IFPRI and CGIAR have advised the federal government to react proactively to food crises.
On Thursday in Abuja, IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Katrina Kosec announced this at the presentation of the 2023 World Food Policy Report and the launch of the CGIAR Research Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration (FCM).
Kosec claimed the world faced catastrophes such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, social unrest, political instability, and climate change in 2022.
She said IFPRI had provided essential evidence to assist successful policies and programming to strengthen food, land, and water systems in fragile and conflict-affected countries and those confronting migration issues.
Kosec believed that enhancing international and national food crisis responses required accountable governance, effective institutions, policies, programming, and reliable finance to address immediate demands and long-term resilience.
She advocated for competent governance at all levels to address early disaster warnings and implement sustainable, crisis-responsive policies and actions.
It is necessary to have a key social protection system where people facing hardships have government support to help them graduate from poverty.
“Governments must also listen to their constituents, including women and other vulnerable groups.
“We also need extremely good systems that provide early warnings when crises are likely to hit, and ensuring that those systems are connected with actions, and planned actions are essential,” she added.
Since poverty continued, Kosec said the Nigerian government was genuinely addressing these gaps, but more needed to be done.
Dr Muhammad Abubakar, FMARD minister, said the government and the humanitarian community were conducting life-saving initiatives like social welfare, livelihood engagement stimulation, and environmental safety.
Abubakar, represented by Ibrahim Tanimu, Director of Planning and Policy Coordinator, FMARD, said the government will continue to promote national and international support to mitigate insurgency, and restore infrastructure, businesses, and livelihoods.
The minister said these strategies were to maintain the environment, create rural infrastructure, boost research capacity, expand extension services, increase agricultural productivity, enhance the commodity value chain, and promote agribusiness.
IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Kate Ambler stated the effort would promote climate resilience, gender equity, and social inclusion.
Ambler said the CGIAR research Initiative on FCM would focus on innovative social protection, food systems development, and climate adaptation programmes in fragile situations and migrant communities.
