NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and Dr Juan Clos, UN-Habitat Executive Director have called for concerted efforts to address the challenges facing cities, towns and urban areas.

Speaking when he launched the 26th session of the UN-Habitat Governing Council in Nairobi, Uhuru said planned urban centres are key to better human life.

"This session is a milestone for UN-Habitat. It is the first meeting of the Governing Council after the adoption of the momentous 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the New Urban Agenda. As you know, the 2030 Agenda is a comprehensive, integrated and inclusive outcome document," Uhuru said.

The New Urban Agenda aims to achieve peace, prosperity, dignity and opportunity for all, on a healthy planet. It sets our global strategy around urbanization for the next two decades.

"I congratulate each and every one of you for your invaluable contribution to the success of Habitat III. That enterprise shows the power and promise of multilateralism," Uhuru said.

The President said the document presents a renewed political commitment for sustainable development, and provides the basis for reviewing the mandate of the UN-Habitat and its positioning within the UN System.
"Our immediate responsibility is its implementation. We must quickly seize the opportunities, address the challenges and implement the Agenda. The first step – one we can take here and now – is to send a strong political message in support of the new Agenda," Uhuru said.

Dr Clos said urbanisation worldwide, but most specifically in Africa, will be one of the most significant economic and social transformations in the next decades.

"The African continent is experiencing a shift towards more productive sectors of the economy, from the agrarian and extractive industries, towards industrial and service oriented economies," Clos said.

He further noted that one of the most critical vehicles for this transmission is well-designed urbanisation that provides a productive scenario necessary to sustain this very strategic transformation for Africa.

He noted that as a host of the UN-Habitat, Kenya remains fully committed to the agency and is ready to contribute constructively, and to work in partnership with the agency to secure the objectives of the important Session of the Governing Council.

"Let us consider the task that lies before us. Projections suggest that an additional 2.5 billion people will enter urban areas by 2050. Almost 90 percent of this increase is expected to occur in Asia and Africa. I need not add that this should be a matter of concern to all of us," Uhuru said.

He noted that the challenge is equally clear here in Kenya.

"According to our National Bureau of Statistics, by 2050 about half our people will live in cities. Indeed, in 2030, the city of Nairobi will have about 6 million people," he said.

He added, "For our part we have found that the creation of 47 counties under our new constitution has significantly influenced Kenya's urbanization: our new county governments will handle much of the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. That's because counties are the homes of the secondary cities, which are growing faster than the primary cities."

The President said counties have great potential for economic growth and employment creation.

"To this end, our Vision 2030 is geared towards promoting integrated regional and urban planning and management in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We strongly believe, also, that new and sustainable technologies will play an important role in human settlements, especially through industrial building systems," Uhuru said.

In recognition of this, Uhuru said Government has taken up Industrial Building Systems in the construction of housing.

"I am pleased to report that our National Housing Corporation has set up a factory for such sustainable building systems. And we are promoting the development of environmentally friendly buildings and green energy," he said.

He further pointed out that Government is focusing on three main things: changes in governance to meet the challenge of the new urbanization; an awareness of the opportunities presented by the new urbanization; and a turn to technology to meet the new needs.

"Those, one might say, are the main ingredients of Kenya's policy mix, to meet the new challenge. We believe that we can learn from others, and we hope that others will be willing to learn from us. That is why we welcome collaboration and partnerships in these areas," Uhuru said.


He said the New Urban Agenda gives humanity a collective approach to the challenges our towns, cities and urban areas face today and tomorrow.

"It presents a paradigm shift based on a clear vision of the interconnections between economic growth, standards of living and environmental sustainability. It is time now for all of us to act jointly to achieve our shared vision," Uhuru said.

He added, "That vision, I believe, may be stated in a sentence: we want smart towns and cities – economically viable, socially livable, environmentally resilient and politically stable settlements. The task may seem formidable; it is not insurmountable. What we do here, at this meeting, will determine whether we will fail or succeed."

Uhuru called for the reformation of UN-Habitat.

"We will achieve our goals only if it can serve as a focal agency for sustainable urbanization and human settlements. It will not do so if its capacity is not strengthened. That is why we must empower UN-Habitat with the resources it needs – and these resources must be adequate and predictable," he said.

