ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT

FLT. LT. J.J. RAWLINGS ON THE OCCASION OF

THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE 1995 WINNERS

OF THE AFRICA PRIZE FOR LEADERSHIP

FOR THE SUSTAINABLE END OF HUNGER

Accra - August 1995

Ms. Joan Holmes, President of The Hunger Project

Executive Staff of The Hunger Project

Distinguished Guests

Supporters and Friends of The Hunger Project Worldwide

Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the Government and the people of Ghana, and on my own behalf, I must first express our deep appreciation to The Hunger Project for giving Ghana the honor of hosting the announcement of this year's Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger.

As we gather here in Accra, I greet all those who have met elsewhere in Africa and in New York to honor the two outstanding people who have been awarded the 1995 Africa Prize. Although we are separated by many miles, we are linked by our common concern and our practical efforts to eliminate the scourge of hunger from our continent.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We live in a paradoxical world in which hunger exists side by side with huge food surpluses.

There are still those who simplistically assume that all would be well if we shift the surpluses to the areas of need.

There are still those who assume that people who go hungry must be somehow lacking in initiative, skills and work ethics.

But we know that a sustainable end to hunger does not lie either in food aid or in exhortations.

Food aid is justifiable in emergencies where disaster relief is necessary. Beyond that, it undermines local agriculture, creates an insidious dependency, and, if not administered with strict integrity, can encourage racketeering which enriches a few and deprives the needy.

Exhorting farmers to produce more is fruitless unless the factors which inhibit their productivity are addressed.

Brothers and Sisters,

A healthy agricultural sector must be the basis for a sustainable end to hunger. This may seem so obvious that it is hardly worth saying, but we do need to be very conscious of the factors which create an agricultural sector capable of feeding our rural and urban people, as well as producing a surplus for industry and for export.

A lot of tragic mistakes have been made on our continent in the past, sometimes with the best of intentions and sometimes out of shortsightedness or greed.

Farming techniques appropriate to temperate countries have been imported to the tropics, only to become not merely failures, but agents of destruction.

Food crops have been neglected for cash crops, leaving small-scale farmers landless and impoverished.

Subsidies on scarce agricultural inputs have led to smuggling instead of increased production.

Even as we devise more appropriate policies and techniques, improve marketing and storage, increase access to credit facilities and ensure fair and attractive producer prices, other factors such as deforestation, industrial pollution and urban sprawl adversely affect our agriculture.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Agriculture on our continent is not just a question of the correct policies, methods, conditions and incentives.

Without peace and stability, no efforts to improve agricultural productivity can succeed.

Whilst we have the deep satisfaction of seeing normalcy return to the several formerly strife-torn African countries, there are still areas of tragic conflict which bring hunger not only to the conflict zones, but to the neighboring areas into which hundred of thousands of refugees pour for safety.

Conflict resolution and the maintenance of stability must be a basic component in our fight against hunger.

So almost must improved access to education and health care.

Only literate and numerate farmers can take full advantage of new and appropriate techniques, keep proper records and accounts, and make the transition from informal subsistence farming with an occasional surplus, to efficient and sustainable production.

Only healthy farmers, free from chronic debilitating diseases, can make effective use of the land.

The fight against hunger depends upon a complex network of conditions.

In many African countries, any improvement in food production is more than counterbalanced by the rate of population increase. Family planning programs require stability and education in order to make an impact. Lack of family planning information adversely affects the health of women and children, and therefore their productivity and ability to benefit from education.

But the greatest ally of hunger is poverty.

Individual poverty prevents farmers from improving their methods and employing new techniques. It makes the urban poor unable to afford the food available in the markets.

National poverty makes governments unable to provide the infrastructure and amenities which will enable their agriculture to thrive. Good roads, safe drinking water, schools, clinics, availability of agricultural inputs, access to credit are all weapons in the struggle to end hunger.

Our national economies, as well as our sub-regional economic groupings, are still far too vulnerable to the workings of a global economy which dictates depressed prices for our exports and ever increasing prices for our essential imports, and also restricts our access to markets.

We in Africa must work harder, under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity and our sub-regional groupings, to integrate our economies and enhance intra-African trade and commerce, in order to build sustainable economies.

At the same time, the international community needs to build upon the growing realization that for the countries of Africa a more favorable world economic order would be of far greater and sustainable benefit to our hungry and deprived than any number of shiploads of food aid.

Also, as I had occasion to remark to the President of The Hunger Project yesterday, whilst we and other developing countries appreciate the market economy as a stimulus to private incentive and entrepreneurial skills, there is a need for some safeguards to protect our growing but still fragile agricultural and industrial sectors.

If our markets are flooded with cheap imports which undercut the production costs of our own farmers and manufacturers, then our efforts to build a sustainable productive base are undermined.

This is not healthy competition. It is the swamping of our markets in a fashion which encourages the private trader at the expense of the private producer.

Our first concern must be production, and productivity must be rewarded and encouraged, and not stifled.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Distinguished Guests,

In congratulating the two deserving winners of the 1995 Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger, it gives me particular pleasure to honor a longstanding friend and comrade, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia.

In my visits to Namibia, I have seen for myself how the determination and inspired leadership which brought the people of Namibia through the struggle for freedom and independence has now been channelled into building a peaceful and prosperous nation of harmonious diversity.

I am also happy to acknowledge the important contribution of the other winner, Mrs. Joyce Mungherera, who kept Uganda's YWCA alive through the most trying period of its existence. "General" Joyce has built the YWCA into a strong women's organization, operating a credit scheme for rural women. We in Ghana fully appreciate the value of organizations which can mobilize and empower women to take their rightful place as partners in development.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As we honor these two deserving recipients for their outstanding efforts, let us also recognize with deep appreciation all the many men and women, known and unknown, in the savannas and forests of Africa and on other continents, in villages and cities, who work tirelessly in the worldwide efforts towards the eradication of hunger.

Let me also thank The Hunger Project for the support and encouragement which helps this effort to continue.

Thank you.