Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu (left), Chairman, Nigeria Zero Hunger Forum, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chairman, UBA Plc and Sub-Committee Chairman of Resource Mobilisation of Zero Hunger Forum, Mr. Tony Elumelu, Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole and Director, United Nations World Food Programme, Mr. Stanlake Samkange at the launch of the Nigeria Zero Hunger Strategic Review Report at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
Nigeria may have taken the bold step to end hunger, achieve food security & improved nutrition and to promote sustainable agriculture, with the launch of a strategic plan and roadmap to achieve zero hunger by 2030.
Tagged: “Synthesis Report of the Nigeria Zero Hunger Strategic Review”, the plan, launched in Abuja, last week, articulates what the country needs to do to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2)-one of the recently adopted global goals that seek to address the problems by 2030.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who chairs the development of the 60-page report said it would support and encourage government to implement the policies, strategies, plans, and programmes that have been formulated over the years, and to do so with a focus on achieving Zero Hunger by 2030, if not earlier.
To tap its rich agricultural potential and lift over 13 million people from hunger, Nigeria in 2015 endorsed a set of 17 SDGs, as part of efforts to achieve sustainable development in general.
Obasanjo said the launch of the report provided a framework that would “unlock the potential of our nation and emancipate our dear country from the shackles of hunger and poverty.”
He noted that the establishment of the Nigeria Zero Hunger Forum based at International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), would ensure that recommendations contained in the Synthesis Report and the individual Sub-committee reports are implemented.
“We must do all we can so that this effort does not suffer the fate of previous endeavours,” he stressed.
He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for endorsing the Nigeria Zero Hunger Strategic Review, as well as, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Ms Ertharin Cousin, for funding and requesting that the review be conducted, and gave special thanks to the African Development Bank (AfDB) for providing majority of the funds, which financed the review.
The Director of Policy and Program, WFP, Mr Stanlake Samkange, who commended Nigeria for developing the strategic document, emphasised that the report was the first in West Africa and would be a guide for other countries to emulate.
He reiterated that the task of ending hunger cannot be solved by a single organisation and lauded the collaborations of the different actors in the development of the report.
The inauguration of the Synthesis Report will be backed with immediate implementation in four states-Benue, Ebonyi, Ogun and Sokoto, beginning this month.
By January 2019, eight more states will be added and by January 2021, all the 36 states, plus Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), will be included.
The Director General of the IITA, Dr Nteranya Sanginga said the report was a departure from other previous reports in the sense that it would be backed by immediate actions.