The 2022 AGRF Summit, which opened yesterday in Kigali, is seeking catalytic solutions to diversify the coordinated and comprehensive action by stakeholders across many sectors, nurture innovations, and cultivate domestic solutions that will translate commitments made into practical strategies and advancement on the ground, as well as to reward and recognize champions and celebrate country pathway.
During the opening plenary of the AGRF 2022 summit, H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn, the former prime minister of Ethiopia and chair of AGRF, alleged that the 2021 UN food summit has brought a global shift from an increasing productivity paradigm to that of food systems transformation. He went on to say that “the link between food, agriculture, and concerns such as industrialization, trade, health, and nutrition has made the need for food systems thinking even more pressing. These are true of drivers of economic growth. Therefore, a food systems transformation is a key to economic transformation; we need this now. Anything short of this implies that Africa is likely to be the only hungry continent by 2030.”
“We need bold actions because the challenge we are facing requires strong and innovative leadership that improves coordination, strengthens our institutions, and delivers results in an integrated manner at scale “, he added.
The summit also featured the presentation of the 2022 Africa Agriculture Status Report (AASR22), which emphasizes the urgency of taking action to combat food insecurity on the continent. Fundamentally, the 2022 report urges strong leadership and coordination, and a need to develop capabilities to address food systems, but most crucially, it urges the mobilization of funding from the public and private sectors. The publication focuses on practical pathways to meet these ends.
Hailemariam & Roman Foundation
September 2022, Addis Ababa