Pan-African bloc pledges continued partnership with WFP

Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-17 00:56:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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ADDIS ABABA, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) has reiterated its commitment to working with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in enhancing the livelihoods of the African citizenry.

Josefa Sacko, AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, made the remarks at the 2017 annual WFP Executive Board meeting, in Rome, Italy, according to an AU statement released later Thursday.

The AU official has lauded WFP for its continued support to hundreds of millions of Africa's vulnerable populations over the past decades, through various initiatives, including among others, supplying food aid, school feeding programmes and promoting smallholder farmers through incentive creation strategies.

Sacko has also recognized WFP's role in advancing the AU's Agenda 2063 and the agenda for transforming Africa's agriculture for achieving food and nutrition security to realize sustained economic growth, through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the 2014 Malabo Declaration on Agriculture.

She has further highlighted the major initiatives that the pan-African bloc has embarked on including the commitment to ending hunger by 2025, and the efforts in peace and security on the continent as well as empowering Africa's youth in line with the AU 2017 theme of 'Harnessing the Demographic Dividend.'

In 2014, AU heads of states made declaration to ending hunger and poverty by 2025, recalled the Commissioner, and she said "We have since developed frameworks for guiding implementation of programmes and investment plans at the country level."

"And we also developed and launched a Post-Malabo Business and Operational Plan that includes nine strategic areas which are directly linked with the goal of ending hunger and malnutrition in Africa," added the Commissioner.

"We recognize that the new WFP Strategic Plan is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and our 2030 Action Plan of the Africa Agenda 2063," she said, "We will make efforts to advocate that our Member States make joint plans for implementing short to long term humanitarian and sustainable developmental activities, which are aimed at hunger eradication, building resilience to climate change and other humanitarian disasters."

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