The initiative is part of “African Football Against Hunger”,
a collaboration between FAO and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to
highlight the breakthrough commitment by African leaders to end hunger in the
next decade.
The campaign leverages the global popularity of “footie” to
spread a message of solidarity: African nations can defeat hunger in our
lifetime, but they need collective action and popular support to reach their
goal.
“Eradicating hunger requires teamwork and perseverance — the
same qualities that players in the Nations Cup show us on the field,” said José
Graziano da Silva, FAO´s Director-General.
Adequate nutrition, he stressed, is essential to reaching
one’s goals, athletic or otherwise.
“Football brings together people from all over the continent
and that makes it the ideal platform to call for solidarity and bring people
across Africa on board with our joint effort to raise the bar in the fight
against hunger” added Mario Lubetkin, FAO´s Director of Communications, during
a press conference in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, on the eve of the opening of the
African Cup of Nations.
Unlike the invisible opponent in the video, hunger across
the continent is tangible. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 223 million people — or
one in four — is undernourished. This hampers their ability to lead healthy,
productive lives and holds Africa as a whole back from reaching its full
potential.
That potential is significant. Africa is home to seven out
of 10 of the planet’s fastest growing economies and has the youngest population
of any other continent. At the same time, regional markets are still dominated
by foreign food imports and youth unemployment runs high. Investing in
agricultural development now could put the sector at the heart of inclusive
growth that boosts youth employment, strengthens rural livelihoods and meets
the food challenges of a growing world population.
Making hunger history.
Last year, African governments came together and made a
historic commitment to wipe out chronic hunger among their peoples by 2025, in
sync with the UN’s “Zero Hunger” campaign.
One solid step in this direction has been the establishment of the Africa
Solidarity Trust Fund in 2013, the first Africa-for-Africa fund, which has so
far leveraged some $40 million from African states (primarily Equatorial Guinea
and Angola) for projects that increase employment opportunities for youth,
build resilience of livelihoods to crisis situations, improve the management of
natural resources, and support sustainable food production with the goal of
eradicating hunger.
Operating under the mantra that sustainable development
comes from within, the fund – which is administered by FAO and key stakeholders
and pools money from the continent’s strongest economies — has so far supported
projects in more than 30 countries across Africa.
The work of FAO and the Fund complements the Comprehensive
Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), a home-grown, region-wide
cooperative effort to boost agricultural productivity that was launched by
governments ten years ago.
To realize the vision of a food-secure Africa, it’s widely
understood that investments in agricultural development, strong social safety
nets and rights to access land and water are essential. So is the support for
small-scale farmers, who work more than 60 percent of the agricultural land.
2015: a pivotal year.
The African Cup of Nations takes place in a pivotal year for
international development, with the Millennium Development Goals coming to an
end and the international community finalizing a set of Sustainable Development
Goals to take their place. Sustainable livelihoods and food security are likely
to be cornerstones of the new development agenda.
“This is the time for governments, institutions and civil
society on the continent to come together and double down on efforts to make
hunger history,” Lubetkin said.
Sixteen teams will compete in the Africa Cup of Nations from
Jan 17. to Feb. 8 in venues across Equatorial Guinea.
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