AFRICAN NGOS, FEARING IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMMES, ADOPT CAIRO DECLARATION FOR FOOD SECURITY

AFRICAN NGOS, FEARING IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMMES,

ADOPT CAIRO DECLARATION FOR FOOD SECURITY

(Reissued as received.)

Cairo, 5 February (FAO) -- Heads of 30 African non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations (NGOs/CSOs) concluded a two-day consultation held in parallel to the twenty-second Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Africa (4-8 February).

Leaders of NGOs/CSOs expressed concern about new challenges resulting from the recent Doha meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on agreements on agricultural commodities.  The groups said that structural adjustment programmes continue to have a negative impact on the agricultural sector in Africa.

Participants stressed that achieving food security for Africa requires shared responsibility among governments, producer organizations, NGOs/CSOs, the FAO and other development partners and the private sector.  This is in line with the Plan of Action adopted by world leaders at the World Food Summit held in Rome in 1996, the consultation's report said.

The 1996 Summit also resolved to reduce the number of chronically hungry people in the world by half, at a minimum, to 400 million by 2015.  To reach that goal, the number of the hungry would have to drop at an average annual rate of

20 million.  FAO's findings have indicated that the annual rate of reduction has averaged at about 6 million people in the late 1990s.  A “World Food Summit:  five years later” will convene in June, 2002 in Rome in an effort to mobilize political will and financial resources needed to meet the target set by the 1996 Summit.

The NGOs/CSOs consultation produced a Cairo Declaration on Food Security in Africa and a detailed plan of action aimed at translating previous political commitments into concrete actions to promote food security in order to reduce poverty in Africa.

The plan of action identifies as priorities the achievement of food sovereignty and the right to adequate food; effective models of agricultural production; peace, democracy and good governance; programmes to curb the growing HIV/AIDS threat; public health; gender equality; financing for agriculture; and the improvement of rural infrastructures.

African NGO/CSO leaders also called for the amendment of African constitutions to include the right to adequate and safe food for all; to develop a code of conduct for the right to food; to raise consumer awareness about genetically modified organisms; to monitor the effect of WTO decisions on African agriculture; and to support and enhance indigenous food preservation methods.

The Cairo Declaration on Food Security attached great importance to the success of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and called for the establishment of national and regional working groups among government, FAO and NGO/CSO representatives to support it.

The NGO/CSO consultation's report will be presented at the ongoing twenty-second FAO Regional Conference for Africa for adoption.  This is the first of a series of regional conferences held in the run-up to the “World Food Summit:  five years later”.  The FAO will also assist NGOs and CSOs in organizing similar events at the remaining regional conferences.

For further information, please contact Michael Hage, FAO Information Officer at (00 2) 0 10 17 72 195, in Egypt dial 0101772195; e-mail: Michael.hage@fao.org <mailto:Michael.hage@fao.org&gt; or consult Web site

www.fao.org http://www.fao.org, then click on FAO Regional Conferences 2002.

* *** *