Speech by Hon. Jeremy Lissouba during the UN Food Systems Solutions Dialogue
Let’s me begin with simple word: change.
How do we change this reality that we, unfortunately, know all too well? This reality where hundreds of millions of people continue to face hunger and food insecurity in spite of abundant supply? Where more than 40% of the world’s population – billions of people – still cannot afford a healthy diet? Where those most affected by these afflictions tend to be those very farmers who produce our food? And, where despite our best efforts, change remains too little and too slow.
I was once told that there are at least three ingredients necessary for change:
The first is a rejection of the status quo,
The second is a credible, desirable and feasible alternative, and,
The third is the clarity of the process for realising this change.
I believe it goes without saying that we wholeheartedly reject this status quo. It is also true that alternative practices, those that can ensure food security and adequate nutrition, protect the environment, improve health outcomes, promote equity and safeguard livelihoods – exist and have been proven to be credible, desirable and feasible.
But it must be said that clarity of process is where we are falling short. We fall short, not because we do not know what needs to be done, but because when it comes to actually doing, we are confronted by the complexity of what change truly entails in our respective contexts.
As I am sure you know, this complexity is defined by the multiple sectors and stakeholders involved, by the range of interests, power dynamics and priorities concerned, by exogenous factors that can constrain capacity to act, and even by the various spatial and temporal dimensions that must be considered.
In turn, this translates into challenges that I suspect most of you have had to face in some way or another:
Lack of coordination among stakeholders and within governments, that leads to tensions and siloed mentalities,
Insufficient and inconsistent Investments that prevent solutions from being fully and durably implemented,
Limited capacity to monitor implementation and impact, due to resource, human capital or data constraints, and,
Insufficient awareness of national pathways among stakeholders from the national to the local levels.
In navigating this complexity and addressing these challenges, Parliaments and Parliamentarians are amongst the greatest allies to those tasked with implementing policies. Let me give you three reasons why:
First are the four core functions that almost all Parliamentarians share, which are:
Voting the laws that provide enabling environments for public policies,
Approving national budgets that guide public investments each year,
Overseeing the implementation of public policies and investments by the executive branches of government, and,
Representing local constituencies in a way that links the local to the national and beyond.
The second reason speaks to the multisectoral nature of Parliamentary work that allows for the kind of holistic perspective necessary to confront siloed mentalities and to promote concerted action.
Finally, the third, and arguably most important is that MPs are drivers of political will – with access to the highest decision-makers and the ability to navigate institutional blockages more easily than many others.
Together, they place Parliamentarians at the heart of policy, investment and accountability processes in our respective countries, whilst also making us valuable advocates able to reach and influence stakeholders at all levels.
It is this understanding of the role that Parliamentarians can play in processes such as those being discussed today, that motivated the creation of the African Food Systems Parliamentary Network – or AFSPaN – which I am honoured to serve as Secretary General.
AFSPaN is a network of parliamentary champions from 28 countries in all 5 regions of Africa. Many of our members are Committee Chairpersons, including members of regional parliaments (EALA, SADC, CEMAC) as well as members of the Pan-African Parliament. Together with our partners from the African Union, the UN system, the Zero Hunger Coalition, the CAADP Non-State Actors Group, and the Pan-African Farmers Organisation, we support our members, namely:
By helping them to better understand agrifood systems, and to raise awareness within their respective Parliaments,
By creating opportunities for sharing knowledge and experience between countries and regions,
By providing knowledge, tools and support for legislative and budgetary work within their respective assemblies, and
And by developing partnerships with experts and legislators from around the world, in support of their work at national and regional levels.
Chief among our achievements as a network, has been successfully striving for the inclusion of Parliamentarians in the CAADP Kampala Declaration on Building Sustainable and Resilient Agrifood Systems in Africa – for the first time since CAADP was launched in 2003.
Specifically, we demonstrated that Parliaments should feature prominently in Commitments to Strengthening agrifood systems governance, as well as supporting the development and implementation of relevant policies. Much work remains to adequately domesticate and consistently implement CAADP policies in our respective countries, but this is certainly an important milestone in this context.
In conclusion, Parliamentarians – given adequate knowledge, guidance and support – can prove to be instrumental in navigating the inherent complexities of agrifood systems transformation and to generate the necessary political will, that can provide much needed clarity in our respective transformation processes.
The experiences of CAADP over the past two decades have shown that failure to properly engage Parliamentarians in processes such as these, was at best a missed opportunity, to ensure:
Widespread awareness of these processes and their entailed commitments,
Coherent legislation, policies and investments,
Consistent budget allocations in the medium to long term, and,
Accountability in implementation.
Yet this will not happen on its own. To be truly effective, Parliamentarians will need support, namely in terms of:
Efforts to better inform MPs and provide tools for effective action at national level (food systems mapping, tools for budgetary analysis, development and transcription of model laws, actionable evidence and case studies, etc.),
They will also need better, more comprehensive and more timely data to facilitate evidence based decision-making and responsiveness,
And finally, they will need more opportunities for knowledge and experience sharing, as well as for collaboration within and between countries, to build MP capacity, as well as to extend policy and investment coherence beyond national, regional and international borders.
I thank you for your kind attention.
