African leaders to tackle ways to achieve nutrition security

The African Development Bank (AfDB), in partnership with the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, will hold a high-level meeting on nutrition where African leaders will be joined by other stakeholders to discuss ways to achieve nutrition security on the continent through increased investments and public-private partnership, a statement emailed to Xinhua on Friday said.

The high-level meeting, to be held on the sidelines of the bank's annual meeting which kicks off in Lusaka, the Zambian capital next Monday, will focus on the economic case for nutrition investment, the opportunity for cross-sector partnerships, and the critical need for political leadership to meet the bank's five priority areas which includes feeding Africa and better quality of life as well as the Sustainable Development Goals and the World Health Assembly Nutrition targets.

AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina is expected to outline the bank's vision for the African Leaders for Nutrition, which aims to bring together leaders from across the continent to champion and increase investment in nutrition during the high-level meeting to be held under the theme "Achieving Security: A call for Leadership, Partnership and Investment".

The meeting builds on the Invest in Nutrition event held on April 17, 2016 in Washington, D.C. where global development leaders gathered around the World Bank Springs Meetings to launch the first-ever investment framework for nutrition.

The global leaders laid out a research from a new ground breaking study that gives policymakers and advocates a roadmap for how the world could accelerate progress against malnutrition.

According to figures, malnutrition kills millions of children every year and robs millions more of the opportunity to reach their full potential. Endit