When it comes to climate change, Africa is paying the price for a problem it did not cause. This statement was made by Feike Sijbesma, Royal Dutch State Mines’ (DSM) honorary chairperson during a discussion on the Global Food Security Programme (GFSP) at Cop27 in Egypt yesterday.
The Global Food Security Programme provides research, analysis, and policy recommendations that can effectively enhance global food security.
“When we talk about climate, the discussion has always been around energy-transport-logistics. But we all know the agribusiness value chain is a significant contributor about one-fourth of the global emissions come from there, so decarbonising agriculture is going to be critical,” said Vivek Pathak, director and global head for Climate Business.
Pathak further explained that the International Finance Corporation is “trying” to respond as swiftly as they can to crises that impact billions of people around the world, especially the poorest of the poor.
“We recently announced a 6-billion-dollar food security platform that will comprise of three parts; three billion dollars of our own capital, two billion dollars of globalised money, and a billion dollars of blended finance,” said Pathak.
Meanwhile, Sijbesma made reference to Africa stating that more work needed to be done to help the people of Africa become independent in the agricultural sector.
“Africa is suffering the most from a problem they did not cause,” said Sijbesma.
He added that collectively, the IFC needed to take the hands of people and work with them to be able to create a sustainable life at the end of the day. “Food help is noble, but it is not the solution,” he said.
Sijesba said it was also important “to make Africa and all those countries self-supporting, that they can grow their own food.”
It’s important to have nutritional food which is locally sourced and processed for the local population to be able to enjoy with pride. Sejbesma is aware that it won’t be an easy process, but very well worth it if the six-billion-dollar food security platform will be used to be able to create sustainability in those countries that need it most.
“These kinds of scalable projects might be the solution to help Africa be self-supporting,” said Sijbesma.
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