“The AGRF has become the landmark annual event on the continent bringing governments and partners together around food security and making safe, nutritious foods produced in a sustainable way available to all Africans,” said GAIN Executive Director Lawrence Haddad. “AGRA is thus a critical partner for GAIN in helping deliver strategies which African government are adopting in the face of the current food crisis.” Haddad added.

The cooperation agreement covers GAIN support to the AGRF and working with AGRA to strengthen linkages between smallholder farmers and African agri-food companies, emphasizing better access to finance and technical skills for SMEs involved in the agri-food sector.

“As the impact of climate change on African agriculture grows, we need to accelerate actions to promote investments for sustainable agriculture ensuring that Africans everywhere can have better access to safe and nutritious foods.” Said AGRA President, Agnes Kalibata. “As we double down to strengthen delivery systems and the agriculture ecosystem across countries in Africa, GAIN’s expertise in nutrition and food systems will be a major support to this”.

Joint efforts are being made to strengthen nutritious food systems thinking in the African agriculture and Agri food landscape. This includes work on the development of food system metrics which will help governments and development partners plan to improve access to and availability of nutritious foods. “At the AGRF we will together be launching a new report on tools for assessing progress in food system transformation,” said Haddad.

“On behalf of all of us at AGRA we congratulate the Board and staff of GAIN on your 20thAnniversary this year, and we are delighted to be renewing our partnership with you at this time” added Kalibata.

Source: https://agra.org/