Speech Transcripts

His Excellency Rajoelina Andry, President of the Republic of Madagascar,
Dr. Qu Dongyu, Director-General, FAO
Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of AUDA-NEPAD,
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to all of you for attending this event. Exactly three years ago, IFNA, or the Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa, was launched at TICAD VI in Nairobi. We are very pleased to gather again today to discuss the progress achieved thus far and to define the way forward for IFNA.

As many of you remember, IFNA's objective is to establish a framework for collaboration with African governments in order to accelerate the implementation of food and nutrition security policies on the ground.

As the first step toward this goal, most of the original participating countries have developed strategies for actions directed at improving the nutritional status of their population. During its development process, IFNA promoted various opportunities to enhance stakeholders' collaboration, such as stakeholders meetings and mutual learning workshops. Many positive outcomes have resulted from these collaboration platforms. These include improving the capacity of government staff and strengthening cooperation among ministries and development partners.

In addition, African countries and the IFNA Steering Committee members have launched many activities for nutrition improvement on the ground.

As a founding partner of IFNA, JICA is also implementing various activities in support of this African-led initiative. Let me touch upon two significant aspects of IFNA and JICA's related efforts, while referencing Japan's experience in the process.

First, I would like to discuss the significance of a multi-sectoral approach to improving nutritional status. In order to tackle malnutrition, it is essential to ensure people's access to adequate food, appropriate health services, and clean water and sanitation. Beginning in the post-World War II reconstruction period, Japan has accumulated significant experience in implementing various policy measures in different sectors nationwide. Examining existing data through quantitative studies, we recognized that positive outcomes regarding children's nutritional status could be achieved through mutually reinforcing activities. Such activities included a guidance for improvement of dietary habits through agricultural development; the provision of nutrition guidance at health centers; enhancement to the nation's potable water system; and the provision of school meals.

In contrast, the actual implementation of a multi-sectoral approach to improve nutrition in Africa is still limited. By leveraging Japan's applicable experiences, JICA is now promoting multi-sectoral interventions across Africa, working in partnership with African governments and various stakeholders.

For instance, JICA launched an agriculture project in Madagascar that is closely connected to a World-Bank health-related project. We are using common outcome indicators to assess improvements in nutritional outcome and gather evidence of the project's impact.

In Mozambique, we are planning to launch three interrelated projects in the agriculture, health and water sectors in a single Province in order to tackle malnutrition in a comprehensive manner.

Second, let me draw your attention to the importance of agriculture sector interventions that are centered on the "Nutrient Focused Approach." This approach entails accurately understanding deficiencies of key nutrients; identifying specific crops to fill nutrient gaps; and guiding people to produce and eat identified foods in their daily diet. The prevalence of malnutrition tends to be higher in rural areas. This "Nutrient Focused Approach" is crucial for achieving nutritional improvements in the countryside.

In Rwanda, for instance, the Government of Rwanda and JICA have jointly designed a new loan project by applying this "Nutrient Focused Approach." The project seeks to enhance national agricultural sector policies to promote the production and consumption of specific agricultural products to fill nutrient gaps in rural areas.

Ladies and Gentleman,

The Malabo Declaration aims to eliminate child under-nutrition by 2025, but we are not on track to meet this target. In order to improve the nutritional condition of all 200 million children on the African continent, we must expand IFNA's activities to cover all children in Africa.

To this end, I am pleased to announce JICA's intension to strengthen our human resource development support for African countries. We will expand scholarship and training opportunities for the current and future African leaders in Japan. In doing so, we hope to share our experiences and expertise with them. We are also planning to further promote capacity development projects across Africa that are based on scientific evidence of different nutrition interventions.

In closing, I reaffirm JICA's commitment to contribute to IFNA, under the leadership of AUDA-NEPAD and our African partners—in strong collaboration with all relevant stakeholders. I also voice JICA's support for the global call for action toward "nutrition improvement of all 200 million children in Africa".