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July 03, 2013

DECLARATION

Towards African Renaissance: Renewed Partnership for a Unified Approach to End Hunger in Africa by 2025 under the Framework the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme

The High Level Meeting on Renewed Partnership for a Unified Approach to End Hunger in Africa jointly convened by the African Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Lula Institute.

We, the Heads of State and Government of African Union Member States, together with Representatives of international organizations, civil society organizations, private sector, cooperatives, farmers, youths, academia and other partners concerned with ending hunger in Africa, met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 30th June to 1st July 2013 to explore innovative and actionable measures for putting an end to hunger in Africa;

Recognizing that Africa has witnessed economic growth of unprecedented proportions, coinciding with improved governance contributing to significant achievements in the fight against hunger in a number of countries;
Recognizing that about 25 percent of the African population (around 245 million persons) do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs and between 30 to 40 percent of children under 5 years continue to suffer from chronic under-nutrition;
Recognizing that a large number of households continue to face food insecurity and malnutrition due to low food availability, income and unemployment, risk and vulnerability, poor access to basic services, including health, water, sanitation and education;
Recognizing that women smallholder farmers, constitute the majority of food producers, but remain vulnerable and require targeted support;
Reaffirming the significant role of agricultural education, training and research and development in the evolution of African agricultural science agenda, technologies and innovation platforms in the advancement of the vision of a food-secure Africa…
Noting that, despite the tremendous potential of Africa for improving agricultural (crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry, in regard to crops) productivity in the continent remains on average the lowest among developing regions with only 6 percent of cultivated area equipped for irrigation onn the entire continent compared to 20 percent at the global level;
Noting that the African private sector is an under-utilized resource that needs to be leveraged to fully participate in African agricultural transformation;
Recognizing that an alarming number of rural households in Africa face economic marginalization due to limited access to critical inputs, resources, services, markets and infrastructure and exposure to risk;
Recognizing that the problems of hunger and food insecurity in Africa are multi-faceted and multidimensional and are likely to persist, unless we, as leaders work together with key stakeholder in the broader society to ensure that bold, urgent, determined and concerted actions are taken by our Governments and the broader society, given the anticipated increase in Africa's population and the pressure on natural resources including climate change;
Recalling the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action (1996) for achieving food security for all through an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, as well as our commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);

Recalling the July 2003 Maputo Declaration which adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) as the framework for addressing Africa’s agricultural development and food security challenges in a coordinated fashion;

Recognizing that the development of CAADP was a unique collective achievement of Africa with the aim of reducing hunger and poverty through agricultural development;

Taking note of the United Nations Secretary General’s Zero Hunger Challenge (2012) and recognizing the successes of hunger eradication programmes in other parts of the world and the importance of social protection in achieving this objective;
Recognizing that sustainable food and nutrition security and social inclusion require that our economies grow and we eradicate poverty;
Recognizing the great potential for African Agricultural development, the growing youth population and the availability of large land and water resources that can be used for agricultural production at large including livestock, crop ,fisheries and forestry;
Recognizing that ending hunger in Africa requires renewed partnerships under a unified approach and with high level political commitment;
Noting that African Union, FAO, the Lula Institute and broader Non-State Actors are committed to actively supporting the implementation of this Declaration:
1. DECLARE our resolve to end hunger on our Continent by 2025 in line with the process of sustaining the CAADP momentum.
2. PLEDGE our political commitment to end hunger and, to this end, UNDERTAKE:
a. To work with and mobilize our societies and institutions, both public and private, for a renaissance in Africa that generates prosperity for all Africans;
b. To strengthen systems for inter-sectoral collaboration among institutions and for co-operation with non-state actors (farmers organizations, civil society, academia, and private sector) for the implementation of this agenda;
c. To increase and reprioritize public investment in agricultural development especially in elements that catalyzes private investment in the sector;
d. To compliment measures for increased agricultural productivity with social protection with attention to nutrition while ensuring environmentally sustainability;
e. To commit targeted budget lines within national budgets for social protection to enable the poor to re-engage in economic activity;
f. To increase support for youth as a guarantee for future agricultural prosperity as well as for smallholders, especially women, by making the sector attractive and by removing obstacles to effective performance.;
g. To guarantee the right of access to land and water resources and to improve capacity for their sustainable management.
3. REAFFIRM our commitment:
a. To accelerate implementation of the Maputo Declaration of July 2003 on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa as outlined within the CAADP framework;
b. To promote access to national funds as well as existing funds that support CAADP and to encourage Member States to also contribute to the catalytic Africa Solidarity Trust Fund for Food Security, launched in Brazzaville in April 2012 during the FAO Africa Regional Conference.
c. To initiate joint actions to mainstream and operationalize the Renewed, Unified Approach to End Hunger in Africa into the CAADP and related processes.

