The African Union and African Heads of State and Governments have designated 2022 as the Year of Nutrition for Africa. We, GAIN’s country leaders in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Mozambique, applaud this initiative simply because while there has been a lot of progress across Africa, more needs to be done, in particular to secure the investments needed to implement a nutrition action plan that reduces malnutrition across the continent.
Three in four Africans cannot afford a healthy diet with the right nutrition needed to enable healthy living. We therefore pledge to strengthen food systems in our respective countries to ensure the right nutrition for the people who need it most.
OUR PLEDGE
To this end, the African leaders of GAIN pledge to help end malnutrition by:
- Supporting and advising governments, businesses and development partners as they build and mobilise food and nutrition plans to advance nutrition
- Targeting the most vulnerable, especially women of reproductive age, pregnant women and nursing mothers, adolescent boys and girls, as well as infants and young children below the age of five
- Working with the private sector to improve food systems, and the consumption of nutritious and safe food for all people
- Extensively increasing consumer awareness of the value of consuming nutritious diets.
Fixing this challenge is a key part of the future for every African, their families and communities, and to powering the economic development of the continent.
Signed,
Leah Kaguara, Country Director, GAIN Kenya
Dr. Michael Ojo, Country Director, GAIN Nigeria
Enock Musinguzi, Country Director, GAIN Tanzania
Gaspar Cuambe, Country Director, GAIN Mozambique
Charl van der Merwe, Ag Country Director, GAIN Ethiopia