WFP marks Africa Food & Nutrition Security Day

The World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday marked the  Africa Food and Nutrition Security Day by highlighting the importance of regional markets and locally produced food in increasing access to food on both national and household levels.

'WFP works with governments and communities across Africa to break the cycle of hunger that is so pervasive,' the WFP Deputy Executive Director, Sheila Sisulu, stated in Rome, Italy that: 'We're helping to apply country-led hunger solutions while promoting growth and development.

At the same time, we are providing life-saving assistance to those suffering from crises, such as the drought in the Horn of Africa or the post-election population displacement in Côte d'Ivoire.'

In 2010, WFP reached almost 46 million people in more than 40 countries in Africa. WFP's assistance on the continent focuses on emergency relief, post-crisis recovery and longer-term programmes to reduce chronic hunger and malnutrition.

'Here in Ghana, WFP  undertakes a mix of recovery and development programmes, focusing on nutrition, education, community food fortification, income-generation, local procurement and support to smallholder farmers,' said WFP Ghana Representative and Country Director, Ismail Omer.

'Right now, nutrition has taken centre stage. We are working with the Ghana Health Service, other ministries, UN agencies and partners, on the new global initiative Scaling Up Nutrition, which aims to reduce under-nutrition in the most critical period of a child's life, the first 1,000 days.'

This year, the theme of the Africa Food and Nutrition Security Day is 'Investing in Intra-African Trade for Food and Nutrition Security, 'a crucial issue as commodity markets remain volatile. With global food prices expected to remain high, WFP is undertaking several initiatives to scale up social protection activities and to strengthen local and regional markets.

REGIONAL PROCUREMENT
WFP is the single largest purchaser of humanitarian food assistance in Africa, buying more than US$ 2 billion worth of food from African farmers and traders between 2003 and 2010. These purchases have allowed WFP to deliver food assistance more quickly and at a lower price.

SUPPORTING SMALL-SCALE FARMERS
 Food security in developing countries can be strengthened by empowering smallholder farmers. WFP's Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative is a pilot programme in 15 African countries that

is providing farmers with the expertise to improve the quality and size of their yields and better connect them to markets.

SAFETY NETS
WFP places a strong emphasis on social protection activities for vulnerable populations, including the prevention and treatment of mother/child malnutrition, school meals, assistance to families affected by HIV/AIDS and job creation and training programmes.

'One of  our  primary  objectives is to help Ghanaian farmers market their produce to WFP  operations in other West African countries.  Currently, our  programmes  in  the  country  are  considered a viable market by local food suppliers  and farmers, from whom we have bought over 41,000 metric tons of various food  items valued  at US$21 million, over the past three years,' said  Ismail  Omer. 'We hope that we will soon be able to improve the food and nutrition security of smallholder farmers by putting more money into their pockets through local procurement under our P4P initiative.'

Instructively, WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries.