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By:
By Songa wa Songa and Agencies | |||||||||
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May,25-2012 16:14:46
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Tanzania is among the first countries to benefit from the new ten-year food security initiative for the African continent dubbed New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. The initiative was unveiled on Friday by US president Barack Obama in Washington while addressing the Global Agriculture and Food Security Symposium ahead of the G8 Summit. A press release from the White House said 45 private sector partners had already signed it, committing $3 billion to the initiative whose other beneficiaries are Ethiopia and Ghana. Tanzania and the other first beneficiaries did not make it because of any favours, but had convinced the international community through their own home-grown commitment and impressive achievable plans worth supporting, it said. President Obama said: “Governments, like those in Africa, that are committed to agricultural development and food security, agree to take the lead -- building on their own plans by making tough reforms and attracting investment. Donor countries -- including G8 members and international organisations -- agree to more closely align our assistance with these country plans.” Although he acknowledged other pressing challenges facing the world today, such as creating jobs, addressing the situation in the Eurozone and sustaining the global economic recovery, Mr Obama pointed out food insecurity as the number one headache. “But even as we deal with these issues, I felt it was also important, critical to focus on the urgent challenge that confronts some one billion men, women and children around the world -- the injustice of chronic hunger; the need for long-term food security,” he said. He said G8 would devote a special session to the challenge with the view of launching a major new partnership to reduce hunger and lift tens of millions of people from poverty. President Obama expressed optimism that the initiative would work because very many leaders in Africa, including Tanzania and others around the world, had made food security a priority. “And that’s why, shortly after I took office, I called on the international community to do its part. And at the G8 meeting three years ago in L’Aquila, Italy, that’s exactly what we did -- mobilising more than $22 billion for a global food security initiative,” he recalled. After decades in which agriculture and nutrition did not always get the attention they deserved, Mr Obama said, the fight against global hunger was put where it should be, at the forefront of global development. He explained that the whole idea was rooted in the conviction that true development involves, not only delivering aid, but also promoting economic growth -- broad-based, inclusive growth that actually helps nations develop and lifts people out of poverty. “The whole purpose of development is to create the conditions by which assistance is no longer needed, where people have the dignity and pride of being self-sufficient,” he said. President Obama said the new approach was evident in his country’s efforts to promote trade and investment, build on the outstanding work of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) as well as the global partnership to promote open governance. This empowers citizens and helps to fuel development as well as creates the framework and foundation for economic growth, he said. “As President, I consider this a moral imperative. As the wealthiest nation on earth, I believe the United States has a moral obligation to lead the fight against hunger and malnutrition, and to partner with others, he declared. The symposium was also attended by Tanzania president Jakaya Kikwete, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and President John Atta Mills of Ghana. | |||||||||
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