UNITED NATIONS TO CONVENE REGIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD INSECURITY IN THE SAHEL

UNITED NATIONS TO CONVENE REGIONAL CONSULTATION ON FOOD INSECURITY IN THE SAHEL

DAKAR/GENEVA/ NEW YORK, 14 November (OCHA) -- For the first time, the United Nations will, tomorrow, convene a joint dialogue between humanitarian and development actors on the issue of food security in Africa’s Sahel subregion.  To be held from 15 to 16 November in Dakar, Senegal, the meeting will focus on both the immediate and the structural causes of the subregion’s recurring food crises as part of efforts to mitigate and prevent future crises.

“It is unacceptable that, in a world of plenty, the majority of a population of more than 68 million people are malnourished or constantly threatened by famine, that children die because they are badly or insufficiently nourished”, said Margareta Wahlström, United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Since 1972, the countries of the Sahel ( Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal) have suffered acute food and nutritional crises that endanger the lives and health of the population and impede development on a regular basis -- approximately every ten years.

“Certainly, factors such as drought and locusts contribute to these crises, but there are also structural and cultural factors”, said Hervé Ludovic de Lys, Director of the West Africa regional office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).  “It is these structural factors that will be considered during the regional consultation, which we have organized with UNDP, in order to make these food crises at last a part of Africa’s past”, he added.

The Dakar conference will be attended by Ms. Wahlström, as well as by Senegal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio; and the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Ahmédou Ould-Abdallah. 

Kathleen Cravero, Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) and representatives of the nine concerned countries, as well as other development partners, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and experts on the Sahel will also participate in the meeting.

The conference will be held from 15 to 16 November at the Meridian President Hotel in Dakar.  Tuesday’s opening session will be open to the press, and a press conference will be held at the meeting’s close, on Wednesday, 16 November, at 6 p.m. (local time).

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHA New York, tel.:  +1 917 367 5126, mobile:  +1 917 892 1679; Kristen Knutson, OCHA New York, tel.:  +1 917 367 9262; Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, tel.:  +41 22 917 2653, mobile:  +41 79 473 4570; Maya Siblini, OCHA Dakar, tel.:  +221 867 2757, mobile:  +221 639 2018.

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For information media • not an official record