Uhuru revelaed that at the last Governing Council meeting, Kenya made a substantive voluntary contribution to UN-Habitat.

"I urge member states to consider enhancing their contributions to the UN-Habitat. Equally, the agency itself needs reform, and to be more innovative in its resource mobilization strategies," he said.

He welcomed the recent appointment by the UN Secretary-General, of a High-level panel of experts to conduct an evidence-based and independent assessment of UN-Habitat.


"A new world is within our reach – a world of green, livable, and prosperous towns and cities. If we join hands in common effort, that world will be ours.
There are few more important tasks for our generation. I ask you all to keep this uppermost in your minds in all your deliberations," Uhuru said.

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - Environment experts have called for a strong public/private partnership to finance agro-forestry and fight against climate change.

During the  SBSTA 46 climate conference in Bonn, Germany, experts from World Agroforstry  Centre, (ICRAF), Oro verde –Tropical Forestry Foundation and Global Nature Fund (GNF), tapped into  different Agro-forestry success cases to showcase potential  pathways to drive the fight against climate change.

The discussions were held under the theme “High impact public-private climate finance” with case studies from Africa and Latin America.

According to Dr Peter Minang of ICRAF, Agroforests and agroforestry can be direct targets of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programs, or indirect parts of the necessary conditions for success.

“Whether or not agro-forestry becomes a core element of REDD+ depends on the country’s forest definition. Where carbon stocks in agroforestry cannot be directly targeted in REDD+, agroforestry still can be included in REDD+ strategies, as ways to shift demand for land and provide alternative sources of products otherwise derived from forest over-exploitation or conversion, thereby avoiding leakage from forest protection efforts,” Minang pointed out .

Financing Agro-forestry in the fight against climate change experts say has become imperative and can take the form of supporting capacity building to increase the number of investible projects, leveraging smallholder farmers who are key private investors ,analyse risk reduction potential for environment and social improvement and establishing a monitoring system.

“Agro-forestry is a climate-smart process that requires adequate attention and financial support,” said Dr Lalisa Duguma, scientist at the World Agro-forestry Centre and ASB Partnership.

Agro-forestry he said helps in agriculture adaptation and resilience building, restoring the soil and enhancing crop production.

However, Torsten Klimper of the German Tropical Forest Foundation OroVerde cautioned that funding biodiversity projects requires respect for the laws regulating biodiversity.

“There is need for investors to ensure total respect of the laws regulating biodiversity,” he cautioned.

According to experts, ecological farming encompasses a wide range of modern crop and livestock management systems that seek to increase yields and incomes, and maximise the sustainable use of local natural resources while minimising the need for external inputs.
Ecological farming ensures healthy farming and healthy food for today and tomorrow, by protecting soil, water and climate. It promotes biodiversity, and does not contaminate the environment with chemical inputs or genetically engineered plant varieties

This involves Agro-forestry that focuses on the wide range of work with trees grown on farms and in rural landscapes. Among these are fertiliser trees for land regeneration, soil health and food security, fruit trees for nutrition, fodder trees that improve smallholder livestock production, timber and fuelwood trees for shelter and energy, medicinal trees to combat disease, and trees that produce gums, resins or latex products. Many of these trees are multipurpose, providing a range of social, economic and environmental benefits, the experts explained.

In anticipation of the reviewing of NDC’s in 2018 experts recommended the inclusion and mainstreaming of Agro-forestry in the various national climate change agenda.

Dr Minang called for creating mechanisms to reward Agro-forestry practitioners for the environmental services they provide, such as carbon sequestration, water quality improvements, and biodiversity protection. He emphasized the need to ensure that mitigation activities in Africa also enhance adaptation.

The World Agro-forestry Centre (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific excellence possessing the world’s largest repository of agro-forestry science and information. Their vision accordingly is ensuring equitable world where all people have viable livelihoods supported by healthy and productive landscapes. The Centre according to ICRAF generates science-based knowledge about the diverse roles that trees play in agricultural landscapes, and uses its research to advance policies and practices, and their implementation that benefit the poor and the environment.

