The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) in collaboration with SIDA back on a campaign of transforming the African food system to sustainability (TAFS) project, themed “My Food is African.” This was revealed during the campaign launch at Country Lake Resort Garuga in Entebbe, Uganda.
This transformative initiative builds on the success of the Mobilizing for an African Food Policy (MAFP) – My Food is Africa initiative which aims to inspire African citizens to demand and consume healthy and culturally appropriate food supported by favourable policies by 2026.
The launch was attended by over 40 participants, including representatives from project case countries, citizen working group members, and representatives from SIDA and AFSA, who promised a comprehensive perspective for collaborative learning and decision-making for the project’s success.
According to Million Belay the Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), growing healthy food in agroecological ways is not enough, that’s why they sensitize both the young and the old about the types of foods that are beneficial to their health.
“On this, we agree with some leaders like the Ugandan president that what we have is healthy and that if we grow the diversity that we desire, not only will we rejoice, but so will nature around us, because resilience comes from diversity. Climate change, biodiversity loss, increasing pandemics, war, and other unpredictable factors demand that we consider resilience,” he said.
He also noted that eating healthy African food helps to preserve the African culture, saying that as an Ethiopian, he has no idea how to make matoke unless he learns.
“African diet has a lot to offer but the question is, how much are we learning from the food knowledge and practice of other African cultures before we adopt the Western diet?” he added.
However, he also said that it’s very much easier to sell this agenda in some countries like Uganda, Ethiopia, and Gabon among others because they have their local foods.
“But what needs to be changed is the mentality of the people because it’s the main reason for food problems like in northern Uganda, therefore let us all be the pioneers in changing people’s mentality as we transform the African food system to sustainability,” Belay concluded.
Josephine Akia Luyimbazi the Country Coordinator of PELUM Uganda noted that agroecology is a sustainable farming system that comes in to address the current challenges that farmers face like climate change and loss of diversity among others.
She therefore remarked that the “My Food is African campaign” was designed from the comprehensive studies that were carried out within African countries to change the narrative around the consumption of healthy and culturally appropriate foods.
“Right now if you look at the youth, there is the preference of the first foods, processed foods leaving out the indigenous food that we have as the country, so this campaign came in to see how do we promote the consumption of our very own indigenous and traditional foods that we know are nutritious in value, are safe and have been culturally grown,” Akia noted.
She also highlighted that more campaigns are put in place like the Know What You Eat campaign where the community is engaged and sensitized on the benefits of eating culturally processed foods in Uganda as a result of inspiring the citizens to demand and consume healthy and culturally appropriate foods.
“It doesn’t mean that when you are having culturally appropriate food then you can not add value to them, we have seen where people have gone ahead and added value to these products to make them more appealing but also to ensure that consumer’s preferences are taken care of,” Akia added.
In conclusion, she, therefore clarified that agroecology is not new because it involves traditional agriculture which the grandparents used to, and that there was no need to revamp the soil.
The Senior Program Manager Environment and Climate at Swedish International Development Agency, Ayele Kebede noted that nowadays the climate is a bit challenging and the only way to go is by the use of the agroecology approach as the solution to the food system.
“We are very far and by the time when we switch our food system we are also losing the culture, the understanding and thinking embedded in the preparation and consumption of the food, that’s why SIDA came in to support this initiative and to look for the solutions for the food system,” he added.
Charles Mulozi the Advocacy and Campaign Coordinator highlighted that the campaign stands on two pillars including the mobilization of the African citizens to demand the system that works for this continent and policy reforms in terms of strong policies that can protect and promote the locally processed foods.
“So this project in the next three years we want to inspire the community to demand the production and consumption of healthy and culturally appropriate food supported by favorable policies at the national level as well as at African Union,” Mulozi added.
Joyce Brown the Director of Programmes at Health of Mother Earth Foundation based in Nigeria encouraged the community especially the farmers to engage in the right and healthy agricultural methods to avoid the inorganic chemicals that may affect the quality of the food and the project as well.
About AFSA
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is a Pan-African platform comprising networks and farmer organizations working in Africa. It aims to be a strong voice that shapes policy on the continent in the areas of community rights, family farming, promotion of traditional knowledge and knowledge systems, the environment, and natural resource management.
SIDA
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) is a Swedish government organization under the Swedish Foreign Ministry which administers approximately half of Sweden’s budget for development aid. The overall target of Sweden’s development assistance is to ensure that those in poverty can improve their living conditions. To carry out this assignment effectively and strategically, Sweden’s development assistance encompasses all areas of society and is focused on five areas: democracy, equality and human rights, economic development, knowledge, health and social development, sustainable development, and peace and security. It states that all of these areas are important in reducing world poverty and creating fair and sustainable development.
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