Accra, Ghana, Dec 8 – The Strategy and Policy Group (SPG) of the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) held its annual Forum last Dec 7-8 , at Accrra, Ghana, entitled “Regional Solidarity to Address Food Crisis”.
AFA through its representative, Vicky Serrato, Marketing Officer, and together with Lany Rebagay of AsiaDHRRA, presented the initiatives on food reserves in East Asia, as well as an analysis of the East Asian Emergency Rice Reserves (EAERR).
The annual SWAC forum brought together the members of th SPG and all stakeholders – public and private sectors, civil society representatives, development partners and media to discuss the selected theme – regional cooperation on emergency food stocks.The discussions and sharing focused more on analysis and recommendations on how to establish a regional mechanism on food reserves and how such mechanism can be effective and efficient in responding to needs specifically during emergency situations.
AFA worked with Sophia Murphy of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), and Marek Poznanski of Collectif Strategies Alimentairies (CSA) during this forum.
Below are some of the key points about food reserves:
• That food reserves should address the issue on food shortage and price escalation
• Crafting food reserves program has to address food insecurity issues other than emergency situation. This means that there should be a long-term plan on food self-sufficiency specifically at the national level to address food insecurity.
• Involvement of the government, parliamentarians and the civil societies on the establishment of food reserves
• Establishment of food reserves need to assess the feasibility of a regional mechanism e.g. west Africa
• That food reserves mechanism should consider:
——organizational integration through partnership in addressing price volatility
——regional mechanism while food reserves at national level
——commitment of country to earmarked food reserves
——economy of scale for the stocks to maintain at any given time to ensure availability of food
——Strengthen food reserves system in terms of policies, facilities and domestic food production capacity
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