Happy Africa Day 2022, dear friend!
Today, May 25 2022, Africans all over the world come together to celebrate Africa Day.
According to the African Union Commission, The Africa Day 2022 theme states “Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent.“
It also highlights the following:
- Strengthening Agro-Food Systems,
- Health and Social Protection Systems for the Acceleration of Human,
- Social and Economic Capital Development.
Every year, Africans observe Africa Day to celebrate the establishment Organization Of African Unity (OAU), currently recognized as the “African Union” (25 May 1963), and its successful achievements.
It also encourages Africa to progress under specified themes while reflecting the continent’s challenges in a global ecosystem.
A Brief History of Africa Union
OAU was founded on May 25 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Then, the OAU Charter recorded a number of 32 countries signed in as members, and 22 states have since joined the continental bloc.
Therefore, today marks the 53rd year after OAU’s establishment.
Happy Africa Day 2022: Africa can feed the World
The Continental Accountability Scorecard launched by the African Union and the African Leaders for Nutrition (ACN) in 2019, revealed the following nutrition and food statistics.
- 8million children under 5 years are stunted, and 58.7 million of those stunted are in Africa.
- Only seven (7) member states have stunting rates below 19 percent.
- Fifteen (15) member states have child wasting prevalence below 5 percent.
- Thirty-eight (38) countries have women’s anaemia prevalence rates of more than 30 percent.
- Eighteen (18) member states have at least 50 percent of infants exclusively breastfed.
- Twenty (20) member states have more than 70 percent prevalence rates for vitamin A supplementation.
Therefore, there is a need for continued efforts including advocacy, especially in regions and communities where risks are more acute.
In addition, there is a need to strengthen social protection systems, and safeguard access to foods and nutrition for young children, breastfeeding women, older people, and other at-risk groups.
Happy Africa Day 2022: The Nutrition Objective of the Africa Union (AU)
The objectives of this year’s AU Nutrition year of 2022 are to secure greater political commitment and investment in Nutrition to address the ongoing challenges;
- To evaluate and take stock of the progress made in the implementation of the AU commitments on nutrition at the continental, regional and national levels.
- To ease broad-based and inclusive dialogue or consultations among all needed stakeholders and policymakers, including parliamentarians, civil society organizations, the private sector, and international organizations. This will help to build a multisectoral platform and map out practical solutions and pathways for achieving faster results.
- To facilitate dialogue with Africa’s strategic partners for demonstrable commitment and alignment of programs toward a harmonized action and mutual accountability.
The expected outcomes of putting these objectives together include;
- Creation of a multi-sector or multi-stakeholder platform for coordinating all nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.
- Strengthened monitoring, evaluation, and accountability framework.
- Increased motivation and commitment to act and contribute to ending all level of malnutrition in Africa, through new pledges, resource, and finance action plan to achieve set goals and results.
- Elevated domestication and implementation of all AU and national legislative and financing instruments focused on addressing food security and nutrition challenges.
Africa is determined to eradicate poverty in one generation and build shared prosperity through a social and economic transformation of the continent.
