INTRODUCTION

The Forum for Former African Heads of State and Government, commonly known as the Africa Forum (AF), has decided to initiate a tripartite partnership involving the Forum, African countries emerging from conflicts, and the Private Sector to jointly play a major advocacy and facilitation role in promoting agriculture for self-reliance in Africa. In this regard, the Africa Forum with technical support from Edge2Edge Global Investment Limited (“E2E”) has designed and elaborated the Agriculture for Self-Reliance Project (ASRP). The Edge2Edge Global Investments will provide the initial resources for a Pilot Project/Flag Ship Project in the Republic of Liberia. The Liberian Government will be requested through a consultative process to allocate the land required for the ASRP/LFSP.

The ASRP aims at addressing the root causes of conflict in these countries, through national dialogue and reconstruction, promoting agriculture for self reliance through community based agriculture projects and mobilizing national and international support to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The ASRP takes into account the reality that post conflict reconstruction and development in most African countries emerging from conflict cannot be sustained without an environment of peace and security, food self-reliance, and capacity to restore confidence among those who had lost hope as a result of conflicts as well as the social and economic impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The objectives of the project are:

• Provide structured and coordinated processes for delivery of products and services to be delivered to the malnourished and HIV/AIDS infected people of the Africa
n, which will assist in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.
• Serve as the general template and baseline for all future projects to be put in place in Africa and will be deemed to be the turn key solution for delivery and logistics, service providing and control of fortified foods and supplementation to the malnourished as well as HIV/AIDS infected people of Africa.
• Address the basic approaches to distribution, service providing and controls, which will guide and coordinate a comprehensive rollout of food, supplementation and secondary services with specific identified goals, objectives and strategies for a period of three years (2008 – 2011).
• Guide all future programs and interventions by Africa Forum and E2E in the field of service providing, delivery and logistics of fortified food with supplementation of malnourished and HIV/AIDS infected people. It will also contain a Monitoring and Evaluation System of the institutional, coordination and financial frameworks of related projects.

Expected results

• Creating a unique vehicle for the African Forum and E2E to be proactively involved in the fight against malnutrition and HIV/AIDS in Africa.
• Sustaining supplementation in terms of balanced nutrition, water purification solution, fortified foods, support services and supplementation for the malnourished and HIV/AIDS people of Sub-Sahara will have been demonstrated and achieved.
• Encouraging African countries to look inward and struggle for food self-sufficiency through domestic production
• Turning the African continent into a food net exporter.
• Raising agricultural productivity, which will increase rural incomes and lower food prices, making food more accessible to the poor.

Stakeholders

In addition to the Africa Forum, and E2E, the other major stakeholders include the following:

• The Governments and the People of the Project hosting countries
• The Private Sector of the Project hosting countries
• Civil Society organizations in the Hosting countries, Particularly the NGO’s dealing with issues related to HIV/AIDS
• The PLWHA
• Strategic Partners such as the UNDP, the African Development Bank (AfDB), Trust Africa, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the World Bank, the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), the European Commission, and individual donor countries.