NO AFRICAN SHOULD GO TO BED ON AN EMPTY STOMACH – HH
LUSAKA – 17/07/22
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says no African should go to bed without food because the continent is too endowed.
The President was speaking in his welcoming remarks at the 4th AU mid-year coordination meeting at Kenneth Kaunda wing – Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka today.
The theme of the four day meetings is: “Building resilience in nutrition and food security on the African continent: strengthen agriculture, accelerate the human capital, social and economic development.”
President Hichilema said the 4th AU mid-year coordination meeting brought together members of the bureau of the assembly of the AU and the chairpersons of the regional economic communities in Africa, to discuss pertinent issues related to the African integration agenda and other issues affecting the continent.
The President said the 4th AU mid-year coordination meeting was borne out of the need to ensure efficiency in the execution of continental programmes for the benefit of Africans.
He said the meeting’s theme is a reminder of the urgent need for deep reflection and paying special attention to the welfare and wellbeing of Africans.
President Hichilema said with favourable agronomical conditions, the African continent is well placed to produce enough food to feed its people.
“There is no reason why one African should go to bed without food. God blessed us with natural resource endowments to be able to produce food for all our people [and] also to supply excess food to the communities outside our continent,” he said.
To effectively address the impact of climate change and other shocks, we wish to encourage member States to consider signing and ratifying the Africa risk capacity treaty which will open up assistance channels in planning, preparing and responding to these shocks in a timely and cost-effective manner.
He emphasised that in order to counter the growing global problem of food insecurity, that is being worsened by rising costs of food, energy and agricultural inputs, there is need to raise the levels of productivity in agriculture, value addition through agro-processing, among others.
“Further, to expedite the economic transformation of our continent, African countries need to enhance intra-continental trade and take full advantage of opportunities presented by the Africa continental free trade area, which offers a 1.3 billion market size for products from within the continent,” President Hichilema said.
Meanwhile, President Hichilema said there can be no meaningful economic development in Africa or elsewhere, in the absence of peace and security.
“We must work together to silence the guns and all hotbeds of violence on our continent,” said President Hichilema.
(C) THE FALCON