Launch of “Feed the Future” plan against malnutrition in Senegal

Photo: Reuters/La tribune Afrique

In Dakar, Senegalese authorities and the Embassy of the United States in Senegal have launched the Senegalese National Feed the Future Plan 2018-2022. Starting with a project called “Feed the Future Kawolor”, this plan will, among other things, combat hunger and poverty.

One of the challenges that the Senegalese Government faces is that of strengthening national agricultural production and making Senegal a country of abundance and prosperity with no place for malnutrition or hunger. It was in this vein that, last Thursday, the Senegalese Ministry of Agriculture and the Embassy of the United States of America in Dakar launched the Senegalese National Feed the Future Plan 2018-2022.

As US Ambassador Tulinabo Mushingi put it, this ambitious plan aims to “permanently reduce hunger, poverty and malnutrition in the world.“. Ambassador Mushingi said that to achieve this goal, three major challenges must be overcome: making the most of agricultural potential “pour en faire le moteur de la croissance économique“, strengthening resilience and improving nutrition. These challenges are all encompassed in the Senegalese National Feed the Future Plan 2018-2022.

Discours Ambassadeur Mushingi @usembassydakar lance le Plan national @FeedtheFuture 2018-2022 pic.twitter.com/iSfcgY60qX

— USAIDSenegal (@USAIDSenegal) April 26, 2018

18 billion CFA francs for the plan’s first project

During the launch, the promoters of the plan also set the tone for the launch of the Feed the Future Kawolor project, the very first project within the framework of the American plan. With 18 billion CFA francs in funding from the USA, the goal of this project is to grow “within the project’s client communities, the production, marketing and consumption of varied, healthy and nutritious foods“, explained project director Karl Rosenberg. “Kawolor is a concept of the Diola people, based in Casamance in the south of the country, chosen by the communities to communicate a dynamic of abundance, reproduction and prosperity. The project will be active in the regions of Sédhiou, Kolda, Ziguinchor (south), Fatick, Kaolack, Kaffrine (centre), Saint-Louis and Matam (north),” continued Karl Rosenberg, adding that it was “planned to reach 150,000 households, that is, 1,500,000 people” through the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) approach, which is intended to solve health problems by improving the nutrition of target populations.

Dogo Seck, on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Infrastructure, said that the Kawolor project was fully in line with the commitments made by the Government in the Plan for an Emerging Senegal (PSE). He added that it would encourage the people of Senegal to “eat local“. In reply to the comment by Ambassador Mushingi that Senegal was reaching the point of no longer needing food aid, Dogo Seck said that this “would happen very soon“.».

It is also noteworthy that this project, which will be coordinated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is also in pursuit of “three major challenges“. Sources close to the project said that these were the empowerment of women, the employability of young people and the ownership of interventions by Senegal, to ensure their sustainability.