As Nigeria sets the pace for Africa’s food transformation pathways, the National Task Team on Implementation of UN-initiated food systems transformation pathways has called on states across Nigeria to set up the state steering committee to step down the pathways for priority actions.
The national convenor of the team, Sanjo Faniran, who spoke with BUSINESSDAY during the advocacy visit to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, in Abuja yesterday, informed us that all 36 states are committed to the initiative to transform our food systems from the farm to the dining table.
He informed me that the national task team had developed an implementation strategy for the implementation of the 78 priority recommendations submitted to the UN Food System Summit by President Buhari in 2021. He further stated that a Terms of Reference (ToR) for the implementation of the strategy has also been sent to all 36 states for necessary action.
In his words, “The ToR for the states is for them to set up state steering committees for the implementation of the strategy. The committee is to be chaired by the state commissioner for economic planning and co-chaired by the commissioner for agriculture, health, and education.
“We also encourage the state committee on food and nutrition to be members of the state committee since every state has already established the state committee on nutrition chaired by the Permanent Secretary of Budget and Economic Planning. The Permanent Secretary is therefore expected to be the Secretary of the Steering Committee on the Food System.”.
“States are also encouraged to bring other stakeholders into the committee, including the All Farmers Association, youth, and vulnerable groups. The State Commissioner for Education is expected to coordinate the establishment of the school garden for improved nutrition and support to home-grown school feeding systems,” he added.
He recalled that on the nutrition policy, “We have the governance structure that encourages all states of the federation to constitute the state committee on food and nutrition, which they have all done.
Faniran noted that the UN Initiated Food Systems Transformation is a guide to member countries of the United Nations to look inward and see the challenges facing food from the farm to the dining table and what could be done to address them, further recalling that former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2021 had presented the 78 recommendations of the Nigeria National Food Systems Transformation pathways to the UN Food Systems Summit in New York.
“The National Food Systems Transformation Pathways for Nigeria are expected to be implemented from 2021-2030 to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals developed.
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Faniran commended the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, which he said has been doing much, particularly on the timely release of weather information in collaboration with NiMet.
Also speaking, Isiaka Ibrahim, a nutrition food system specialist with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, said the FAO is part of the food system task team that is commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning through the Office of the National Convenor of the Food System in Nigeria.
He recalled that though he was not part of the delegation to Rome during the stocktaking, it was agreed that Nigeria was the only country that had come up with a strategy for implementing the food system pathway, which all member countries of the UN signed into. We now have a strategy that has been validated by all 36 states plus FCT.
Although Nigeria is on track to achieve food security, Isiaka urged more push to achieve its targets.
“I know that we have a strategy that guides our implementation right from when the dialogue ended, and the then president presented the 78 priorities. The country has started moving in the right direction. There are multiple convenings and state-to-federal structures that will guide the implementation. Also, at the national level, we have structures in place like the technical task team, which is a multi-stakeholder task team put in place by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning to advise the Office of the Convenor on what is to be done as a think tank on implementation.
As part of FAO’s contribution to the nation’s food situation, he said, “So I would say whatever effort you know that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is doing, it has the support of FAO. We assist the ministry with policy support as well as technical cooperation programming. These are seed funds that FAO pushes out yearly to identify priority interventions within the ministries we work with. We commit these resources to make sure that the priorities of the government have been achieved on an ongoing basis.
Also speaking, Adekunle Adeoye, a consultant at Sahel Consulting and a contract nutritionist with the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), stated that as a consultant they have the mandate of the organisation to implement food systems as a main project.
“Currently we have a number of projects we are implementing that are aligned with the objective of this particular committee that we are on. We believe that if we focus on our strengths if we work in the room and not in a silo, we can achieve a whole lot. We believe that working with this committee would give us some quick wins that can advance our food system.”
