STAKEHOLDERS DISCUSS ON ACCELERATING END OF HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION BY 2025

On October, 23, 2017, stakeholders involved in eradicating malnutrition in Rwanda met in Kigali and discussed on tactics to accelerate the elimination of hunger and undernutrition in the country by 2025; which is in line with ‘Compact2025’ objective.

Compact2025, a new initiative spearheaded by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) for ending hunger and undernutrition by 2025, brings stakeholders together to set priorities, innovate and learn, fine-tune actions, build on successes and synthesize sharable lessons in order to accelerate progress.

Participants to the one-day round table discussions in Kigali emphasized that ‘ending hunger and malnutrition’ is an ‘obligation’ that must be fulfilled by the current generation.

“Ending hunger is a moral obligation for everyone,” Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr Gerardine Mukeshimana told the participants while opening the ‘Compact 2025’ round table discussions.

Minister Mukeshimana added that there are a lot of intensive programs that are into rural communities to make sure that the country is loading enough proteins.

“In the 6-year strategic plan for agriculture transformation (PSTA4) being developed, the nutrition is coming up as a big component; that’s something we should build on to make sure that interventions are fair and enough to reach where we want in the shortest time possible,” pointed out the minister.

PSTA4, to be ready by the beginning of 2018/19, intends to promote flexible extension service models that also include business management, climate smart agriculture, and nutrition sensitive agriculture. It will also promote small-scale and marshland irrigation engaging with farmers and investors in a bid to increase agricultural production in the country, among others.

In Rwanda, the prevalence of child under-5 stunting has dropped from 52% in 2005 to 38% in 2015 thanks to various government programs like Girinka program and Crop Intensification Program. The revised 2020 Vision indicates that Rwanda aims at reducing the number of stunted children to below 15%.

The IFPRI's Director General, Shenggen Fan, commended the government of Rwanda for being highly committed and dedicated to end hunger and malnutrition.

“Rwanda has already experienced progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition. There are successful cases, for example, bio-fortification of iron beans; and now 28% of bean producing farmers have already adopted high iron beans to improve their nutrition,” pointed out the IFPRI's Director General.

Launched in November 2015, Compact2025 has begun with an initial focus on four countries –Rwanda, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Malawi – as a case to show to other countries how they can

accelerate the progress to end hunger and nutrition by working together with all stakeholders including governments, civil society, universities, private sector and local communities.

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