Recognising the fact that Eastern Africa is home to over 136 million undernourished people – more than half of the number of undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa – the high-level Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) of FAO Subregional Office for Eastern Africa (SFE) stressed the urgent need for transformative change to prevent deepening disruptions to the agrifood system in the Subregion.
During its three-day Meeting, the MDT took stock of the implementation by the Subregion and SFE countries of the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-2031, identified priority actions and resources needed to deliver on FAO’s Medium Term Plan (2022-2025) and Programme of Work and Budget (2022-2023).
In its resolution, the MDT agreed to scale up interventions to transform the agrifood systems to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable to avert existing and upcoming food security challenges in the Subregion.
Hailing the MDT Members for their dedication to duty and professionalism, David Phiri, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Eastern Africa and Representative to the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, in his opening remarks, underscored the significance of scaling up successful interventions along the lines of global and regional priorities.
“As the situation around us changes, we have learned to change and become resilient and adaptive. One of our adaptations is implementing FAO’s new Strategic Framework (2022-31) encompassed in the 4 Betters to guide our work. The Framework, along with the African regional priorities and the Countries’ Priority Frameworks (CPFs) agreed upon with member states, and direct interactions with Regional Economic Communities have informed the development of an SFE Priority Framework with four major subregional priorities and 14 areas of intervention on which SFE technical assistance will focus in the coming years,” underlined Phiri.
Recalling that Somalia, South Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia were among those highlighted as hunger hotspots in the recent FAO and WFP report, Abebe Haile-Gabriel, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, applauded the efforts exerted by SFE and its member states to avert major food crises in these countries.
“SFE is by far the largest in all FAO regions in mobilizing resources and partnerships to respond to emergency and resilience challenges. I want to congratulate the Team and the support from our colleagues at Headquarters. I also congratulate the Ethiopian Government for demonstrating exemplary leadership in boosting wheat production. We have an opportunity to scale up these successful experiences and share across the African continent,” commended Haile-Gabriel.
The 16th Multidisciplinary Team Meeting
The Meeting discussed the performance of the FAO programme in the Subregion. The progress on, and lessons learned from, the implementation of the recommendations of the 15th MDT; Subregional Priority Framework; Resource Mobilization and Communication Strategies; Performance Targets and Budget, as well as the rollout of the FAO Corporate Initiatives, including the Hand-in-Hand (HiH), One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) and Green Cities were discussed. The MDT further discussed building resilience against external shocks – COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war and climate shocks. A particular highlight of the meeting was sharing best practices in programmatic and communication works of the Subregion.
Dr Fikru Regassa, State Minister at the Ministry of Agriculture of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, in his remarks, underscored FAO’s unwavering support in accelerating agricultural and rural transformation in Ethiopia and beyond.
“We are at a critical juncture as Ethiopia enters into a period of realizing the promises of the peace agreement and the peace dividend. FAO’s historical and ongoing assistance is needed more than ever before in participating in national initiatives, using the Ethiopian Food Systems approach as a means to accelerate a holistic implementation of the SDGs. I believe food systems transformation is a common agenda and a priority among countries in our region and it is my sincere hope that FAO will give it due priority for technical assistance,” said Regassa.
The MDT Meeting culminated in a field visit at Yirgalem Integrated Agro Industrial Park – home to a number of agro-industries. FAO is working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Ethiopia to empower value chain actors, including smallholder farmers, who are engaged in the supply and processing of priority commodities.
Credit:FAO