BACKGROUND

The African Union has declared 2024 as the year for Education with the theme “Educate and Skill Africa for the 21st century“

This is in line with AfriCAN’s approach to “inform, educate, advocate and inspire action for improved nutrition at the individual, household, community and national level and AfriCAN’s goal for Nutrition literate communities. This is also in line with AfriCAN’s intention to partner with academia and research institutions for nutrition to be put on their agendas towards informing policy and action, especially at the community level.

AfriCAN reiterates its call for the Youth to “Engage and Innovate” for sustainable nutrition solutions and has accordingly rolled out its “Good Nutrition Starts With Me” Youth initiative in three focus countries – Cameroon, Gambia and Ghana. The focus is on capacity enhancement of the youth and media networks to create awareness and understanding among them of the key role they have to play, including their responsibility and accountability for their own nutrition situation.

Africa is the region with the most youthful population in the world, thus presenting a huge potential for creation innovation and entrepreneurship among others. AfriCAN believes that this potential, if mobilized and harnessed, can turn the African nutrition narrative towards a positive direction. This potential is further recognized in the long-term commitment of the Africa Agenda 2063, which aspires for a youth that is socially, economically and politically empowered to be the driving force behind the continent’s political, social, cultural and economic transformation.

AfriCAN believes that adequate nutrition is an essential foundation for the fulfillment of this aspiration. AfriCAN will further seek to harness youth innovation by providing a platform for and facilitating their participation in the development of home-grown solutions/innovations to local nutrition challenges. The traditional role of the media in informing, educating and entertaining is recognized, and this will be moblilized and harnessed by enhancing their capacities in nutrition, for their own benefit as well as their consumers. National Nutrition Coordinating bodies are the key entry points for AfriCAN into countries and they play a major role in the implementation of this initiative.