Speech Transcripts

H.E. Deputy President of Kenya, Dr. William Samoei arap Ruto; Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa's Development; Dr. José Graziano da Silva, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization; Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development;

Hon. Kazunori Tanaka, Member of House of Representatives of Japan; distinguished guests, thank you for joining me at this event.

Today, 220 million Africans suffer from chronic hunger, and multiple countries on the continent have more than one third of their children experiencing stunted growth. Malnutrition during early childhood creates life-long impacts on their health and their ability to learn. When they reach adulthood, they cannot perform productively, hindering the socioeconomic development of their associated countries. We must not turn our backs on this dire situation. Nutritional improvement is crucial to our human-centered vision for development.

I am deeply appreciative of the international community's increased emphasis on improving nutrition security through its various platforms and resolutions. World leaders have shown their dedication to this cause by endorsing the Sustainable Development Goals last year, which included aims to end hunger. This followed similar efforts made by African leaders through their 2014 Malabo Declaration. Since then, the United Nations reaffirmed its dedication by adopting its Decade of Action on Nutrition in April of this year.

Japan has long been engaged in enhancing the nutritional status of its citizens. Japan introduced various initiatives in the aftermath of World War II when malnutrition was high. I would like to share four of those examples. First, Japan started a national health and nutrition survey to assess the health, nutritional intake, and lifestyles of Japanese citizens. This survey is still conducted today. Second, Japan has ensured that dietitians are readily accessible throughout the country. Now over a million qualified dietitians exist in Japan, and their robust network covers all remote areas. Third, Japan has worked to provide Japanese children with healthy school lunches that they actually enjoy. Fourth, Japan has encouraged nutrition education to teach their students about proper nutrition from a young age and establish healthy eating habits.

These initiatives are all interrelated and exemplify Japan's efforts to promote cross-collaboration among different disciplines such as health, education and agriculture. Japan synthesizes the data collected through the national survey to better coordinate its school lunch and nutrition education programs and its national policies. This outlook follows Japan's philosophy that efforts to improve nutrition should originate through actions and assessments on the ground.

Today, we are taking advantage of TICAD VI to introduce our newest initiative: the Initiative on Food and Nutrition Security in Africa, or IFNA. This is an action-oriented initiative that focuses on feedback from the field to apply it to policy-making decisions. Through this process, IFNA will support Africa and the international community's dedication to end hunger.

To date, Africa and the international community have made great achievements to address malnutrition. IFNA will build upon the lessons learned and further strengthen the coordination between policies and tangible actions. To do so, IFNA accelerates people-centered, local-based approaches that generate feedback from local populations, including women, youth, small scale farmers, and marginalized populations. This initiative encourages close collaboration with these "change agents" to create a framework that produces mid and long-term effects. It also uses multi-sector approaches that combine best practices in health, agriculture, education and other relevant sectors. And it supports an evidence-based policy-making process that analyzes outcomes on the ground.

Nutrition is an especially multi-faceted issue. Therefore, collaboration amongst diverse stakeholders like the private sector, non-governmental and international organizations and African governments is critical to our success. This is why I am so grateful to see all of us gathered here today.

IFNA looks forward to supporting the governments of Africa and non-governmental partners to implement this feedback approach to improve nutritional outcomes. By using this approach, IFNA can ensure Africa's nutritional priorities are translated into effective field activities, while also ensuring the actions and assessments on the ground are incorporated in policy-making decisions. With this framework, we hope to encourage Africa's efforts to implement holistic food and nutrition security policies.

JICA, as a co-founder and active partner of IFNA, will exert its resources to lead this initiative and help with the coordination among participating stakeholders.

Let's ensure African children can enjoy healthy meals. With your help, we can work together to provide the people of Africa to lead healthy, productive lives. Please join us in supporting IFNA. Africa needs your invaluable input and wisdom.

Thank you.