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The Presidential Initiative to End Hunger in
Africa (IEHA) constitutes USAID’s primary agriculture
program in sub-Saharan Africa. IEHA focuses on increasing
productivity and rural incomes of smallholder farmers as a
strategy for reducing poverty and hunger in sub-Saharan
Africa. Six focus themes form the pillars of IEHA and
represent investments in: 1) Science
and technology; 2) Agricultural trade and marketing systems;
3) Human and institutional capacity; 4) Community-based and
producer organizations; 5) Vulnerable groups and countries
in transition; and 6) Environmental management. In
2006 IEHA is supporting efforts in six countries and three
region platforms. IEHA’s
reach covers Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Uganda and
Zambia, as well as three regional missions that support
multi-country efforts in east, west and southern Africa.
This coming year, IEHA will begin working with 2-3
chronically food insecure states to help them break the
cycle of famine.
Agriculture is a key component of the Initiative as
the sector is a major driving force in efforts to cut
hunger. The IEHA
Strategic Plan to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa is
market-oriented and smallholder-based.
The goal of the Initiative is to reduce hunger in
Africa in half by 2015, in keeping with United Nations
Millennium Development Goal #1.
Among IEHA’s key principles are building regional
dynamism, synergies, and spillovers; and building alliances
and broad-based political and financial commitment among
development partners, public and private, in Africa and
internationally, to a core set of activities designed to
eliminate hunger in Africa.
In 2005, IEHA biggest single accomplishment was
helping African heads of state and The New Partnership for
Africa's Development (NEPAD), a program of the African
Union, is a pledge by African leaders to place their
countries on the path of sustainable growth and development
and to participate in the global economy, endorse outcomes
for the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development
Program (CAADP), an integrated agricultural framework that
promotes the critical role of agricultural development as a
means to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and food
insecurity, increase trade and promote wealth. The core
objective of CAADP is to achieve 6 percent annual growth
rate in agriculture, sustained over time. |
