Maravi

Thandiwe calls for food security to address HIV/AIDS challenges

Thandiwe calls for food security to address HIV/AIDS challenges
By Florence Bupe
Fri 28 May 2010, 05:10 CAT

FIRST lady Thandiwe Banda (l) has called for increased food security as a means of addressing the challenge of HIV/AIDS. During a media leaders’ forum organised by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) at Pamodzi Hotel yesterday, Thandiwe said nutrition was an integral part in tackling issues of HIV/AIDS.

“There is a closely knit inter-relationship between HIV/AIDS and food security, in that while HIV/AIDS causes poverty in many African households, it is also true that poverty oils the wheels of HIV/AIDS,” she said.

Thandiwe urged the media in Zambia and other African countries to highlight issues of sustainable agriculture if the continent was to register improved farming activities by bringing to the fore the challenges that affected the sector.

She complained that most media houses were preoccupied with reporting on politics, sidelining vital subjects like agriculture.

“Developmental activities in agriculture and other sectors of the economy receive very little coverage, more so when the players are women. Most of the reports we get in the media are either on politics, disasters, male-related activities or simply insignificant events,” she said.

Thandiwe reiterated the need for the government to prioritise the agriculture sector with a focus on women empowerment.

She said it was appalling that although women produced about 80 per cent of the global food output, they remained impoverished and marginalised.

Thandiwe further observed that the global economic crisis, combined with the negative impact of climate change, had continued to pose significant challenges for the country’s agriculture sector.

“The combined effect of the global financial and economic crises and climate change on global food security has increased the number of hungry and poor people in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa,” said Thandiwe.

The media leaders’ forum has attracted participants from Zambia, Mali and Uganda and is being conducted under the theme ‘Reporting on Agriculture and Women.’

Labels: HIV/AIDS, THANDIWE BANDA

posted by MrK @ 2:45 PM