Food crisis in Africa: Go beyond emergency food aid and supply side responses, said ECA Head Janneh
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Addis Ababa, 21 October 2008 (ECA) - The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and UN Under Secretary-General, Abdoulie Janneh, today in Addis Ababa called on the global community to go beyond the provision of emergency food aid or celebrating short term supply response to higher prices in responding to the global challenge of food crisis in Africa .
Welcoming UN agencies and organizations working in Africa to the two-day 9th meeting of the Regional Consultation Mechanism (RCM), which opened today, Mr. Janneh said it was more important to address the underlying causes of the structural food crisis in Africa .
The RCM is coordinated by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). It was established in response to Resolution 57/7 of the General Assembly, which calls for UN organizations to coordinate their activities in support of NEPAD to ensure maximum results.
This year, the meeting is focusing on a coordinated multisectoral response to the food crisis challenge in Africa .
“It is essential to guard against the inadequate attention and provision to agriculture that lies behind the structural food crisis in the continent while working vigorously to implement the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of NEPAD,” said Mr. Janneh.
He said the present global crises – high food and fuel prices and the financial meltdown--- had shown the important role of coordinated international action to fashion a response and reduce the negative impact.
“Either due to conviction, or because unilateral action has proved ineffective, international cooperation has taken centre-stage in seeking solutions to dampen the effect of these challenges to global growth and prosperity,” he said.
He called on UN agencies working in Africa to meaningfully align their work and the work of the RCM Clusters, to the priorities of the African Union in order to effectively promote the implementation of the UN Ten-Year Capacity Building Programme for the African Union Commission.
Mr. Janneh also called on the delegates to the meeting to discuss how to improve coherence in delivering the ten-year capacity building programme and how to jointly own and broaden their participation in the RCM Secretariat which is hosted by ECA.
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:: Statement by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA
:: Meeting documents
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