The NEPAD Food Security Summit takes place in Abuja, Nigeria, from 8-12 September 2006. The Summit, which will address the availability, accessibility and affordability of food in Africa, is hosted by the Nigerian Government, through its Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in collaboration with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In line with NEPAD’s philosophy of increasing reliance on Africa’s own resources, the challenge of the 2006 Abuja Food Security Summit is to accelerate reduction of food and nutrition insecurity through fostering mind-set changes in mobilization and utilization of African resources to implement a few quick wins at national, Regional Economic Communities, and continental levels. The summit will bring together African Heads of States and other key stakeholders from African Union (AU) member states, Regional Economic Communities (REC), civil society, institutions and international organizations to discuss and produce a revised food security Action Plan and appropriate strategies to be adopted by each nation in order to tackle the issue of national and continental food security.

The specific objectives of the Food Security Summit are to:

review progress in complying with the AU/NEPAD 2003 Maputo Declaration commitment. Particular attention will be given to renewing commitment to increasing investment in activities with the greatest and earliest gains in productivity and competitiveness: (a) infrastructure (particularly roads, ports, storage and market structures), and (b) water control (irrigation capacity at appropriate scales), and (c) creation of an appropriate environment to encourage the private-sector (including small-scale producers) to invest;

review progress to enhance African agriculture trade within RECs and the continent and agree on the needed activities to boost trade within and across the RECs as a basis for the future creation of an Africa common market;

review progress to promote good nutrition and to enhance nutritive value of major staple foods and agree on appropriate monitoring and incorporation of nutrition components in food security interventions;

review selected national programmes and projects that are making significant progress in contributing to the attainment of national food and nutrition security. The emphasis is on promoting learning from Africa’s own successes by identifying examples of good performance and supporting activities to facilitate dissemination of information about and exposure of national teams to such successes with a view to encouraging adaptation, replication and out/up-scaling; and

select, for particular attention in implementation, key food security-related AU decisions, and consolidate the rest and to agree on arrangements for effective monitoring of action.

The expected outcomes of the Summit include:

enhanced mobilization of resources to implement priority food and nutrition security interventions at national, REC and continental levels, with emphasis on what ensures rapid increase in African production of key commodities;

enhanced performance of agricultural markets, with particular attention to Africa’s own demand and to promote inter-African trade in staple foods;

enhanced systematic integration of nutrition considerations into all agricultural and food security interventions;

identified African successes to be supported in sharing of positive experiences with a view to adaptation, replication and up-scaling; and

established system for selecting key AU/NEPAD Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)-related Summit commitments on which action to implement will be ensured and compliance monitored.