BONN, Germany (PAMACC News) - Environment experts have called for a strong public/private partnership to finance agro-forestry and fight against climate change.

During the  SBSTA 46 climate conference in Bonn, Germany, experts from World Agroforstry  Centre, (ICRAF), Oro verde –Tropical Forestry Foundation and Global Nature Fund (GNF), tapped into  different Agro-forestry success cases to showcase potential  pathways to drive the fight against climate change.

The discussions were held under the theme “High impact public-private climate finance” with case studies from Africa and Latin America.

According to Dr Peter Minang of ICRAF, Agroforests and agroforestry can be direct targets of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programs, or indirect parts of the necessary conditions for success.

“Whether or not agro-forestry becomes a core element of REDD+ depends on the country’s forest definition. Where carbon stocks in agroforestry cannot be directly targeted in REDD+, agroforestry still can be included in REDD+ strategies, as ways to shift demand for land and provide alternative sources of products otherwise derived from forest over-exploitation or conversion, thereby avoiding leakage from forest protection efforts,” Minang pointed out .

Financing Agro-forestry in the fight against climate change experts say has become imperative and can take the form of supporting capacity building to increase the number of investible projects, leveraging smallholder farmers who are key private investors ,analyse risk reduction potential for environment and social improvement and establishing a monitoring system.

“Agro-forestry is a climate-smart process that requires adequate attention and financial support,” said Dr Lalisa Duguma, scientist at the World Agro-forestry Centre and ASB Partnership.

Agro-forestry he said helps in agriculture adaptation and resilience building, restoring the soil and enhancing crop production.

However, Torsten Klimper of the German Tropical Forest Foundation OroVerde cautioned that funding biodiversity projects requires respect for the laws regulating biodiversity.

“There is need for investors to ensure total respect of the laws regulating biodiversity,” he cautioned.

According to experts, ecological farming encompasses a wide range of modern crop and livestock management systems that seek to increase yields and incomes, and maximise the sustainable use of local natural resources while minimising the need for external inputs.
Ecological farming ensures healthy farming and healthy food for today and tomorrow, by protecting soil, water and climate. It promotes biodiversity, and does not contaminate the environment with chemical inputs or genetically engineered plant varieties

This involves Agro-forestry that focuses on the wide range of work with trees grown on farms and in rural landscapes. Among these are fertiliser trees for land regeneration, soil health and food security, fruit trees for nutrition, fodder trees that improve smallholder livestock production, timber and fuelwood trees for shelter and energy, medicinal trees to combat disease, and trees that produce gums, resins or latex products. Many of these trees are multipurpose, providing a range of social, economic and environmental benefits, the experts explained.

In anticipation of the reviewing of NDC’s in 2018 experts recommended the inclusion and mainstreaming of Agro-forestry in the various national climate change agenda.

Dr Minang called for creating mechanisms to reward Agro-forestry practitioners for the environmental services they provide, such as carbon sequestration, water quality improvements, and biodiversity protection. He emphasized the need to ensure that mitigation activities in Africa also enhance adaptation.

The World Agro-forestry Centre (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific excellence possessing the world’s largest repository of agro-forestry science and information. Their vision accordingly is ensuring equitable world where all people have viable livelihoods supported by healthy and productive landscapes. The Centre according to ICRAF generates science-based knowledge about the diverse roles that trees play in agricultural landscapes, and uses its research to advance policies and practices, and their implementation that benefit the poor and the environment.

Africa is swimming in a vast ocean of agricultural potentials yet depends on imported food to survive. A glimmer of hope could lay in an initiative by African Development Bank (AfDB). PAMACC  Senior reporter, Arison TAMFU explores this:

NDOP, Cameroon, (PAMACC News) - Little Sonia stands with arms akimbo in front of a mud house impatiently waiting for food to be served. It is a breezy evening in Ndop, a locality in the North West region of Cameroon. Inside the kitchen her mother, Theresa Ngum is immersed in preparing Sonia’s most preferred delicacy - rice.

“This can barely feed them” says Theresa referring to her five children.
In 2001, her husband died after a protracted illness, leaving her with five mouths to feed- three boys and two girls. These are difficult days for the family.

