Heads of African Union (AU) member states have called for more commitment and accountability in the drive to achieve the continent’s nutrition goals ahead of the 2025 World Health Assembly Nutrition target deadline.
Development Diaries reports that the call was made during the 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU which was coorganised by the AU, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Lesotho.
The event, themed ‘Progress and Achievements in Addressing Malnutrition in Africa: Accountability for results in achieving continental and global targets for nutrition’, centered on long-lasting measures to curb malnutrition and food security in Africa.
About 7.2 million people are at risk of starvation across East Africa alone, with another 26.5 million facing acute food insecurity and at least 12.8 million children in the region acutely malnourished.
In West Africa, food crises have been increasing across the region as the number of people in need of emergency food assistance nearly quadrupled from seven to 27 million between 2015 and 2022.
‘It is now more crucial than ever to support vulnerable communities with multiple and innovative solutions to build their resilience and transform agri-food systems to deliver better nutrition’, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Qu Dongyu, said during the event.
In her remarks, AfDB’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human, and Social Development, Beth Dunford, said the bank’s multi-sectoral action plan is offering solutions to Africa’s malnutrition challenges.
She said the plan is catalysing nutrition-smart investment across the AfDB operations, resulting in the bank re-allocating $2.8 billion of its investment in its portfolio to be nutrition-smart.
‘I believe that nutrition is a central pillar for Africa’s development. While the bank has made significant progress in the re-allocation of resources, there’s a need to translate these funding re-allocations into stunting reductions on the ground’, Dunford said.
For his part, King Letsie III of Lesotho encouraged attendees to meet nutrition goals established by the World Health Assembly and Malabo targets to reduce malnutrition and stunting by the year 2025.
The 2025 World Health Assembly Nutrition target includes a 40 percent reduction in the number of children under-five who are stunted and reduce and maintain childhood wasting to less than five percent, amongst others.
Source: AfDB
Photo source: AfDB
