INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

When: 14 – 15th March, 2016

Where: Alisa Hotel, Accra, Ghana.

What: The ECOWAS Regional Workshop on Mainstreaming Nutrition into

National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs).

Background: The Malabo Declaration on “Accelerated Africa Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods” clearly articulated seven key commitments for sustaining the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development (CAADP) implementation momentum in the next decade. Among these commitments is the commitment to “ending hunger in Africa by 2025, which pledges to reduce child malnutrition by lowering the rate of stunting and underweight in children to less than five years to 10 and 5 percent, respectively, by 2025.

In response to this expectation, the African Union Commission and the NEPAD Agency produced the Implementation Strategy and Roadmap (IS&RM) and Program of Work. Also developed and launched was the CAADP Results Framework 2015-2025 as a key tool for translating Africa's agricultural development vision and goals into tangible outcomes and for tracking, monitoring and reporting on progress as well as for facilitating mutual learning and accountability.

Objectives: The overall objective of this workshop therefore is to constitute a space for sensitization, dialogue and sharing of experiences among Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on how to better integrate the linkages between agriculture and food systems and nutrition into their regional food and nutrition security investment strategies. To also support coherent support to countries for accountability on their commitment to nutrition under the CAADP process, as well as International Conference on Nutrition (ICN-2) and Malabo Declarations.

More specifically, the ECOWAS Nutrition Workshop aims to attain the following objectives:

a. Update the RECs on the nutrition situation in their respective sub-regions;

b. Dialogue on how RECs can support countries on their commitments to improving nutrition outcomes of their population through efficient nutrition sensitive food and agriculture systems under the CAADP process;

c. To take stock of lessons learned from the RECs on their efforts to integrate nutrition in their regional agricultural strategies and to support countries in mainstreaming nutrition into National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans (NAFSIPs) and discuss challenges and opportunities;

d. To deliberate on how Regional institutions including AU, NEPAD, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and others could support REC’s to effectively support countries to deliver results;

e. Discuss modalities of establishment of sub regional task forces for follow-up actions

Participants: The participants will be drawn from the AUC, NEPAD, RECs and relevant organizations that deal with Nutrition.

Journalists are invited to cover the opening ceremony on Monday 14th March 2016 at 9:00 Am

For more information on the ECOWAS Nutrition Workshop contact:

Mr. Laila Lokosang,

CAADP Adviser,

Food and Nutrition Security,

Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture,

African Union Commission.

Email: lokosangl@africa-union.org

For further information:

Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@african-union.org<mailto:DIC@african-union.org I Website: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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Directorate of Information and Communication
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