Syracuse, Italy-The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on Thursday reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Africa beyond 2025.
The Director-General was invited to participate in a G7 panel session with agriculture ministers in Syracuse, Italy, on how best to support Africa's post-Malabo agenda. Agreed by African heads of state and government at the 2014 African Union Summit in Equatorial Guinea, the Malabo Agenda set out an ambitious list of concrete agricultural goals to be achieved by 2025.
"In 2023, more than one in five Africans were affected by hunger, amounting to nearly 300 million people," said Qu and added that "without accelerated action and increased resource mobilization, it is projected that the number of people facing hunger in Africa will rise by an additional 10 million by 2030." The continent remains the most food-insecure region in the world, with 58 percent of its population experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity.
"Success is possible," Qu said, "but we need to all work together, across the continent and with all partners if we are to achieve the transformation of African agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable."
Looking ahead, FAO remains committed to supporting the post-Malabo process, which highlights the necessity for a comprehensive transformation of the continent's agrifood systems that effectively, efficiently, and coherently addresses food insecurity, poverty, and the impacts of the climate crisis.
FAO's involvement in Africa
FAO has always supported the Malabo Process and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme. Since 2017, it has been collaborating with the African Union Commission to contribute to the Programme's biennial reporting mechanism, providing capacity-building for monitoring the Malabo Declaration's commitment to enhancing the resilience of livelihoods and production systems to the impacts of the climate crisis and other related risks.
This work has been carried out using FAO's Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis through the provision of technical support to country experts, mapping national household data for all of Africa's 54 countries, and conducting several training sessions. Recently, FAO has launched a digital toolkit designed to empower countries to generate the required indicators.
"I wish to reaffirm FAO's continued focus and commitment to supporting Africa in achieving the post-Malabo agenda," said the Director-Genral.
After January 2025, FAO's existing data, tools, and approaches will support the design, implementation, and tracking of the post-Malabo agenda.
For example, FAO's policy monitoring and public expenditure analysis will help governments track their commitments and optimize their policies. Furthermore, the FAO Global Roadmap to achieving SDG2 without breaching the 1.5°C threshold will ensure that the continent's actions align with and benefit from the global agenda.
FAO's support extends beyond providing knowledge and evidence to countries. It is also driving changes on the ground. For example, the FAO Flagship Hand-In-Hand Initiative supports 40 countries across the continent.
The Director-General said this year's Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum, which is due to take place in mid-October at FAO's headquarters in Rome under the umbrella of the World Food Forum 2024, will witness 13 African countries engage with investors to accelerate transformation through concrete projects.
