DES MOINES/United States of America: African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina has called for urgent action from stakeholders over the deepening crisis of global malnutrition, as he says the World Food Prize is a great honour and recognition for all of the work that he had done for decades of his life, which also puts wind behind the sail as they take off to feed Africa, because it is a job that has to be complete.
Adesina made the call as he joined key nutrition actors, private-sector representatives, policy-makers and thought leaders at the 2017 World Food Prize-Borlaug Dialogue Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday, October 18, to push for mutual accountability on leadership, governance and investments for nutrition.
The 2017 World Food Prize Laureate made the remarks during a high-level meeting on nutrition hosted by the African Development Bank and the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition.
The President’s charge aligns with the AfDB’s High 5 development priorities, in particular with the fifth goal to Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa .The quest for high-quality, healthy diets also supports the achievement of Goal 2 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”.
Earlier, Adesina attended a plenary session to launch the Global Panel on Food Systems and Nutrition policy brief, ‘Urban diets and nutrition: Trends, challenges, and opportunities for policy action’, where he highlighted the major problem associated with poor diets.
“Poor nutrition has become the number one killer in the world. It’s therefore high time to address this seriously and decisively,” he said.
He explained how many low- and middle-income countries now experience a ‘triple burden’ of malnutrition, where under-nutrition and micronutrient deficiencies co-exist with obesity and other diseases related to diets.
“We must face the reality that unhealthy foods now pose the greatest danger to the health of urban dwellers,” he stressed. “In short: Urban foods are energy rich, but nutrient poor. The changing face of urban areas aggravates malnutrition. We must address the problems of rapidly expanding slums, globally and especially, in Africa.”
The Global Panel report highlights critical areas that deserve attention in dealing with the link between urbanization and malnutrition.
“First, we need to have stricter food market regulations in urban areas, especially for informal food markets,” Adesina said. “Second, to reduce pressure on urban food systems, policies should be used to promote more sustainable peri-urban agriculture, especially for vegetables, legumes and other nutrient-rich crops. Third, better policies are needed to link rural and urban food systems, with greater investments in infrastructure, transport logistics, storage and markets, to assure steady supply of foods to cities and secondary towns.”
To cut back on rising obesity, urban areas need to invest in better education on health and nutrition, support physical activities and tax sugar drinks, he added.
The policy brief describes the challenge of providing healthy diets in urban environments, with eight evidence-based recommendations.
“The urban food crisis has become a thread we can no longer ignore,” said Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
Former Director General, Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), Tom Arnold; Senior Adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies Global Food Security Project, Emmy Simmons; and Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s Liaison Office for North America, Vimlendra Sharan, stressed how decisive action is required to reduce urban malnutrition crisis.
Policy-makers at local level need to take a leading role in championing better diets and nutrition, and this requires them to be both mandated and empowered to act, the Global Panel members emphasized.
The Global Panel is an independent group of influential experts and leaders who hold or have held high office and who show strong personal commitment to improving nutrition. Formally established in August 2013 at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in London, it is jointly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development.
Meanwhile Mr Akinwumi Adesina has said that the World Food Prize, which he won is a great motivation which puts the wind behind the sails of what the African Development Bank is doing with its development priorities − the High 5s especially Feed Africa the President of the Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has said.
He noted how the High 5s were all linked, and pledged the commitment of the Bank to continue its development work in Africa.
Adesina, who spoke at a press conference ahead of the World Food Prize ceremony, also stressed the need to put technology and information in the hands of farmers.
“For me, the World Food Prize is a great honour and recognition for all of the work that I have done for decades of my life. But it also puts wind behind our sail as we now take off to feed Africa, because it is a job that has to be complete,” he stressed.
“Not only must Africa feed itself, it must feed itself with pride. Africa must also unlock the potentials of agriculture, turning agriculture from something that you use for managing poverty, to something that you use for creating wealth.”
He described the mobile phone as the most important tool in the hands of a farmer.
“With it, they will find out information about the market, about weather, and about to access finance,” Adesina said. “They will be able to get information about nutrition for mothers, for instance. That is very important. That was why when I was Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria, we launched this electronic wallet system that allows farmers to access fertilizers, and we reached well over 15 million farmers.”
Awareness and empowerment, he said, could only come through providing information, democratizing the access to information to farmers.
“I have never seen a farmer that wants to be poor,” he said.
In June, the World Food Prize announced African Development Bank President Akinwumi A. Adesina as the 2017 Laureate for his work in improving the availability of seed, fertilizer and financing for African farmers, and for laying the foundation for the youth in Africa to engage in agriculture as a profitable business.
Known as the ‘Nobel Prize for Agriculture’, the World Food Prize was founded by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Norman Borlaug and is considered the foremost international honour recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. The Prize is presented each October on or around UN World Food Day (October 16) in a ceremony in the Iowa State capital of Des Moines.
Under President Adesina’s leadership, the AfDB is accelerating agricultural development through its Feed Africa Strategy with planned investment of US $24 billion over the next 10 years. The prize also recognizes Adesina’s work over the past two decades with the Rockefeller Foundation, at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture of Agriculture and Rural Development.
