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President Fonseca stops over on way home |25 July 2014

 

 

Cabo Verde President Jorge Carlos de Almeida Fonseca arrived here last night on transit as he heads back home from attending the 10th conference of the heads of state and government of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).

The meeting took place in Dili, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, from July 22-23 at the Noble Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.
During the meeting, Equatorial Guinea, suspended from the CPLP in 2012 following the coup of April of that year, was readmitted in the wake of the recent presidential and legislative elections.

After a debate, without the decision going to a vote, all CPLP heads of state and government agreed to admit Equatorial Guinea as a full member of the CPLP. The West African country is one of the continent’s largest oil producers. Equatorial Guinea did not take part in the discussion.

CPLP members are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tome and Príncipe and East Timor, before the admission of the Equatorial Guinea where Spanish and French are also spoken.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea’s head of state, pledged to defend the articles of the CPLP and “‘act’ in line with its principles and objectives” along with other intentions such as a multidisciplinary study centre (in a country that has not built new state schools for decades) and a Portuguese language centre dedicated to the CPLP.

The meeting also placed food and nutrition security at the centre of the bloc's agenda.
Speaking at the opening of the summit, Food and Agriculture Organisation director-general José Graziano da Silva congratulated the leaders for this decision and reiterated the organisation's commitment to consolidate the food and nutrition security projects in the CPLP.

The initiatives developed by the FAO include supporting the design and implementation of the Regional Strategy for Food and Nutrition Security (ESAN-CPLP); strengthening public institutions; support to the implementation of National Councils of Food and Nutrition Security and the involvement of civil society in the fight against hunger; a diagnosis of the state of family farming and food security; and the launch of the ‘Together Against Hunger’ campaign that aims to raise not only funds for the implementation of food security projects in the CPLP  but also awareness of the importance and possibility of guaranteeing the right to food for all.

Investments using FAO's own funds or those received directly by the organisation to implement projects in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste reached US $14 million in 2013 and almost US $10 million in the first semester of 2014.

After the summit, CPLP heads of state and government approved the Dili Declaration, which among other things highlighted the need to eradicate hunger and poverty in the CPLP and placed food and nutrition security as a permanent issue on the agendas of the presidencies of the CPLP and of the summits of heads of state and government until 2025.

The Dili Declaration also looked at different aspects of FAO’s work: the signing of a technical cooperation agreement with the CPLP; the framework of cooperation for the eradication of hunger and poverty in the member states; the promotion of activities carried out within the framework of  2014 as the international year of family farming; and the organisation of the second international conference on nutrition (ICN2), to be held next November in Rome as an opportunity for strengthening healthy food and nutrition as a public issue.

President Fonseca first arrived in Seychelles early Monday morning on his way to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. He was greeted on arrival by Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Paul Adam and his principal secretary Maurice Loustau-Lalanne after his plane touched down at the Seychelles International Airport at 3.35am. He left on Monday night.

The Cabo Verde head of state, who first came here on a state visit and was the guest of honour at the Seychelles National Day celebrations on June 18, is expected to meet high government officials today before his departure.

He explained that he could have stopped over in the Maldives but opted for Seychelles after having already made a stop in Luanda, Angola, on his way to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

 

 

 

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