Thiaroye, Dec 18 (APS) – The Pan-African Institute for Citizenship, Consumers and Development (CICODEV) and its partners launched a campaign called “I eat African” on Tuesday in Thiaroye, in the suburbs of Dakar. / I Consume Local” and dedicated to the local promotion of culinary beauty and richness.
For its initiators, it is a question of promoting and staging a dialogue between nutrition, art and gastronomy over a period of three years.
”I would like to remind you that sovereignty in addition to guaranteeing the availability of agricultural products, the use with healthy and nutritious food with an emphasis on vulnerable populations is a priority for the Government,” said Saliou Fall, representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock, at the opening of the ceremony at the multipurpose women’s center of the Thiaroye military camp (suburb of Dakar).
He assured that this department “spares no effort to create conditions that can boost agricultural production, in all its dimensions (plant and animal production).”
”Other state institutions in collaboration with stakeholders will ensure the creation of favorable conditions for the effective use of quality promotion tools, in addition to reassuring consumers about the quality guarantee of local products marketed,” added Mr. Fall.
For his part, Amadou Kanouté, executive director of CICODEV, insisted on the importance of consuming local to, not only, reduce imports of food products, but above all, to manage local agricultural production and the Government’s food policy.
”We need to make our food system more sustainable because buying products abroad does not allow you to control your agricultural production, does not allow you to control your food policy,” he stressed.
According to Kanouté, raising awareness among public authorities, citizens and communities about the need to transform our food system in such a way as to control it ourselves would make it possible to import less and consume what we produce and we on the path to food sovereignty.
After Uganda, Nigeria, Tunisia and Ethiopia, it is Senegal to launch its “I eat African/I consume local” campaign.
This campaign is supported by CICODEV Africa and its partner Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) as part of the Transforming the African Food System to Make It Sustainable (TAFS) project.
In Senegal, a vast coalition was created around the Campaign, bringing together around ten actors from civil society and institutional actors in particular, the National Nutrition Development Council (CNDN) and several ministries, we read in a document given to the press.
The launch of the “I Eat African/I Consume Local” Campaign is the start of a dive that will last three (3) years into the world of the cultural, religious and symbolic beauty of African and Senegalese cuisine. It will be sung, celebrated and transmitted throughout the campaign.
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