Political commitment and leadership

Political commitment and leadership on averting food shortage are growing and yet programs are showing little impact. In a steadily growing number of countries, including some of the world's poorest; the only hope to save lives is a dramatic revolution in the agricultural sector. The development of better crop varieties, pesticides and fertilizers has kept the world's food supply growing faster than its population, even though the latter figure is set to hit nine billion by 2050. However, the rate of progress has slowed. Enormous improvements have been made in productivity, particularly in Asia, but food production in sub-Saharan Africa has decreased. More than 800 million people still go hungry. Agriculture is therefore essential to growth, which is in turn necessary to reduce poverty and food insecurity. In this region where more than 34 percent of the population is undernourished, agriculture represents 30 percent of GDP and nearly 70 percent of total employment. This fact has in the past been used in support of the argument as to why developing countries should move away from agriculture and invest in technology. Because over 70 percent of the poor live in rural areas, where also the largest proportion of the food insecure live, it is evident that we cannot significantly and sustainably reduce food insecurity without transforming the living conditions in these areas. The key lies in increasing the agricultural profitability of smallholder farmers and creating rural off-farm employment opportunities , and also enticing large scale farming from the private sector in the form of PPP'S.

It is against this background and given the primacy given to the Pandemic by the African leaders, that the Forum for the Former Heads of State and Government, Africa Forum, and Edge2Edge Global Investment UAE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Livingston, Zambia on the 22nd of November, 2007 at the end of the "Africa Take Charge" Conference This MoU is a significant starting point for the deployment of Africa Forum and E2E best efforts to contribute towards the creation of a continent that is stable, secure and prosperous. It shares and is motivated by the objectives of the African Union and its initiative NEPAD, to place African countries, both individually and collectively, on the path to sustainable development, to halt the economic and political marginalization of Africa and to enhance the continent's full and beneficial integration into the global economy, through addressing the malnutrition, immune deficiency and water contamination problems of the continent as stated in both the vision of Africa Forum and Mission of Edge2Edge.