Accra, Sept. 28, GNA - The Africa Union (AU) and New Partnership for Africa’s

Development (NEPAD) have jointly called on multiple stakeholders involved in the Scaling Up Food and Nutrition Security in Africa programme to help strengthen its management and implementation.

The two institutions noted that success of the Scale Up Nutrition (SUN) and related Initiatives in Africa would largely depend on capacity building and the use of the effective structures and policies within Africa.

The call was contained in an AU/NEPAD Statement on Africa Food and Nutrition Security to the UN General Assembly and SUN, September 20-21, copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

It said the AU recognised the magnitude of the problems of hunger, poverty and food and nutrition insecurity which had resulted in malnutrition particularly affecting children and women.

The statement said to acknowledge and appreciate the global initiatives to address these problems was demonstrated by the launch of Scale Up Nutrition (SUN) in September 2010.

In response to the unacceptable hunger and malnutrition situation, African Heads of State and Governments adopted the Maputo Declaration in 2003 aimed at reducing hunger, poverty, and malnutrition on the Continent through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

In April 2004, an all Africa Conference held in Kampala on the theme “Assuring Food and Nutrition Security in Africa by 2020: prioritising actions, strengthening actors and facilitating partnerships” which among others proposed an Africa Food and Nutrition Security Day (AFNSD).

Subsequently, in July 2010, the AU Summit held in Kampala, Uganda passed a decision on the AFNSD to be commemorated annually on October 30.

The AFNSD was officially launched in Lilongwe, Malawi in October 2010. Furthermore, the African Ministers of Health committed to the commemoration of AFNSD during the Fifth Conference of African Health Ministers held in Windhoek, Namibia in April of 2011.

The overall objective of the AFNSD is to provide a stakeholder platform and leadership at all levels, and to facilitate discussions between governments, civil society, the private sector, the scientific community, farmers and development partners.

Sharing research results, experiences, lessons learnt and knowledge arising from actions taken to concretise the reduction of poverty, hunger food and nutrition insecurity are key in staging the AFNSD.

Therefore, the main purpose of AFNSD is to serve as a rallying point in intensifying commitments at all levels and all times to address the challenges of food and nutrition insecurity and malnutrition in Africa.

While the SUN’s one-year country progress reports are being reviewed in New York, AU and NEPAD are preparing this years’ commemoration of AFNSD on the theme,

“Investing in Intra-African Trade for Food and Nutrition Security”.

This theme is in line with the theme for the 2012 January AU Summit, and also linked to five major sub themes which relate to AU-NEPAD’s food and nutrition flagship programmes.

These are, the Dietary Diversity, Home Grown School Feeding, Food Fortification, Maternal and Childs’ Health and Nutrition and the Interrelationship between trade and food and nutrition security.

Boosting Intra-Africa Trade will contribute to poverty alleviation, improved food and nutrition security, household income, increased food production, access to markets and economic growth which are all relevant to the issues being deliberated in New York this week.

“We invite everyone to participate in and provide support for the first commemoration of the AFNSD on the continent on October 30, 2011 in all AU Member States, “the statement said.

The NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) as the technical body of the African Union www.africa-union.org, works closely with the African Union Commission (AUC), regional economic communities, national governments, civil society and the private sector to push for programmes and projects that focus on improving the lives of the African people.

The NEPAD Agency is the leading African development expert, able to mobilise the private sector, Heads of State and African people as a force for positive change, building continental prosperity and regional integration.