Nepad scaling up nutrition efforts

Recent consultation meetings held in six Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) countries have noted the need to improve access to Food and Nutrition Security information across countries, sectors and actors for enhanced and informed decision making.
Head of Nutrition department at the New Partnership for Africa Development (Nepad), Isatou Jallow made the revelations today in Ghana on the side-lines of the 12th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform Meeting.

“To this end, Nepad Agency embarked on consultative processes with the six countries on the establishment of a Food and Nutrition Security knowledge-sharing and monitoring platform in Africa. The initiative was aimed at improving the strategic use of data and information on Food and Nutrition Security by enhancing knowledge creation and sharing,” she said.
Jallow further said the regional platform is expected to foster evidence-based dialogue and a multi-sectoral approach in information and knowledge sharing among countries and regional stakeholders.
According to the consultation report, the establishment of the platform is a direct response to the Malabo Declaration on accelerated growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods.
The declaration is an African Union (AU) recommitment to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture development programme (CAADP) and its results framework for Africa’s agricultural transformation and food security agenda in the 2015-2025 decade.
The declaration and CAADP further emphasise the need for performing systematic mapping, monitoring and evaluation at national and regional levels to establish targets for enhancing food and nutrition security and agriculture and food insecurity management.
The countries consulted include, Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Lesotho.