d. Ensure increased citizen participation in the design, development and implementation of policies and intervention as well as in monitoring delivery on commitments and accountability.

4. REQUEST AUC, FAO the Lula Institute with full engagement of Non- State Actors:

a. to support the Renewed Partnership to End Hunger in Africa by the year 2025;

b. to support the AU Member State Governments in the adoption, adaptation and up-scaling of best practices as appropriate towards advancing agricultural progress across Africa;

c. to promote and strengthen South-South cooperation by public institutions and Non-State actors for action and learning within the Renewed Partnership;

5. REQUEST Development Partners to strengthen the renewed partnership for ending hunger in their cooperation with Africa within the CAADP framework;

6. REQUEST the African Union Commission in co-operation with appropriate stakeholders including non-state actors:

a. Establish a multi-stakeholder platform, representative of the African society, which acts as an advisor for this renewed partnership and related matters.

b. Apply the CAADP mutual accountability framework to the monitoring and assessment of progress towards ending hunger by 2025 including facilitating and supporting adequate national joint sector reviews.

c. Develop advocacy strategies and messages in pursuing and Sustaining the CAADP Momentum

d. Honor every three years countries and selected stakeholder that makes significant progress or contribution towards ending hunger.

7. RENEW our commitment to achieving the objective of the High Level Meeting on Renewed Partnership to End Hunger in Africa, and COMMIT ourselves to the roadmap to be implemented primarily with our own resources and with the assistance of our technical and development partners.

Done at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this 1st day of JULY.2013

June 30, 2013

Joint Press Release

From reducing to eradicating hunger: a new common goal that can make the difference

30 June 2013, Addis Ababa – Africa has vibrant societies that are eager to achieve development and eradicate hunger, agreed African Ministers and other senior officials meeting at the African Union in Addis Ababa today, in the framework of the High Level Meeting of African and international leaders to end hunger in the continent. The Ministers were meeting ahead of the meeting of African Union Heads of State and Government tomorrow, under the theme “New, unified approaches to end hunger in Africa”.

The will to promote food security in Africa motivated the African Union, FAO and the Lula Institute to partner for a unified approach to end hunger in Africa by 2025 within the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework. About 15 Heads of State and Government positively responded to the invitation from the AU, FAO and Lula Institute to participate in the event and add value to CAADP by sharing knowledge on investment to vulnerable people.

The positive response from the Heads of State is important because there is growing consensus on the continent that strong political commitment is required for Africa to effectively strengthen resilience and eradicate hunger. Through CAADP, Africa has the foundation on which to build sustainable solutions to hunger, the Ministers said.

It is possible to end hunger

The HLM is gathering experiences from different African and non-African countries, such as Malawi, Angola, Ethiopia, Niger, China, Vietnam and Brazil. Combining investment in agriculture with social protection policies and inclusive growth development, many countries have managed to reduce hunger and poverty. Brazil has lifted 36 million people out of extreme poverty in the past ten years.

"Hunger will not be eradicated unless we include the poor in the government budget. I am convinced that ending hunger will only be possible if transformed into a state policy. The commitment of civil society is also important to the success of this process,” said founder and honorary President of Lula Institute, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

“I’m certain that every country in Africa and in the world can end hunger if they include the poor in their national budget. Economic growth alone is not enough," emphasized Lula.

The AUC Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Mrs Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, said: “The CAADP Framework is steadily gaining recognition as a comprehensive, multi-sector approach for boosting production and productivity, and also for improving resilience and food security, by scaling up agricultural investment and increasing economic opportunities for entire populations. It is, therefore advocated that CAADP provides the platform for building and facilitating the renewed partnerships as well as technically backstopping a unified approach for scaling up hunger eradication efforts at all implementation levels.”

