Regional Covid-19 food and nutrition security plan endorsed

Business Reporter

THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Council of Ministers has endorsed the Covid-19 Food and Nutrition Security Response Plan, which has been developed to help the region deal with the impacts of the deadly pandemic on regional food security.

The plan seeks to address immediate, short-term and medium-term food security and livelihoods needs while integrating the response effort to the long-term regional agriculture development and integration agenda.

In its 41st meeting last week, the Council of ministers noted that the Covid-19 pandemic had occasioned unprecedented disruption on the entire food supply chains.

From production to processing, packaging, transportation, marketing and consumption Covid-19 has resulted in rising staple food prices, food insecurity, loss of livelihoods and income, and increased need for social safety nets.

The Council then directed the Comesa Secretariat to constitute a task force to monitor and evaluate the ‘Response Plan’ and mobilise resources to support its implementation.

Further, the Council called upon development partners, private sector and civil society organisations to support the implementation of the plan and mainstream bio-diversity in all the initiatives.

“To enable its successful rollout, the Council urged member States to commit resources to implement it and develop mechanisms to address the challenges of water scarcity for production in the region,” Comesa head of corporate communications, Mr Mwangi Gakunga, said.

“The draft response plan was first adopted by ministers responsible for agriculture, environment and natural resources in August this year before presentation to the Council.”

Regional leaders have also noted improvements in telecommunications and how these have come to the rescue of economies during the Covid-19 era through widespread use of electronic commerce and business transactions. Zambian Vice President, Mrs Inonge Wina, stressed the need for more e-education and e-health infrastructure especially in rural areas to cater for marginalised communities.

The crux annual meeting was conducted virtually last week under the theme “Comesa – Towards Digital Economic Integration”. It also evaluated the performance of the region against the programmes that the Comesa Secretariat has implemented over time. This was in addition to making decisions on the implementation of Comesa programmes, administrative and budget matters for the regional bloc for the next one year. Ministers and their representatives from the 21 member states attended the virtual meeting.