With only two years remaining until the deadline set by the East African Community (EAC) Member States to end hunger in line with the continental agricultural development plan, hunger and malnutrition are on the rise, Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) have said.

During a plenary session held in Arusha on June 21, the lawmakers expressed concern about this situation, and urged the EAC Member States to take firm action to address it.

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To this end, EALA adopted the motion urging the EAC Council of Ministers and the Partner States to fast-track the implementation of the 2014 Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agriculture Growth and Transformation of Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods.

It was moved by MP Woda Jeremiah from South Sudan, who said it would help EAC "to attain food security and rational agricultural development.”

While justifying the motion, Jeremiah said that the Community has highlighted food security and nutrition as one of the strategic development objectives of the Community in the 6th EAC Development Strategy 2021/2022- 2025/26 and pledged to eliminate hunger, malnutrition, and extreme poverty in the East African region by the year 2023.

She recalled the commitment of the Partner States under the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), which enshrines Africa’s policy framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food security and nutrition security and economic growth agenda.

She underscored the related seven commitments expressed in the Malabo Declaration as a pledge to provide direction for Africa’s agriculture transformation for the period 2015 - 2025.

These include ending hunger in Africa by 2025, reducing poverty, and enhancing resilience to climate change and related risks, such as through irrigating crops to deal with drought.

However, she was concerned that despite the multiple policy instruments and measures adopted by Partner States, "the regional performance in respect of the implementation of Malabo Declaration is still low and the Community is still faced with a high prevalence of undernourishment mainly caused by insufficient food supply or poor distribution and stunting among children under five years.”

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According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022, by FAO, undernourishment jumped from eight per cent in 2019 to 9.8 per cent in 2021, globally, showing that up to 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021.

Of the hungry people in the world, the report indicated, more than one-third (278 million) were in Africa. And data imply that about one in every five Africans was hungry.

For MP Jeremiah, "the implementation of the Malabo Declaration remains essential to contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the Community and to the African Union Agenda 2063 of Africa we want.”

Meanwhile, she appreciated and recognised the Government and people of the Republic of Rwanda for being the only country on the Continent that is on track to achieve the goals of the seven commitments of the Malabo Declaration.

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Overall, while under CAADP and Malabo Declaration, African countries agreed to allocate at least 10 per cent of their national budgets to agriculture sector development, this commitment has not been honoured in Africa as a whole, and EAC in particular, according to MPs.

Speaking to The New Times, Françoise Uwumukiza (from Rwanda), Chairperson of EALA’s Committee on Agriculture, Tourism, and Natural Resources, said that countries should fulfil the commitments they made towards advancing the agriculture sector and ending hunger and malnutrition, including injecting at least 10 per cent of their public spending to agriculture growth.

"When that is not implemented, we continue to have issues of stunting among children, especially those under five years of age,” she said of the implications of inaction, adding that the entities in charge of evaluating nutrition at the global level have indicated that such numbers are increasing.

However, she said that food management should be improved to address post-harvest losses and wastes, ensure effective food distribution and make it easily accessible to people in need.