17 Oct 2016: African Leaders Meet in Abidjan to Invest in Nutrition
Influential African leaders, philanthropists and heads of businesses met in Abidjan on 17 October 2016 with the President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) Akinwumi Adesina to discuss the best approach to achieve nutritional security for Africa through increased investment and public-private partnerships.
These discussions are part of the African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) initiative, created by the AfDB president and John Kufuor, former president of Ghana and co-president of Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition. The ALN offers a new vision, and hopes to mobilise African leaders with the goal of catalysing and strengthening political will and leadership in ways that will increase investment in nutrition.
An analysis conducted by the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition shows that increasing investment to achieve the World Health Assembly’s goal of reducing underdevelopment by 40% in 2025 will add 83 billion dollars to GDP growth in almost 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria for example, this represents 29 billion dollars in national revenue, with a cost-benefit ratio of 17 to 1 for additional investments.
The economics of reducing malnutrition working paper