{"id":65155,"date":"2016-03-01T12:49:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T10:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/african-union-launches-campaign-on-first-year-of-the-african-day-of-school-feeding-statement-of-the-chairperson-of-the-au-commission\/"},"modified":"2016-03-01T12:49:35","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T10:49:35","slug":"african-union-launches-campaign-on-first-year-of-the-african-day-of-school-feeding-statement-of-the-chairperson-of-the-au-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/african-union-launches-campaign-on-first-year-of-the-african-day-of-school-feeding-statement-of-the-chairperson-of-the-au-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"African Union Launches Campaign on First Year of the African Day of School Feeding : Statement of the Chairperson of the AU Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 1, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — <\/span><\/p>\n

Your Excellency the Prime Minister of Niger;<\/p>\n

Your Excellencies the Ministers;<\/p>\n

The Representatives of Ministries;<\/p>\n

Technical and Financial Partners;<\/p>\n

Civil Society Representatives;<\/p>\n

Distinguished Delegates;<\/p>\n

Ladies and gentlemen;<\/p>\n

Boys and girls,<\/p>\n

I have the honour and great pleasure to express my gratitude to the African Union\u00a0Member Statesfor endorsing the recommendation on the promotion of School Feeding\u00a0programmes as a continental strategy for drivingsustainable development. While this\u00a0decision by Heads of States and Government will play a critical role in improving\u00a0education outcomes, eradicating hunger and poverty, italso calls on us to mark every\u00a01st of March of each year, as the African Day of School Feeding.<\/p>\n

Today we are gathered in Niger for the launch of the first event, courtesy of the\u00a0hospitality of the Government of Niger, under the theme \u201cHome Grown School\u00a0Feeding- a conduit for Africa\u2019s Sustainable Development\u201d. I extend my deep\u00a0gratitude to the Government of Niger for taking on this enormous responsibility, amidst\u00a0numerous elections engagements. Let me add, that this is not in vain, we gather in\u00a0Niger today, as a demonstration of our keen interest in our children, and the future of\u00a0our Continent.<\/p>\n

It is true that School Feeding programmes are not new to Africa, in fact, some among us\u00a0are who we are today because of School meals. Countries that have been implementing\u00a0them have experimented their impact on the access and retention of children, mainly of\u00a0girls in school. For the governments of these countries, the key issue has always been\u00a0to take all the necessary measures so that theexpenses allocated to these programmes\u00a0are more efficient, yet, without overstretching the resources allocated to education.<\/p>\n

As currently envisaged, School Feeding is a programme with various far reaching\u00a0benefits going beyond education; to the areas of agriculture, nutrition, health and social\u00a0development. Its connectionto local agriculture production,acts as a social safety net for\u00a0vulnerable communities and a stimulus for national economic development.<\/p>\n

We can say that the progress made, so far,led us towardsthese important conquests,\u00a0for it is a conquest for Africa and our children; a conquest for local producers, a\u00a0conquest for our agriculture. For our children it offers huge benefits to their education,\u00a0health and nutrition, and a predictable market for small holders farmers.<\/p>\n

The linkwith local production is a new approach which is actually a safety net that may\u00a0be used in accessing food and stimulating local markets. It helps households to invest in\u00a0productive activities and participate in human capital development, particularly in the\u00a0form of financial assistance.\u00a0Indeed, the ambitious objectives of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA\u00a016-25) could not be achieved without a broad and integrated strategy gathering all the\u00a0stakeholders and taking into account the needs of vulnerable communities. Thus, as\u00a0School Feeding has been included in CESA 16-25, this programme also becomes a\u00a0strong launching pad to stimulate local development and prevent malnutrition.<\/p>\n

Allow me to recall that, in response to the request by the African Union Commission, the\u00a0Republic of Niger, through her Minister of Primary Education and Literacy, and with the\u00a0support of partners such asWFP and its Centre of Excellence in Brazil, an AU mission\u00a0travelled to Brazil to draw inspiration from its model. Niger and other African countries\u00a0also carry critical home grown lessons too that we can draw on. These various\u00a0experiences are unanimous on the relevance of this programme to improve the\u00a0retention of children in school, their nutritional status, and also the revenues of\u00a0communities when related to local production; it is clear that the keyprioritiesof the post-\u00a02015 Agenda and specifically those encompassed in the Agenda 2063 and CESA 16-25\u00a0are taken into account and well addressed through this programme.<\/p>\n

Many African countries are developing school feeding programmes with great\u00a0innovations, notably Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Lesotho and\u00a0others.We will hear today about some of these practices, however I call upon the\u00a0documentation of these lessons learned, so that these can be shared with others\u00a0without re-inventing the wheel, and so that we can hasten our advancement towards a\u00a0promising continental strategy for the development of our countries.<\/p>\n

This is the essence of the study prescribed by the Assembly of Heads of State and\u00a0Government.<\/p>\n

Distinguished Delegates,<\/p>\n

I hope that the recommendation of the Assembly for the promotion of school feeding\u00a0programmes within the framework of CESA 16-25 will not remain a mere\u00a0recommendation to be kept in the drawers of Ministries, but will mark the beginning of a\u00a0process which offers various opportunities to strengthen the convergence of resources,\u00a0skills and means. Its implementation shall significantly contribute to the achievement of\u00a0Africa\u2019s expectations expressed in the African Agenda by 2063. It will build the\u00a0momentum to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.<\/p>\n

Long live the 1st March, African Day of School Feeding.<\/p>\n

Thank you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, March 1, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — Your Excellency the Prime Minister of Niger; Your Excellencies the Ministers; The Representatives of Ministries; Technical and Financial Partners; Civil Society Representatives; Distinguished Delegates; Ladies and gentlemen; Boys and girls, I have the honour and great pleasure to express my gratitude to the African Union\u00a0Member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-65155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}