WHY EAC BLOC IS HEAVILY IMPACTED BY MALNUTRITION

 BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA

The East African region is  faced with a high prevalence of malnutrition, thanks to apparent failure to eliminate hunger.

The drawback has worsened the poverty levels, exacerbated insufficient food supply and stunting among children under five.

Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) are calling for requisite measures to address the increasingly worrying trend.

"The partner states should transform their agriculture to attain food security and rational agricultural development", they insisted.

Their appeal is contained in a Motion urging the partner states to fast-track implementation of the 2014 Malabo Declaration on food security in Africa.

The commitment targeting the African Union (AU) member states falls under the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).

The programme enshrines Africa's policy framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food and nutrition security, among others.

Moving the Motion, a lawmaker from South Sudan, Dr. Woda Jeremiah said the seven-nation bloc must wake up to address food insecurity and extreme poverty.

The East African Community (EAC) has since its inception highlighted food security and nutrition as among its strategic development objectives.

For instance,the 6th EAC Development Strategy 2021/22-2025/26 pledged to eliminate hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty by 2023.

However, Dr. Woda said she regretted that the regional performance in respect of implementation of the Malabo Declaration was still low.

"The Community is still faced with a high prevalence of undernourishment mainly caused by insufficient food supply", she told the House during its recent sitting.

With the exception of Rwanda, the rest of the EAC partner states are not on track to meet the CAADP and Malabo Commitment by the target date of 2025.

"In fact, Rwanda is the only country in the African continent that is on track to achieve the goals of the seven commitments of the Malabo Declaration", she pointed out.

According to a recent assessment, Tanzania is largely on track in implementing its commitments under CAADP, known as Malabo Goals.

Tanzania scored higher points than its partners in the bloc in the benchmark on its commitment to cut by half the share of its population that is poor.

"Tanzania and Rwanda stayed on track", said Mr Fahari Marwa, the principal agricultural economist with the EAC Secretariat.

He revealed this when he tabled a report on the performance of the EAC bloc on the Malabo commitments that are aimed to enhance agricultural production.

The commitments included, among others,enhancing finance in agriculture, ending hunger by 2025 and halving poverty also by 2025.

The others are boosting intra-African trade, resilience to climate risks, mutual accountability and re-commitment to CAADP itself.

CAADP has its origins in 2003 during the African Union (AU) summit in Maputo and was reinforced by the Malabo summit in 2014 with implementation starting in 2015

Mr. Marwa told a recent meeting of the  East African Civil Society bodies in Arusha that despite a false start, Tanzania has performed well in recent years.

"Tanzania moved from not being on track during the second Biennial Review (BR2) in 2019 to being on track in 2021", he said.