The end of extreme poverty is within reach

The conference under auspices of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) high-profile speakers reminded delegates that Africa’s high economic growth rates have not translated into high levels of employment and reductions in poverty for youth and those living in rural areas.

We have, of course, a way to go. Almost eight hundred million men, women and children will not have enough food to eat today. But the achievement of halving the proportion of malnourished people since 1990 has shown us what can be achieved.

With the help of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) was created in 2006. It has already become a pre-eminent leader in transforming Africa's agriculture and food systems.

Smallholder farmers have obtained access to better seeds, sustainable agricultural techniques and financing, while thousands of agri-businesses have been created and expanded.

It is a fact that Africa has deviated from standard processes of structural transformation and it is therefore experiencing urbanisation without manufacturing jobs.

Urbanisation should typically be a consequence of economic growth, not a lack of it.

Unemployment and poverty are structural not temporary — and this is not mostly self-correcting. There is need for big push policy interventions. Attaining Africa’s Agenda 2063 aspirations and goals to a large extent depends on the transformation of rural areas.

We are facing challenges regarding demographic growth, pressure on natural resources, employment creation and economic diversification in designing and implementing new development strategies for job creation in rural areas.

Africans that are in the Diaspora who wire transfers and invest their money in hotels and apartments should come back and re-think about investing in agriculture and rural development.

It is time we make agriculture attractive, train and sensitize all demographic groups despite gender so that they know it is profitable. They need to know issues related to market analysis, choices of where to sell their products and building entrepreneurship spirit.

And in order to make agro products and commodities competitive on the market, there was a need for improved value addition and use of information technology in search of diverse market accessibility.

Africans should suggest adoption of modern agriculture methods that are less damaging to the environment and to mainstream climate change in African interventions.

In the same vein, the time is up to also consider shifting from subsistence farming to mechanisation to ensure high productivity.

Thanks to the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund as FAO launched multi-country programmes on youth employment in East and West Africa, while a third programme is geared towards supporting the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency’s Rural Futures Programme.

FAO provides policy advice, capacity development and technical support to extend the application of international labour standards in rural areas. The main areas of focus have been child labour prevention in agriculture and occupational safety and health.

Four countries (Cambodia, Niger, Malawi and Tanzania) were supported with programmes to prevent child labour in agriculture with important results in terms of increased awareness and strengthened institutional capacities to prevent child labour.