Afronline – The Voice Of Africa

Even if figures who how global hunger is still rising, a new report published by FAO show the fact that 31 out of 79 countries monitored by the FAO team have registered a significant decline in the number of undernourished people since the early nineties.

The study, entitled Pathways to Success, highlights the progress made by 16 of these countries that have already achieved the target of halving the number of hungry by 2015 or are on track to do so.

According to the report, there are four common denominators that make hunger reduction successful: the creation of the right environment promoting economic growth and personal wellbeing; investment in the rural poor and outreach to the most vulnerable; ensuring achievements are maintained and safeguarded against threats; planning for a sustainable future.

Some African countries play a part among the most successful nations too.

According to the report, in 2001 the Government of Nigeria introduced macro-economic reforms involving de-regulation and privatization in many sectors and began a major drive to develop agriculture within the framework of a National Special Programme for Food Security (NSPFS) which it launched with technical help from FAO.

The non-oil economy of Nigeria is now growing at a rate of over 7 percent per annum, twice that of a decade ago. In 2008, the agricultural sector contributed 42 percent of GDP and employed about 70 percent of the active population.

Another case of good practice is represented by Malawi: An Agricultural Input Subsidy programme in operation since 2005 has boosted maize production significantly and kept prices stable of the most eaten cereal in the country.

In Sierra Leone, reducing post-harvest losses and improving farmers’ ability to market rice and vegetables go hand-in-hand with efforts to increase smallholder productivity. Agricultural Business Centres (ABCs) are being established on a national scale to help small-scale farmers become commercially successful and assure food supplies to the cities.

However, critical food insecurity is affecting 31 countries, with 1 billion hungry people all over the world. In Eastern Africa, the situation is particularly serious as drought and conflict has put an estimated 20 million people in need of food aid.

“For the world’s poorest people who spend up to 80 percent of their household budgets on food, the food price crisis is not over yet,” said FAO Assistant Director General Hafez Ghanem. “It is now a global priority to increase investment in developing country agriculture in order to fight poverty and hunger”.

“Despite all the promises made, concrete action on hunger has been lacking,” the FAO Director General Jacques Diouf declared, adding, “In the absence of strong measures another global food crisis cannot be excluded.”

Diouf also launched an online anti-hunger petition on the website www.1billionhungry.org.

“I would urge as many people as possible to sign our petition,” he said. “Each click will serve as another reason, in addition to the billion we already have, for ending hunger. Each click will also serve as a goad to world leaders to ‘walk the talk’.”

Download the full FAO report on Pathways to Success – pdf version

Listen the Director-General Jacques Diouf issuing a message of hope during the conference.

Listen the Director-General launching “The 1billionhungry petition”: “Do you agree that hunger is unacceptable?”

By Staff – Afronline