Story by Oleen Ndori, Foreign Desk Editor
THE SADC Council of Ministers has called for collaborated efforts in ensuring food security in the face of El Nino induced drought.
Head of Zimbabwe’s delegation and incoming chairperson of the ministerial council, Ambassador Frederick Shava, who is also the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International trade says the meetings held on Sunday and Monday called for lasting solutions to food insecurity in the region, amid revelations that 43 million people in Southern Africa are at risk.
“The meeting also deliberated on the issue of regional food security and nutrition where it is estimated that about 43 million people are food insecure in the region. Our region continues to face various nutritional challenges due to poverty, climate change, economic instability, armed conflicts and epidemics. We further discussed the state of disasters in the region,” he said.
“Cyclones, floods and droughts, among others, have continued to wreak havoc. As a mitigation measure to the effects of these disasters, SADC encouraged member states to support the operationalisation of the SADC Emergency Response Team (ERT) including its deployment to support Member States affected by disasters,” he added.
Outgoing Chairperson and Angola’s Foreign Minister, Honourable Tete Antonio weighed in stressing the need for unity of purpose.
“Our meeting comes to an end, but this is not the end of our tasks, because the various sectors of the organisation are going to work so as to enrich the wider task of the council of ministers. Because this is where all efforts from our member states come together. We speak about transport, we speak about health, we speak about economics, planning, all points that are the sectors in our countries which are the ones that constitute the wealth of the council of ministers meeting, he said.
The two-day meeting also discussed implementation of council and summit fecisions as well as progress on the implementation of the theme of the 43rd SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government along with situations in the DRC and Mozambiquem
