The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has blended with the pandemic to present a dire and biting cocktail of woes for workers, households and communities. Today, soaring fuel and food prices are forcing families to make decisions that seriously affect the quantities and quality of calorie intake.

Further, we are seeing African governments imposing and applying hard fiscal austerity policies that are affecting opportunities for job creation and wage increases. The results can be seen in sundry belt-tightening measures that workers, families and communities are forced to adopt as coping measures. The situation is growing worse for indigent persons, women, especially those as heads of households. Workers in the informal economy, migrant families and disabled persons have also not fared better.
According to the findings of the Continental Accountability Scorecard launched by the African Union and the Africa Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) in 2019, data shows that in the African continent:
• Fifteen (15) AU member states have child wasting prevalence below 5 per cent.
• Thirty-eight (38) African countries have women’s anemia prevalence rates of more than 30 per cent.

It is equally problematic that child labour incidence continues to spike on the continent as more African households recruit their children as other wage-earning hands to avert starvation.

The call is unmistakable, all strategies for reconstruction and sustainable development must be “human based “approach.
Undoubtedly, urgent, broad and imaginative actions are needed to build the continent’s resilience. ITUC-Africa affirms that peace and security are essential ingredients to boost farming and food production. We, therefore, call on our governments to engineer collaborative and genuine engagement to achieve a conducive environment for farming.
ITUC-Africa also calls on African governments to consider the following to boost food and nutrition for our people:
• Continue to prioritize agriculture and make steady investments to expand food production.
• To revive and revamp food and produce marketing boards to regulate and control food prices.
• It is also critical that our governments expand and sustain school-feeding programmes to ensure food and nutrition access to children. Such programmes will boost school enrolment and reduce absenteeism and school drop-out rates.
• Efforts to be given to the improvement of access to potable water and health care.
On our part, we shall continue to mobilize our members and people towards the efforts to beat food insecurity and improve the wellbeing of everyone. We believe and know a post-covid-19 pandemic recovery that does not leave anyone behind is possible!

Viva mother Africa!
Viva sons, daughters and friends of Africa!

Kwasi Adu-Amankwah
General Secretary