Address By Brigadier General Amadou Toumani Touré

Former Head of State of Mali Laureate of the Tenth Annual Africa Prize For Leadership For the Sustainable End of Hunger For 1996

Madam President of The Hunger Project,

Honorable Members of The Jury,

Distinguished Guests,

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

First, please allow me, Madam President, to express my deep gratitude to your distinguished institution for bestowing this honour on my country and on myself.

I accept this Prize which the distinguished jury awarded me with feelings of pride, obviously, but also with some anxiety and apprehension, as I must now persevere to deserve it.

For many years, the Hunger Project has been renowned and admired in Africa for its efforts and those of the volunteers who assist it in its noble endeavour.

I express my sincere congratulations to the laureates, these women and men of the African continent, who preceded me.

I also convey my wishes for good luck and especially courage and perseverance to the future candidates.

My heartfelt congratulations go to the Honorable Chief Nisi Ogunleye, the co-laureate of this 1996 Africa Prize, as I salute her most valuable initiatives benefiting African women. The Africans are about to enter the 21st century both with hope and despair. In certain countries still torn by unresolved internal strife, the tragedies experienced by the people are grounds for despair.

The fact that other countries in Africa today have not formulated credible political positions that could effectively reduce poverty and ensure sustainable growth also inspires justified pessimism.

On the other hand, one must salute and encourage the results achieved through their own efforts by those countries who have painstainkingly pursued reforms and are beginning to see genuine, reasonable growth: such examples inspire hope and confidence.

One sometimes marvels at the efforts deployed by some African countries and the energy they demonstrate in order to balance their budgets.

Today, the decision makers must study the causes for the poor results, analyze their countries' potential without undue indulgence, and define the options are available to them, in order to formulate clearly their vision for political and economic development, as well as the objectives to be set, then build a national consensus for these development programmes and implement them effectively.

Weak performances in terms of economic growth coupled with high population growth rates have resulted in a steep decline of the per capita income.

In addition, the failure to diversify the exports and continued dependency on commodities with ever decreasing prices on the global markets remain major causes for concern.

Among all of the challenges confronted by our continent, the fight against hunger is the most pressing. Agriculture is the main source of food and, in a typical African country, represents 70 per cent of the labour force, 60 per cent of the exports and 35 per cent of the Gross National Product (GNP). One cannot conceive of long-term overall growth without growth in the agricultural sector.

The high rate of population growth in Africa has an impact on food security and related issues; these problems can be resolved only through appropriate agricultural measures. Clearly, African countries should give a higher priority and provide more effective support to agriculture.

The leaders should demonstrate a stronger political commitment for agriculture. The farmers should be given more of a voice in setting our agricultural policies and strategies.

The countries must formulate and adopt their own strategies and action programmes for agricultural development at the national level, based on an appropriate national consensus, and implement these strategies and action programmes.

Concrete measures are needed and must be applied immediately, for in terms of undernutrition and malnutrition, food insecurity now affects 25 per cent of the total population in Sub-saharan Africa.

The severe droughts of 1973-1974 and 1983-1984 have focused the world's attention on the fragility of food security in most of our countries, and have underscored the fact that the cumulative effects of the drop of world prices for tropical goods and the low incomes in the 1980s have maintained, in several countries, a food and economic crisis, "a profound crisis of empty granaries."

Poverty has increased in Africa, as shown by the number of people below the poverty line, and the social indicators together with the income figures allow us to evaluate its extent.

This poverty also manifests itself in the precariousness resulting from the uncertainty and instability due to the lack of resources, and in the economic exclusion of those who are denied access to the markets, the public utilities and the redistribution mechanisms.

According to FAO, in 1969-1971, the African region was home to some 10 per cent of the total population suffering from chronic malnutrition in the developing countries. This percentage had risen to 22 per cent in 1988-1990 and according to projections could reach 45 per cent in the year 2010.

An estimated 20 million children of preschool age suffered from malnutrition in 1980; their number was 28 million in 1990 and is projected to reach 38 million in the year 2000.

Diseases also carry devastating social and economic consequences, increasing the already heavy burden imposed upon poor communities and overwhelming the health services' limited capabilities.

However destructive AIDS may be, malaria is responsible for more deaths and the diseases accompanying poverty and poor hygiene conditions remain a major cause of suffering.

Today, Africa must and can respond to the challenge of feeding each and every African, break the chain of hunger and malnutrition. Hunger is not unavoidable nor is it linked to a genetic phenomenon.

The key is in the hands of the leaders who must effectively exercise their leadership, by adopting long-term strategies rather than short-term "quick fixes" that are mere survival tactics.

Only with fully participatory political systems, carefully intensified decentralization of power, together with political and administrative responsibilities, combined with sound governance and a greater role for civil society, will it be possible to create a sustainable political environment allowing the implementation of a balanced development plan.

In addition, measures must be devised to improve the capacities within the private sector and reinforce the skills required for research, science and technologies, and agricultural reforms.

It is necessary to remind the Africans and their partners of the alarming fact that this region is lagging behind other developing regions, and of the dangers of becoming marginalized in the process.

It is necessary, today, to instill hope; notable progress has been accomplished in some countries thanks to their determination, and tomorrow, trends could be reversed in a positive manner.

Africa has a wealth of resources, which, if properly managed, could be a major asset and a factor for speedy growth.

The capability to adapt manifested by numerous communities, in the face of severe crisis, demonstrates the considerable potential of the continent's human resources.

One cannot ignore the real progress accomplished over the past decade, which, in certain cases, was more prevalent than expected.

Africa has the necessary human resources and the required potential to wage the fight against hunger.

Africans and their partners who may still doubt must remember that Asia in the 1960s, also seemed to be a region without hope, prior to becoming, 25 years later, "the land of the dragons".

Again, I am deeply moved by these hungry children, by these women who walk for miles to fetch a few gallons of undrinkable water, by these camps filled with refugees and displaced persons, created by the madness of man.

Nevertheless, I remain hopeful for the Africa of tomorrow, bold, optimistic, joyous at the beat of the tam-tams, but above all, standing together in solidarity and tradition.

I wish to reiterate my deep gratitude to the Hunger Project, to the jury and to all the men and women of good will whose efforts have enabled us to celebrate today the Tenth Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger.

Thank you very much.