Rwanda’s PM attends the global event on “Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutrition”

Bangkok – Thailand, November 28, 2018: The Right Honourable Prime Minister Dr. Edouard Ngirente is in Bangkok in Thailand attending a three- day global event on “Accelerating the End of Hunger and Malnutrition”.

In his keynote address, during the inaugural session of the conference, the Premier explained that dealing with malnutrition issues requires prioritizing care for expecting mothers and babies, as well as designing and implementing programs to ensure food security, adequate access to clean water supply, sanitation and hygiene:

“To completely eliminate hunger and food insecurity, in Africa Agenda 2063, our continent committed to make nutrition a priority. This will be achieved by consolidating the modernisation of our agriculture and agro-business through scaled-up value addition and productivity.” Prime Minister Ngirente said.

Speaking of Rwanda’s experience in its commitment towards ending hunger and under-nutrition by 2025, and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, Dr. Edouard Ngirente shared some initiatives that Rwanda has put in place, learning from best practices around the world as well as home-grown solutions tailored from Rwandan context. Some of them include:

• The Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation, which is nutrition sensitive. It implements programs that aim at increasing the level of protein production and an increase of micronutrient production.
• The Crop Intensification Program that aims to improve agricultural productivity especially food crops.
• Land consolidation and soil erosion control which has greatly influenced the status of food security.
• Investments in soil erosion control infrastructure which have created employment opportunities for vulnerable households.
• Investment in irrigation schemes to increase food production.

He further revealed holistic strategies that Rwanda has adopted to tackle the issue of malnutrition. Some of these strategies include:

• An Early Childhood Development (ECD) program championed by an institution dedicated to coordinating all activities aimed at eliminating hunger and malnutrition.
• Public-Private partnerships which played a key role in increasing investment in the production of nutritious food.
• A National Multi-Sectoral Food and Nutrition Policy, which is implemented in collaboration with development partners in a multi-sectoral approach to address stunting.
• Deployment of 58,000 voluntary community health workers in all villages to closely follow-up malnutrition cases.
• The Government established and supported One Cow per Poor Family Program since 2006, where up to now more than 330,00 cows have been distributed to poor families.
• Establishment of One Cup of Milk Program, so far around 75,000 school children in poor areas are enrolled in the program.
• The Government put in place an initiative called «Akarima k’Igikoni» translated as a kitchen garden for each family, to encourage all Rwandans to have a garden of vegetables within their family compound.

The conference brought together decision-makers, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders from around the world. It was organised by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Among key personalities who attended the meeting, there is the Speaker of the Parliament of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, the First Lady of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Vice President, of the Republic of Zambia, the Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Ministers.

It is important to note that the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, Dr. Edouard Ngirente has recently joined the Compact2025 Leadership Council.

In side-lines of the Global Event on the End of Hunger and Malnutrition, the Prime Minister Ngirente today witnessed the signing of an agreement between Dr. Shenggen Fan, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Hon. Gérardine Mukeshimana Minister of Agriculture.

For the full speech click here