Discussion on regional food insecurity kicks off in Kampala
The East African Community member states have started a two-day discussion on food insecurity and nutrition in Kampala, Uganda.
The workshop is aimed at addressing the issues of food insecurity and nutrition challenges facing the countries in the region.
The USAID-Kenya/East Africa-sponsored workshop also intends to provide a platform for partner states to verify the scope and content of the bulletin.
The members will ensure ownership of the information in the bulletin and deliberate and agree on a sustainable mechanism for regular updating, production and dissemination of the bulletin quarterly.
In a statement released by EAC yesterday, the bloc’s secretary-general, Dr. Peter Mathuki, said the draft regional FNS bulletin gives updates on the regional food security and nutrition status.
“The bulletin will be published quarterly with an up-to-date and detailed account of the food and nutrition security situation in the region. It is also important to note that it is now a requirement that the SCAFS must be regularly updated on the status of food and nutrition security in the region,” he said.
“This is necessary to inform policy decisions on increasing access to quality, affordable, safe and nutritious food.”
He urged the experts attending the workshop to do their best to enrich the draft bulletin in a manner that will make it valuable to policymakers and other stakeholders.
Food and Nutrition Security is one of the flagship programs implemented by the EAC Secretariat, designed to address challenges that the region is facing in food and nutrition security.
In January 2019, the Council of Ministers adopted a five-year regional strategy and action plan on food and nutrition security to help move forward and actualise the regional food security objectives.
The participants at the workshop were drawn from partner states’ ministries responsible for agriculture, livestock and fisheries.
Other key stakeholders were the Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC), and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA).
