FAO to help set up African food security trust fund

Africa will soon get a trust fund to support food security on the continent with the help of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) which is set to draft details of the proposed plan.

This came to light and was discussed at the FAO’s Regional Conference for Africa, held last week in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.

Complementing international resource mobilization, the Africa Trust Fund, would raise resources in the continent to fight hunger and would also allow for the scaling up of successful activities to prevent and respond to food and agriculture crises in the region, the FAO said in a statement April 30, 2012.

In support of the proposal, civil society organizations attending the Regional Conference made a symbolic donation to the trust fund.

The FAO said it will engage in countries-led consultations in order to draft a detailed proposal for approval by participating member countries.

The fund is said to be necessary especially at a time when both Africa’s Sahel region and the Horn of Africa have been hit by hunger.

According to the FAO Director-General, José Graziano da Silva,  funding gaps to assist herders, agro-pastoralists and farmers in the ongoing rainy season in the Sahel and Horn of Africa total over $110 million.

Funding gaps for the entire year reached a total of $239 million for the two regions, the FAO said.

The FAO Boss therefore called upon the donor community to maintain its support to a hunger-free Africa.

By Ekow Quandzie