African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina.
New York (People’s Daily) - The African Development Bank (AfDB) and FAO today agreed to boost joint efforts aimed at catalyzing agriculture sector investments in Africa to end hunger and malnutrition and increase prosperity throughout the continent.
AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina and FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva signed the agreement, which builds on a longstanding collaboration between their organizations, at the UN agency's Rome headquarters.
Specifically, the new strategic alliance seeks to enhance the quality and impact of investment in food security, nutrition, social protection, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development. In terms of the agreement, the AfDB and FAO are committed to raising $100 million over five years, to support joint partnership activities.
"FAO and the AfDB are deepening and broadening our partnership to assist African countries to achieve the sustainable development goals. Leveraging investments in agriculture, including from the private sector, is key to lift millions of people from hunger and poverty in Africa and to ensure that enough food is produced and that enough rural jobs are created for the continent's growing population," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.
"The signing of this supplementary agreement is a milestone moment in the relationship between the African Development Bank and FAO. It signals our joint commitment to accelerate the delivery of high-quality programs and increased investment for public-private-partnerships in Africa's agriculture sector. This will help us achieve the vision of making agriculture a business, as enshrined in the Bank's Feed Africa strategy," said AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina.
The collaboration between the AfDB and FAO began in 1968. Since then, FAO has provided technical assistance to the formulation of 161 AfDB financed projects, valued at over $3.7 billion representing about 21 percent of AfDB's support to the agricultural sector
Recent collaboration between the Bank and FAO include project formulation support in Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea; technical assistance for the development of Blue economy programs in Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco and Cape Verde, feasibility studies for agricultural transformation centers in Zambia, Tanzania, and Côte d'Ivoire; and participation in the African Leaders for Nutrition initiative.
The Bank and the FAO have also contributed to a series of continental dialogues on post-harvest loss reduction, and the Great Green Wall of the Sahel and Sahara Initiative.