Feeding Africa at a Time of Climate Change - a Major Development Challenge of Our Era, says Kofi A. Annan

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Nov. 4, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a keynote speech today, former UN Secretary-General and Chair of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Kofi A. Annan will argue that feeding Africa at a time of climate change is one of the major development challenges of our era.

Speaking at the Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in The Hague on Thursday 4 November, Mr. Annan will:

• Highlight that Africa faces a unique combination of challenges, as the only continent which fails to grow enough food to meet its own needs, and the continent most under threat from climate change.
• Call for greater investment in African agriculture to deliver food and nutrition security, reduce poverty and combat climate change, underlining that each 'development dollar' spent on agriculture in Africa is two to three times more effective at reducing poverty than development money spent in other ways.
• Stress that "our hopes for a fairer, more prosperous and peaceful world" depend on resolving the linked problems of food security and climate change.

Mr. Annan will argue: "Feeding Africa, at a time of climate change, is one of the major development challenges of our time. Africa today needs new investment in agriculture on a par with that which Asia and Latin America received in the 1960s and 1970s. According to the World Bank, every development dollar invested in agriculture in Africa has two to three times the positive impact on poverty than the same dollar invested in other economic sectors."

"Africa is the only continent which fails to grow enough food to meet its own needs. It alone has failed to see agricultural productivity keep pace with its growing population. One in three of those without sufficient food live in Africa. The continent also faces the greatest threat from climate change. Rising temperatures and changes to rainfall patterns will have a devastating impact because of heavy reliance on rain-water for crops."

"These damaging changes are taking place in a continent where 80 per cent of the population – some 500 million people south of the Sahara - depend on farming to support and feed their families. Without concerted action, we will see many more people forced to leave their land, increased famines, tensions and instability. Without finding solutions to these complex and inter-related challenges, we simply will not meet our hopes for a fairer, more prosperous and peaceful world."

The Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change – also known as Down2Earth – is being held in The Hague from 31 October to 4 November. Representatives from over 80 countries, international organisations, companies and civil society organisations will attend. The aim is to achieve concrete progress towards a more sustainable, climate-smart agricultural sector that can also continue to feed the growing world population. Please visit: www.afcconference.com.

A full copy of the speech is available at www.agra-alliance.org

Notes to Editors

• Since June 2007 Mr. Annan has been Chairman of AGRA, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.  AGRA is a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. Please visit: www.agra-alliance.org. In September 2010, Mr. Annan was awarded the Norman E. Borlaug Medallion by the World Food Prize Foundation in recognition of his commitment to improving food security as Chair of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
• Kofi Annan served two terms, from 1997 to 2006, as UN Secretary-General. In 2001, Annan and the United Nations were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Since leaving the United Nations, Kofi Annan has established a Foundation through which he continues to provide leadership on critical global issues, particularly preserving and building peace and facilitating more equitable sharing of the benefits of globalization, by promoting poverty alleviation, good governance, human rights and the rule of law.  Please visit: www.kofiannanfoundation.org

SOURCE AGRA