Senior Policy Advisors across Sub Saharan African have asked governments of countries in the sub-region to prioritise food and nutrition security, stressing that it is important to the economic development of any nation
They said nutrition security is important to ensure a robust economy, alongside food security.
This was contained in the Abuja declaration issued at the end of the two-day meeting for African Senior Policy Makers assembled at the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Senior Policy Seminar.
According to them, “making agriculture more nutrition-sensitive ought to be promoted as a sustainable solution to the triple burden of malnutrition (undernutrition, overnutrition and micronutrient deficiency) facing African countries.”
The Executive Director AERC, Professor Njuguna Ndung’u, while speaking with journalists said providing biofortified foods to tackle the challenge of malnutrition are only temporal measures. He said there is a need for a holistic approach of producing staple foods that are rich in nutrient content.
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While commending Africa governments for realising the importance of increasing shares of national budgets to agriculture, health and nutrition, Ndung’u said food and nutrition security is part of a larger nexus of development challenges and opportunities.
He stated that preventing malnutrition and improving nutrition requires a multi-sectoral and integrated approach to implementing nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food security policies and strategies.
He harped on the need for engaging multi-stakeholders and promoting their concerted actions and responding effectively to the challenges.
He noted that the African countries Central Banks can play a critical role in furthering the inclusion of households and small-scale enterprises in financial markets.
Professor Ndung’u noted that the body also stressed the importance of providing appropriate incentives and nutrition education for households to consume appropriate diets and adopt productivity- and income-enhancing technologies and practices that drive agricultural development and broader economic and social transformation.
Director of Training AERC, Dr Innocent Matshe, noted that several structural conditions generate obstacles increased consumption and adoption nutritional food, adding that most notably inadequate early-life nutrition, food prices, affordability and accessibility of nutritious foods through the life cycle, low income and education levels, including critical information gaps,
He identified some factors like improving early life nutrition, diet quality, food environments as well as increasing income and education as approaches towards encouraging African households to enhance their nutrition status and well-being.