African leaders on Saturday in their thirty-third African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, called for more action to eradicate malnutrition by 2025.
The leaders in a statement CRN got acknowledged the scope of the challenge, but sounded optimism.
‘We can conquer hunger in Africa, I call on all our partners to continue to work with us to address hunger and malnutrition’, said Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara proposed that AU leaders should focus on tackling malnutrition as a theme for 2021.
President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Akin Adesina said the Bank would work to reduce malnutrition, including continental nutrition accountability scorecard.
‘We have 65 percent of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land. We have an abundance of freshwater and about 300 days of sunshine a year. There’s no reason for anyone to go hungry’, he said.
The Bank chief noted that African countries have shown strong progress to achieve the target of 50 percent of the world’s children being exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life.
The other targets are: halting the epidemic of obesity; reducing anemia in women of reproductive age; reducing low birth weight and reducing wasting, he added.
The thirty-third African Union Summit called on governments to strengthen African nutrition outcomes by promoting a multi-sectoral approach; position nutrition within food systems and spend more to combat malnutrition.