KEYNOTE BREAKFAST

Thursday, October 16, 2003

Keynote Speaker:  H.E. Wilberforce Kisamba-Mugerwa

___________________________________________________________________

Defeating Hunger and Famine: The View from Africa
H.E. Wilberforce Kisamba-Mugerwa
Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries
The Republic of Uganda

            Thank you for that introduction, and I hope you haven’t raised much expectation. I will endeavor to present our view. Mr. President of the World Food Prize, Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, your excellencies distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen.

            At first it was His Excellency the President who was invited, and would have loved to be here in person but due to other state duties he was unable to come. I wish to assure you that I have been asked by His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda, to represent him at this World Food Prize Laureate award ceremony. I sincerely convey his warm greetings to you all.

            Today’s ceremony is important as it focuses exclusively on goals adopted at the U.N. Millennium Summit in the year 2000. These goals, as you all know, were set specifically to address those issues that result into hunger and poverty the world over.

            Hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and gender inequalities in education are all issues of great concern especially to us in the developing countries.

 One of the daunting challenges we are facing in this century is eliminating hunger, and attaining sustainable food security for all.

            During the World Food Summit in 1996 in Rome, Uganda was one of the 185 countries whose Heads of State and Government who pledged their political commitment “to achieving food security for all and to eradicate hunger in all their countries”. The immediate concern of the summit was to reduce the number of undernourished people, then estimated at 840 million  by half in the year 2015, a commitment that required reducing the number of hungry  people by 22 each year.

            According to Food and Agricultural Organization, of the aforementioned 840 million undernourished people, 799million were from developing countries,27 million from countries in  transition and 11 million from developed countries. It is also on record that the highest percentage of the undernourished population estimated at 34% is found in the Sub-Saharan Africa. These levels are good indicators of the magnitude of the problem of food and nutrition insecurity and poverty in the world, whose solutions lie in the implementation of the goals adopted at the Millennium Summit.

            While the target of the World Food Summit was to halve the number of the malnourished people the world over, FAO indicates that the rate of progress has been too slow at 8 million per year in the 1990’s declining further to 6 million per year in 2001.

The consequences of widespread hunger and malnutrition are tremendous as they impair economic performance not only of individuals but also of nations. It causes stunting, both in  mental and physical development, reduced immunity, ill-health,  reduced life expectancy and premature deaths. The formidable task lying ahead of us all is to direct our efforts towards reducing food insecurity rampant especially in developing countries, to foster their sustainable economic development.

This is indeed a challenge which I believe needs to be seriously addressed.         In the same vein, I appreciate FAO suggesting that member countries hold a one-day food symposium during the week of the World Food Day with the theme ”International Alliance Against Hunger”. Hunger is a global monster that must be jointly tackled quickly.

            Developing countries greatly depend on agriculture for their food security and incomes. ... Their economies  depend on trade in agricultural products, whose main market is the developed countries. Unfortunately agriculture  in developed countries is highly protected and subsidized. This makes access by developing countries to developed country markets difficult, if not impossible, and also weakens our agriculture through food dumping on our markets. Hence, exacerbating the problem of poverty, hunger and food insecurity.

            Widespread hunger in the developing countries result from the deeply rooted poverty and other factors.  It is estimated that between 5% to 10% of food insecurity can be traced to specific events such as droughts and/or floods, armed conflicts, political, social and economic disruptions, floods and diseases. When these shocks strike countries already faced with endemic poverty they lead to disasters. The immediate responses in such cases is hurried food aid to save lives. According to FAO, in 2002, 32 countries were faced with exceptional food emergencies with an estimated 67 million people requiring emergency food aid.   What we should start focusing on globally is forging modalities, to foster the capacity of the people in hunger-prone countries to access food on a sustainable basis through trade and food self-sufficiency.

            Conflict is one of the most common causes of poverty, food insecurity and hunger in Africa. Displacement of people, disruption of agricultural production and food distribution leaves millions of people at risk of hunger, starvation and famine. In some cases food insecurity exacerbates conflict particularly when compounded by other shocks and stresses. The interface... between food insecurity and conflict, therefore, has critical implications for socio-economic development programs which this symposium, in particular, and the international community in general should strive to appropriately address..

             Uganda is generally self sufficient in food production and thus a food-secure country. The country has the right conditions for the production of crops, livestock and fisheries, both in terms of quality and quantity for food self sufficiency and export.

 However, Uganda’s high agricultural potential, is threatened by a number of factors which make the country vulnerable to famine and hunger, the primary ones being poverty, low agricultural productivity due to overdependence on rain-fed agriculture, declining soil fertility, poor farming practices and environmental degradation.

 The country also faces problems of malnutrition; around 40% of the deaths among children are due to malnutrition. Over 38% of the children below five years are stunted; 4% are wasted, and 22.5% are underweight. Micro-nutrient deficiencies are also common contributing to the high rate of malnutrition. Other causes of food insecurity include inadequate food intake, ignorance, taboos, lifestyles and effects of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.

