The Africa Caribbean Pacific (ACP) and ACP-European Union (ACP-EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly is convening in Rwanda to address issues related to sustainable development.

The high-level meetings of the Assembly take place from November 14-21, 2019 at Kigali Convention Centre.

According to a statement issued by Rwanda Parliament, the Assembly will debate the state of food security and nutrition, integration of a gender perspective into conflict management and migration and sustainable growth for people with the aim to bring the matters to resolutions on “challenges addressed at the COP25” and on the “threat of climate change to fisheries and aquaculture.”

The high-level meetings will feature various activities such as the plenary of the ACP Parliamentary Assembly, meeting of the commissions of ACP, Youth Conference, Women’s Forum, and the formal opening sitting of the 38th Session of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly and plenary proceedings.

In addition, Members of the ACP-EU Joint Parliament Assembly will visit various projects including Karama Integrated Model Village, Mount Kigali Power Substation and Bella Flowers.

The assembly will bring together bout 350 participants from 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific states and 28 European Parliament counterparts.

The Joint Parliamentary Assembly is the only international assembly in which the representatives of various countries sit together regularly with the aim of promoting the interdependence of North and South where representatives of the 79 ACP states who, under the Cotonou Agreement, meet their 28 European Parliament counterparts twice a year in plenary session alternately in the European Union and an ACP State.

Hunger as a global challenge

An estimated 820 million people in the world – or about 11 percent of the world’s population – are hungry, underscoring the immense challenge of eliminating hunger by 2030, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2019, a report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

It pointed out that hunger is on the rise in almost all African subregions, making Africa the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, at almost 20 per cent.

Economic slowdowns and downturns, are contributing to prolonging and worsening the severity of food crises caused primarily by conflict and climate shocks, the report indicated.