International summit on food production to open in Dakar

AFRICAN heads of state and government together with development partners will gather in Senegal to strategically map plans to unlock Africa's food-producing potential and position the continent to become a breadbasket to the world.

President Macky Sall of Senegal, and Chairperson of the African Union, will host the three-day Dakar II Food summit from 25 January, with the African Development Bank Group as co-host.

The agenda of the Summit whose theme is, Feed Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience, is the improvement of Africa's food nutrition and security; leveraging the continent's huge agricultural resources; boosting international trade, expanding market share, and production and processing value addition.

The continent is home to a third of the world's 850 million people living with hunger. African Development Bank Group President Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina said: “The Dakar II Summit will mobilise political commitment, development partner and private sector investment, establish much needed policies and strategically drive actions to deliver at scale.

“This landmark event will be a turning point towards food sovereignty and resilience for the entire continent.”

The summit is at the heart of the Bank Group's Feed Africa Strategy, one of the institution's High 5 priority areas to support African countries to significantly increase agricultural growth.

The summit is a follow-up to the 2015 inaugural edition, during which the Feed Africa Strategy for Agricultural Transformation (2016-2025) in Africa, was proposed.

During the summit, heads of state and government will convene sessions to develop transformational country-specific food and agriculture delivery compacts. Development

partners and the private sector will also play significant roles during sessions and the overall summit. African countries are also expected to make measurable political commitments to implement policies designed to eliminate extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition in Africa.

Dr Beth Dunford, Vice President for Agriculture at the African Development Bank, said: “The country compacts will provide targeted roadmaps toward self-sufficiency, and provide interventions that will make Africa's agriculture sector more business-oriented and commercially viable.”

Dunford added: “The Summit will be the one-stop-shop for African countries pursuing more and better investments that are public sector enabled, and private sector-led.”

The summit will take place at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Center in Diamniadio, 26 kilometres from Senegal's capital city Dakar.

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