“We are just struggling to survive. The children are always hungry. There is no money to buy food.I borrowed 500 francs cfa to buy the rice I am preparing” saysTheresa, speaking in Pidgin English.

Theresa lives in Ndop, a community of predominantly rice farmers, paradoxicallyshe and hundred other farmers in Ndop consume mostly rice imported from China and Thailand. She owns a rice farm just in her backyard but will rather borrow money to buy the Chinese rice she is preparing for her children.

“The children prefer the Chinese rice because it’s more tasteful. Besides, our own rice is scarce” she says grinding spices to liven up the rice.

The Cameroonian government’s reluctance to boast local production has resulted in the massive and indiscriminate importation of rice into the country. The import policy has killed the local rice sector.

Theresa recollects miserably the good-old-days when Ndop rice ruled Cameroon.

“We did not know about any rice but Ndop rice. It was the only rice consumed all over Cameroon and it was very cheap. We, smallholder farmers could feed our familiesand still made enough money from selling rice. There was no poverty” she recalls.

“We have nothing now. I am a farmer and why should I buy the food that I can cultivate from someone else?” she asks rhetorically.

Naïve as her question may sound,it signals a key problem that currently affects not only Cameroon but the rest of the African continent.  What Theresa does not know is that, when it comes to food security, there is good and bad news for Africa.

Paradox of a ‘breadbasket’ continent

Here is the good news: Africa is blessed with great potentialsto feed itself andexpand its food and agricultural exports. The continent holds almost 65 percent of the world’s arable land which is suited for growing food crops, comprising as many as 450 million hectares that are not forested, protected, or densely populated according to World Bank’s Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness report.

Africa uses less than 2 percent of its renewable water sources, compared to a world average of five percent the report adds. The World Bank estimates that food production and processing in Africa could generate $1 trillion a year by 2030.

“We are lucky to be endowed with these natural gifts suitable for farming. In fact there was a time Africa was feeding the world” says Professor Sakwe Nekongo, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, University of Buea.

According to Food And Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO)more than 30 years ago, Africa was a net exporter of agricultural products including food.

“We still have the potential to be self-sufficient and export” says Professor Sakwe.

“When Africa manages to feed itself, as – within a generation – it will also be able to feed the 9 billion people who will inhabit the planet in 2050”says Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Here is the bad news: Yes, Africa has great agricultural potentials but it cannot eat potentials.Most of the continent is hungry. A UN March 2017 report warned that urgent action is needed to save millions from simply “starving to death” on the continent.

“It was right to sound the alarm early, not wait for the pictures of emaciated dying children […] to mobilize a reaction and the funds,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien told the UN Security Council.

A sad situation for a continent that can feed itself but depends largely on food imports and aid to survive.

Africa lost its status as a net exporter of agricultural products in the early 1980s when prices of raw commodities fell and local production stagnated. Since then, agricultural imports have grown consistently faster than exports and by 2007 reached a high of $47bn, yielding a deficit of $22bn according to FAO report.

A 2016 research published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) found that Sub-Saharan Africa currently imports about 20 percent of its cereal needs, and this could rise to at least 50 percent by 2050.

“Arica is wasting vast amounts of money and resources by underrating its agriculture sector. For example, it spends $35 billion in foreign currency annually importing food, a figure that is set to rise to over $100 billion per year by 2030” laments Akinwumi Adesina.

“In so doing, Africa is choking its own economic future. It is importing the food that it should be growing itself. It is exporting, often to developed countries, the jobs it needs to keep and nurture. It also has to pay inflated prices resulting from global commodity supply fluctuations” he adds.

Nigeria is a quintessence of Africa’s food decline. Once the world’s most promising food producers, beating the likes of Malaysia and Indonesia in palm oil, and the US and Argentina in groundnuts, Nigeria today spends over $5bn annually to import food that can otherwise be grown locally.

Nigeria prides itself on producing 65 per cent of tomatoes in western central Africa, but it is the largest importer of tomato paste from China and Italy.

“While Nigeria is second in the world in citrus production and Africa’s biggest pineapple producer, its supermarkets are stocked with concentrated, imported versions of both” aThis is Africa report said.