On his part, Director-General of FAO, Mr. Graziano da Silva, stressed: "We can win the war against hunger only if we work together. This meeting in Addis Ababa will support our efforts by transforming political will into further and coordinated action”.

The Renewed Partnership has the intention to contribute to the CAADP agenda. The synergy from combining CAADP with its renewed momentum and social protection under the partnership for Unified Approaches to End Hunger in Africa would justify the ambition to achieve the following objectives:

 Eliminate hunger and poverty by 2025, in the same time frame as for the Sustaining CAADP Momentum (SCM);

 In the countries implementing the partnership’s approach, reduce hunger by 40 percent by 2017;

 Improve access to food all year round, reducing the need for external food aid within 10 years;

 Prioritize defeat of stunting, especially in children under 2 years, and to provide nutrition of pregnant women and young children;

 Double the productivity of staples within 5 to 10 years, without compromising the sustainability of farming systems; and

 Reduce food waste and losses to levels no worse than global averages, with the ambition to minimise them.

Promising expectations
Despite most countries in Africa experiencing economic growth of unprecedented proportions as well as improved governance and human development indicators in the last decade, the continent has 239 million undernourished people, representing nearly a quarter of the entire population.

The High Level meeting is expected to agree upon and commit to a set of principles, policies and strategies with a focus on strategies for eradicating hunger. Key among them will be support to integrate purpose-specific food-security and social-development strategies and actions into CAADP investment plans.

Today’s ministerial meeting was preceded by a Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on 29 June 2013, attended by more than 100 representatives of civil society, producer organizations, the private sector, cooperatives, the research community in Africa and other non-state actors.

This meeting allowed for these important stakeholders to voice their views and discuss their essential role in the formulation and implementation of this Renewed Partnership. Recognizing that the problems of food insecurity and malnutrition in Africa are multi-faceted and multidimensional, the solution requires a multi-stakeholder partnership, which is being promoted during this High Level Meeting. They stressed the importance of accountability, civil society participation and strong political commitment from governments to successfully promote food security.

The Renewed Partnership for ending hunger in Africa will be developed according to a Road Map and a Declaration adopted by the High Level Meeting.

Contact
HLM Meeting’s AU-FAO-Lula Institute Joint Communication team

Tel: Tel: (251) 11 551 77 00
Information and Communication Directorate
MUSABAYANAW@africa-union.org
African Union Commission

June 29, 2013

“Toward African Renaissance: Renewed Partnership for Unified Approach to End Hunger in Africa by 2025 within the CAADP Framework”.

June 25, 2013

Addis Ababa High Level Meeting to agree unified approach

25 June 2013, Rome, Italy - African Union Commission Chair Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva discussed the forthcoming High-Level international meeting on eradicating hunger in Africa in talks at FAO headquarters today.

The two-day High Level meeting, opening in Addis Ababa on June 30, and being attended by African and international leaders, aims to reach agreement on a new, unified approach to ending hunger in Africa by 2025 in the framework of the African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

The Meeting will be preceded on June 29 by a preparatory Multistakeholders Dialogue Session.

Dlamini Zuma and the Director-General agreed that the target date of 2025, proposed by the African Union and endorsed by FAO, will encourage stakeholders to work harder to achieve the goal of hunger eradication. Almost 240 million Africans, or 23 percent of the population, suffer from chronic undernourishment.

Praise for HLM preparations

Dlamini Zuma expressed her appreciation of the way the Addis Ababa meeting is being prepared. The meeting is co-organized by the African Union Commission, FAO and Brazil’s Instituto Lula.

Also discussed in today’s talks was the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund, which she described as “a great initiative”. Angola announced last week it will pay $10 million into the Fund. Equatorial Guinea earlier donated $30 million.

The Director-General noted that the fund will be a powerful instrument for hunger eradication and said it should be used to boost food security, increase the resilience of vulnerable populations and help improve social protection for the poorest relying on agriculture.

Zuma commended the fact that it focuses on the neediest countries and advocated for support to women in particular by funding programmes that secure their empowerment.

In answer to a question from the Director-General regarding the condition of former South African President Nelson Mandela, Dlamini Zuma said he was receiving the best possible health care.

Dlamini Zuma, also met at FAO with the group of African Permanent Representatives to the Organization, whom she briefed on the Addis Ababa meeting.