Beating famine through land management

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Tim Costello travels to Kenya for high-level talks to tackle hunger

World Vision Australia chief executive Tim Costello will hold high-level talks in Nairobi, Kenya this week as the food crisis in West Africa continues to intensify.

Mr Costello will attend the Beating Famine conference, a joint initiative by World Vision and the World Agroforestry Center aimed at combating hunger through environmental and agricultural initiatives.

Agricultural ministers from four African nations will attend the conference along with representatives from the UN Environment Programme, FAO, AusAID, USAID, African Union, World Bank and other NGOs.

The conference comes as a food crisis in West Africa escalates, with more than 15 million people now in need of food assistance. Families in Niger, Mali, Chad, Senegal and Mauritania are being pushed to the brink as crops fail and food rations dry up. Already 1.3 million children in the region are suffering from acute malnutrition, with 400,000 suffering from the most severe form.

The Beating Famine conference aims to spark a re-greening movement that will transform Africa and end the terrible cycle of drought and famine that many parts of the continent endure.

“Hunger is the single biggest solvable problem we face today. It kills more people than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined, and yet by 2050 we expect that climate change and erratic weather conditions will have pushed another 24 million children into hunger,” Mr Costello said. “Half of those children will live in sub-Saharan Africa so it cannot be any clearer that committed, smart and sustained action must be taken immediately.”

“At World Vision, we believe that long-term sustainable action requires a greater focus on the environment and better agricultural practices. Through this conference, we hope that governments, NGOs and also communities see the power of simple, effective environmental techniques as a new way of tackling hunger."

One of those techniques, Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, will play a significant role in the conference. FMNR was pioneered by World Vision Australia Natural Resources Advisor Tony Rinaudo in Niger in the 1980s. Over the past two decades, FMNR has transformed half of Niger’s farmlands (or more than 5 million hectares).

“Tony Rinaudo’s work over three decades has shown us that land management techniques really can make a dramatic difference to the lives of many millions of people,” said Mr Costello. “In Niger, the improvement of agricultural land through FMNR has been simply astounding. By 2007, an extra 2.5 million people per year were able to be fed by increased crop yields as a direct result of FMNR.”

World Vision Australia launched its West Africa Food Crisis Appeal in March and is scaling up its response to a growing need in the region. Globally, the organisation is aiming to raise $60 million to assist more than 1 million people across five countries.

To donate to the West Africa Food Crisis Appeal go to www.worldvision.com.au or call 13 32 40.

To interview Tim Costello in Nairobi or for more information, please call Gabrielle Brophy on 0407 575 112 or contact Chloe Adams in Nairobi on chloe.adams@worldvision.com.au

Media Releases, Famine, Africa, Famine, Foreign Aid, Kenya, Nutrition, Tim Costello, United Nations, USAID, West Africa Food Crises

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