How it got here
So why has Africa witnessedsuch decline in her food production? To Theresabad luck is partly to blame.

“There was a time that the weather was so bad that it damagedall rice crops that we planted. I had to abandon rice farming for a while” she says.

Fundamentally, the population has been increasing but food production has remained stagnant and that has given birth to a rise in food imports according to FAO. Policy distortions, weak institutions and poor infrastructure have also impeded Africa’s food growth.

“Contemporary farm inputs, including improved seeds, mechanisation and irrigation, are very much limited” says Professor Sakwe.

But there is also lack of well to invest in agricultureby the African governments although some African countries have realised that agriculture is important.

“Take for instance the commitment to invest at least 10 percent of national budgets in agriculture. Not many countries are meeting this goal” says Dr Nteranya Sanginga of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

So will Africa’s fast growing population continue to depend on food imports? Difficult to say but there is a piece of glad tidings on the horizon for the continent.

Therapy for food crisis

The piece of glad tidings is, the African Development Bank believes the solution to Africa’s food crisis lies in agro-industrialisation and has announced it will invest $24 billion in agriculture and agribusiness on the continent over the next ten years. A key component of the initiative would be providing $700 million to a flagship programme known as “Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation” for the scaling up of agricultural technologies to reach millions of farmers in Africa in the next ten years according to AfDB.

The initiative is expected to improve the fortunes of farmers and address the twin problem of food insecurity and unemployment.

To further eliminate dependence on food imports, governments would provide fiscal and infrastructure incentives for food manufacturing companies to move into rural areas, closer to zones of production than consumption.

“This can be achieved by developing agro-industrial zones and staple crop processing zones in rural areas. These zones, supported with consolidated infrastructure, including roads, water, electricity and perhaps suitable accommodation, will drive down the cost of doing business for private food and agribusiness firms” says Akinwumi Adesina.

The zones, according to AfDB would create new markets for farmers, boosting economic opportunities in rural areas, stimulating jobs and attracting higher domestic and foreign investments into the rural areas.

“When that happens, Africa will have taken its rightful place as a global powerhouse in food production. It could well also be feeding the world. At this point the economic transformation that we are all working for will be complete” adds Akinwumi.

PNAS researchapproves the AfDB initiative but adds that the expansion of land area to grow crops is vital to meet growing demand. The path to self-sufficiency for Africa will likely require, in addition to yield gap closure, increased cropping intensity and expansion of irrigated production area in regions that can support these options in a sustainable manner the research added.

Even so, sustainable food production will also mean erasing cross-border restrictions on the food trade within the African continent according to World Bank’s Africa Can Help Feed Africa: Removing barriers to regional trade in food staples report.

“Africa has the ability to grow and deliver good quality food but, this potential is not being realized because farmers face more trade barriers in getting their food to market than anywhere else in the world. Too often borders get in the way of getting food to homes and communities which are struggling with too little to eat,” says Makhtar Diop, World Bank Vice President for Africa.

According to the Bank, the continent would generate an extra US$20 billion in yearly earnings if African leaders can agree to dismantle trade barriers that blunt more regional dynamism.

Additionally, African smallholder farmers continue to battle with the devastating consequences of climate change on their crops.But they can find a lot of hope in a simple SMS technology. In Ghana for example, a private communication company, Esoko, is helping farmers access tips on weather, better farming methods and market prices.

“What we gain from Esoko is immeasurable. They alert us with prices in markets nationwide, tell me whatever I produce I can send it there to sell and get interest. They also help us with weather forecasts too,” a farmer toldGhana’s Citi FM radio after using the app.

Africa needs more of such initiatives to help small farmersaccess data on crops, weather and soil in the face of climate change.

Until then, Theresa dreams of a day things will return to normal just like in the old days.
“We are asking the government to help us revamp Ndop rice by providing tolls and fertilizer. We want to be able to earn a decent living from cultivating rice again. Cameroonians should also be encouraged to consume our rice” she says opening the pot on fire to check whether the rice is ready.

And yes, the rice is set! Sonia is served and she quickly sits down to appease her troubled appetite. Bon appétit.