11 October 2012
Dakar, Senegal
Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced support for a new project which will improve food security and nutrition in the most vulnerable areas of Senegal. The Prime Minister made the announcement during a bilateral visit in Senegal.
"Hunger, food shortages, and inadequate nutrition continue to devastate parts of Senegal," said Prime Minister Harper. "The project announced today, which builds on Canada's commitment to promoting food security in Senegal, will help enhance current agricultural practices and provide access to safe and healthy foods. As a result, the quality of life for thousands of citizens will improve."
The Integrated Support to Food Security and Nutrition project is a partnership between Canada, Senegal, the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The project, which will take place over three years (2012-2015), will help reduce immediate hunger needs by providing short-term food assistance to vulnerable households, such as nutritional supplements to pregnant women and women who have just given birth, and to young children. In the long-term, this project will help the agricultural community by enhancing nutritional and agricultural practices, providing access to better seeds such as rice, maize, sesame and vegetables, and by providing guidance to help break the food insecurity cycle. The project will help Senegal deal with the current food and nutrition crisis, while helping them build the resilience to face future crises.
Food security remains a thematic priority of the government's international assistance. Building on the Prime Minister's engagement on this issue at recent G-8 and G-20 Summits and at the last Summit of la Francophonie in 2010 which took place in Montreux, Switzerland, today's announcement is another example of Canada's continued leadership on food security.
