The FAO's Regional Conference for Africa (ARC) reaffirmed African commitment to addressing food security and called for increasing: productivity and market access for smallholders; reducing vulnerability to threats to food security; and improving governance for sustainable use of natural resources.
Participants called for creation of the Africa Trust Fund to complement international financial resources for food security.
30 April 2012: During the Regional Conference for Africa (ARC) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), participants called for the creation of the Africa Trust Fund to complement international financial resources to help fight hunger and scale up programmes to respond food security challenges. The FAO will join in country-led consultations to draft a proposal for the Fund.
The FAO’s ARC took place in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, from 23-27 April 2012. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva highlighted that the Fund would enable African solidarity in responding to regional food security crises, including the most recent in the Sahel and Horn of Africa. He called in particular on “oil-producing countries to invest some of these resources in agriculture in a sustainable manner.” Participants underscored current funding gaps to address food security issues caused by recurrent droughts, which reached US$239 million for the entire year for the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. They thanked FAO for supporting the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).
The Conference also reaffirmed African commitment to addressing food security, and called for: increasing productivity and market access for smallholders; reducing vulnerability to threats to food security; and improving governance for sustainable use of natural resources. The next ARC will take place in Tunisia in 2014. [FAO Press Release]