EAC to benefit from USAID new food security strategy

USAID ANNOUNCES NEW U.S. GOVERNMENT GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY STRATEGY

Administrator Samantha Power has announced the updated and enhanced U.S. government Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS), at an event hosted by the White House and joined by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Administrator Power announced that the updated GFSS aims to contribute to reducing poverty and child stunting by 20 percent in the areas where Feed the Future works over the next five years.

The Feed the Future has been active in all the EAC countries, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

The strategy incorporates five priority areas, including an emphasis on equity and inclusion; tackling the immediate and long-term impacts of climate change; countering the long-term effects of COVID-19; fully integrating a “food systems” approach across Feed the Future’s investments; and better integration and coordination between humanitarian and development programming. Taken together, the updated Global Food Security Strategy, which guides the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative to end hunger, is a robust effort to provide millions of people with the basic dignity of nourishing food to eat.

This strategy follows President Biden’s announcement of a $10 billion dollar, multi-year investment to promote food systems transformation, including a $5 billion dollar commitment to Feed the Future. The initiative achieves sustainable impact in priority countries by partnering with country governments and local stakeholders to reduce hunger, poverty and malnutrition. Feed the Future utilizes the best of American ingenuity to lead cutting-edge agricultural research, leverage private sector expertise, and create economic benefits and support jobs for Americans back home and brings together 12 U.S. government departments and agencies to achieve its mission.

Global Food Security Strategy “Refresh” (GFSS-R)

The Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) is a whole-of-government strategy that guides the implementation of the Feed the Future initiative, promoting global food security, resilience and nutrition. It was launched in 2016 and expires at the end of September 2021. We are currently refreshing and extending the multi-year strategy, taking into account the evidence and lessons learned from the last four years of implementation. The refreshed GFSS will also account for the forces reshaping our global context, including the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict and climate change. Check out this fact sheet (135 KB, pdf) to learn more about the refresh process and next steps.