A four-day meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICSOE) for Central and Eastern Africa, opened today in Bujumbura, the Economic city of Burundi to discuss on food security and other related issues.
The annual meeting, which is jointly organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Government of Burundi brought together ministers and high-level policymakers, international organizations, private sector actors, youth representatives, UN officials, academics and media practitioners.
The meeting will focus on the theme: “Establishing Central and East Africa as Sources of Quality Products and Investment Destinations of Choice, to Accelerate Industrialization and Economic Diversification, and to Strengthen Food Security”.
ECA Director in Eastern Africa, Mama Keita said the Bujumbura meeting will discuss food insecurity because climate change, high food prices, and supply chain disruptions cause hunger and malnutrition for millions in Central and East Africa.
Mama Keita says that the meeting will also look at the barriers to food security and the potential of digital food platforms, which can help producers, consumers, and traders exchange food products and information more easily and cheaply.
Jean Luc Mastaki, Director of ECA in Central Africa said that the ICSOE meeting will also tackle one of the main challenges facing Eastern and Central African countries which are how to boost industrial and agricultural production with quality and environmental standards.
The meeting is expected to propose policies, strategies and options for implementing a “quality culture” and promoting intra-African trade in order to increase the quantity and quality of production in the region so as to strengthen food security, promote economic diversification and attract more investment.
The ICSOE brought together representatives from 7 Central African countries and 14 Eastern African countries, according to ECA.
The Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts is a statutory meeting held annually to discuss key emerging issues as well as opportunities and challenges to fast-track the development process of our sub-regions.
The ICSOE is a platform for agenda setting, experience-sharing and discussion of issues and challenges about the economic and social development of the sub-region with the view to making appropriate recommendations to address them.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency