Nigeria Hosts 15 W/African Countries Over Agri-Food Systems
The Federal Government will host 15 countries from West Africa and the Sahel sub-region on Tuesday at the 13th Multidisciplinary Team Meeting (MDT13) of the United States Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for West Africa.
The meeting will deliberate on the food and nutrition situation in the area.
The three-day meeting opening would be both virtual and physical, attracting the attendance of over 200 delegates from the ECOWAS member states including senior officials, ministers and commissioners of agriculture, FAO staff, regional technical organisations, civil society among o The 200 expected participants would assess the current food and nutrition situation in the sub-region and its determinants.
They will also determine the needs and requirements of ECOWAS member states and key partner institutions to mitigate the situation.
Under the theme: ‘Joining efforts to build resilient Agrifood Systems in West Africa and the Sahel’, the countries would take stock of developments, achievements and challenges of the previous year, the alignment of national priorities with those of the sub-region and Africa Region at large and then plan for the emerging issues during 2022.
In a statement by FAO, the MDT13 comes at a time when the West African and the Sahel societies were amid rapid demographic and socioeconomic transformations, with population growth, urbanization, rising incomes, climate change and globalisation acting as key drivers of change.
At the same time, West Africa’s agrifood system faces continuing challenges of a declining natural resource base, recurrent natural and human-caused disasters, climate change, and rising insecurity.
In his message during his meeting with the FAO Nigeria delegation ahead of the meeting, the Federal Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, who is the host on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, Dr Mohammad Abubakar, said that this was a great opportunity for the country and the region as a whole to deliberate on food security and nutrition issues facing them.
He said: “This is quite an opportunity for the countries to come together. I have always advocated for Africa to cooperate more than we are doing now. We need more brotherly country to country
cooperation. I believe this is one of those opportunities of getting this message across.
“I can assure you of Nigeria’s full participation to make sure that our priorities as a country and those of the region align with FAO’s objectives for our benefits and development through
cooperation and coordination.”
Also, the FAO Representative in Nigeria and to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Fred Kafeero, said that the meeting would deliberate on the current food and nutrition situation in the subregion and its determinants, as well as on the needs and requirements of the member states and key partner institutions to mitigate the situation.
He added that the meeting will also be an opportunity to reinforce cohesion for enhanced collaboration, joint planning and mutual accountability in driving actions towards resilient agri-food systems, among key partners.
These partners include regional bodies and member states together with their counterparts in FAO and other UN Agencies, regional producer organisations and technical and financial partners.
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