which required all member states that sign onto it create and implement national food security investment plans, and said the plans formed the basis for the work that America did with African nations through various joint initiatives.
This year, Mr Kerry noted that the AU had even gone further to name 2014 the year of agriculture and food security, as well as launch the Malabo Declaration which, among others, required all signatories to pursue investments that protected people and ecosystems.
The Obama agenda
For America’s part, he said since President Obama came into office, he had taken a number of initiatives to deal with the problem of food insecurity.
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Feed the Future, his signature initiative, is supporting farmers in 19 different countries, including 12 in Africa, by investing in various ways to make the food crops they farm more plentiful, more accessible and more nutritious.
Kerry named another important initiative launched by President Obama as the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.
At the 2012 G8 Summit at Camp David, several African heads of state, corporate leaders and G8 members pledged to help raise 50 million people out of poverty in Africa by 2022 by increasing private investment in agriculture. After two years, the New Alliance now includes 10 African countries, 180 African and international companies.