            Civil strife, conflicts and occasional natural disasters due to climate change, such as drought, floods and landslides have also caused untold hunger. Poverty, as one of the determinats of malnutrition, still abounds 35% of the total population live on less than one dollar per day. In rural areas, poverty is often linked to heavy reliance on environment by the poor for food, energy, housing, health, employment and income generation.

            These activities are slowly ending in environmental degradation, which is evidenced by declining soil fertility, pasture degradation, decreasing fish stocks, and deforestation. These have contributed to reduced agricultural productivity and loss of forest cover, and they are progressively impacting heavily on the livelihoods of the poor and constraining their ability to increase income. Considering that ignoring these concerns would plunge the lives of Ugandans deeper into spates of   hunger and poverty, the government has made various interventions, which I want to share interest with you.

            Since 1996,absolute poverty in Uganda has been substantially reduced from 56% in 1992/93 to 42%, in 1997/98 and to 35% in 2000. Although these figures indicate some progress, the absolute number of people living in poverty is still high ,posing a big challenge to the government.  

            Two programs have been introduced. One is Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), and the Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA); both aimed at reduction of poverty. The Poverty Eradication Action Plan aims at improving the welfare of the population and increasing their incomes by promoting the modernization of agriculture, improving access to healthcare and education services, clean water supplies and to strengthen infrastructure and governance. The PEAP, developed through a widely consultative process involving diverse population and has four pillars  :–

·        creating a framework for economic growth and transformation ;

·        helping the poor to enjoy high quality of life;

·        improving the ability of the poor to increase their incomes

·        ensuring good governance and security.

            The Plan for Modernization of Agriculture is multi-sectoral and its success will depend on the farmers having access to better roads, markets and the communication and improved health and education services. The basic premise of PMA is that by adopting improved technologies, subsistence farmers will improve their productivity and generate surpluses. To properly orient its focus, the PMA was designed to address the following seven priority areas:-

1.      Agricultural Technology Generation and Transfer;
 This is research work generating seeds, stock and planting materials, together with other supportive technologies in respect of husbandry practices, soil and water conservation.

2.      Agricultural advisory services,
This is extension work through which service providers work and advise farmers on all  aspects of production geared to  increasing farm productivity and profitability.

3.      Rural Financial Services.
Ensuring availability and access to credit through the private sector.

4.      Primary education so that it is involved in the curriculum right from the primary schools.

5.      Agroprocessing – this is a way of adding value to what is being produced instead of exporting raw materials

 6.      Sustainable natural resource utilization
This is through which sustainable utilization and management of natural resources is undertaken for purposes of accessibility and maintenance.

7.Rural infrastructure Development
 This embraces all types of road networks, rural electrification to support agro processing and marketing. 

            Under the Plan for Modernization of Agriculture, it is hoped that the experiences of the ongoing universal primary education program being closely monitored during the implementation will feed into the design and development of similar programs in other sectors such as agriculture and health.

            Mr. Chairman, the challenge to overcome hunger affecting over 800 million people the world over is a formidable one that requires that we all work together. As I mentioned earlier, the commitments made by the 185 Heads of State and Government during the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome to reduce the number of the malnourished people by half by the year 2015 is very much behind schedule.           In addition, the goals adopted at the U.N. Millennium Summit in the year 2000 are yet to be realized. Diseases, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and gender inequality still afflict large sections of the population all over the world, affecting the developing countries most.

 It is encouraging that a number of countries have developed polices, strategies, projects and programs in line with the World Food Summit plan of action and the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.         However, most developing countries which entirely depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and economic growth have no money to mobilize adequate resources for sustainable agricultural growth and rural development. Therefore, the government of Uganda is renewing its goal for developing countries to clearly come out and open up their markets for agricultural products from the developing countries to foster their foreign exchange earnings to alleviate their poverty while enhancing their food and nutrition security. In addition, both the developing and developed countries alike should encourage complementary flows of private investments to enable the poor and hungry people to realize their full development potential.

 As we are all aware, the theme for this year’s World Food Day celebrations is International Alliance Against Hunger. The reality is that such an alliance requires all of us, whether rich or poor, big or small, to walk together. Governments, international organizations, civil society, NGOs, all these, and the private sector must come together and unite to fight hunger and poverty as their common enemy number one.

                        Mr. Chairman, allow me to thank the World Food Prize Foundation and all the organizers of this occasion for having invited His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President of the Republic of Uganda, in recognition of what Uganda is doing in meeting the Millennium Goals and the World Food Summit Plan of Action. I wish to assure you of our continued commitment to the elimination of hunger.

            May I also, on behalf of the President, Government and the people of the Republic of Uganda  extend warm congratulations to the World Food Prize laureate winners, both the past and the present alike. This indeed marks a milestone in your contribution towards realizing the Millennium goals in a generation and the fight against hunger and poverty in particular.  Congratulations to  you  all laureate.

            Last, Mr. Chairman and district delegates, the task ahead is too enormous. My honest appeal and humble request is that all nations and stakeholders continue  networking and helping one another towards progressive  realization of the Millennium Goals and attainment of food and nutrition security throughout the world.