AU, FAO, Lula da Silva form new partnership to fight hunger in Africa

The African Union (AU), the UN food agency and former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have agreed to help eradicate hunger and undernourishment in Africa together.

The three also agreed to make African food security a key priority.

The decision was reached at a meeting in Addis Ababa November 21, 2012 between the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, and the ex-Brazilian leader’s Instituto Lula of Brazil where Mr da Silva is the Honorary President.

Knowledge and support from other international, regional and national partners will also go a long way to enhancing this new partnership, according to an FAO statement.

The statement says the three parties agreed to convene a high-level meeting with African and International leaders on “New, unified approaches to end hunger in Africa”. The meeting will be held in Addis Ababa on March 4 and 5, 2013.

The FAO indicated that the partnership will be based on the shared vision that a hunger-free Africa is possible and that concerted efforts can achieve tangible improvements in food security and nutrition, reversing the rise in hunger that has seen the number of undernourished people in the continent increase from 175 million in the early 1990s to 239 million today.

By Ekow Quandzie