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19 May 2024 - Johannesburg, South Africa. The establishment of a regional parliamentary alliance on food security and nutrition would strengthen the Southern African region’s actions towards addressing hunger and malnutrition and achieving the SDGs. The SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF), through the Standing Committee on Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Climate Justice (FANRCJ), offers a promising opportunity to create such a network. This platform would enhance parliamentarians’ role in the development and implementation of policies and programmes to achieve healthy diets through sustainable food systems, thereby combating hunger and malnutrition and promoting the Right to Food.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) conducted a sensitization session for the FANRCJ Committee regarding parliamentary approaches and initiatives aimed at improving food systems, as well as the role and actions for parliamentary alliances in tackling challenges related to nutrition and food security. 

In response to the call for parliamentary action, several parliamentary networks and alliances focusing on food security and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa have been established with the support of FAO. These include:

• The Pan-African Parliamentary Alliance on Food and Nutrition Security (PAPA-FSN);
• The Economic Community of Central African States Parliamentary Network on Food Security and NutritionN (ECCAS-FSN);
• The East African Parliamentary Alliance on Food Security and Nutrition (EAPA-FSN);
• The Network of ECOWAS Parliamentarians on Gender Equality and Investments in Agriculture and Food Security.

Parliamentarians and parliamentary alliances contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting the adoption of policies and sometimes of model laws that can then serve as inspiration for national legislative and regulatory frameworks. They are also well-positioned to raise awareness and promote dialogue among relevant stakeholders and are instrumental for the allocation of resources through national budgets.

The FAO global outreach to parliamentarians has yielded over 100 laws pertaining to nutrition, food security, and agriculture-related matters that have been drafted and ratified.

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