The ambassador of Mozambique in Portugal yesterday underlined the importance of food security being on the CPLP agenda, taking into account the need to create mechanisms for the population to have food available.

"A well-nourished population is the greatest wealth to which each of us can aspire," said Joaquim Bule, Mozambique's ambassador to Portugal and the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), during the event "ESAN + 11: A Decade of Promoting Food and Nutrition Security in the CPLP.

The meeting, which runs until tomorrow, Wednesday, in a virtual model, evokes the 11 years since the approval of the Food and Nutritional Security Strategy of the CPLP (ESAN-CPLP) and 10 years since the creation of the Food and Nutritional Security Council of the CPLP (CONSAN-CPLP).

The diplomat defended the CPLP as "a space free of hunger" and praised the fact that food is on the agenda of this organization.

In Mozambique, he recalled, hunger is one of the main concerns and results, in part, from years of conflict and the climate, with periods of drought and heavy rains.

"For Mozambique, the availability of food to people and the use of food by people is a fundamental objective. People must be able to access food to ensure their own survival, development and growth," he told Lusa.

In this regard, he stressed the role of women who "are often the ones who work the land and feed their children. They are the guarantor of the survival and subsistence of families.

At the Community level, six of the nine countries already have their own mechanisms, while Brazil and Angola used to have them, but stopped having them by choice.

At the event's opening session, the CPLP's executive secretary, Ambassador Zacarias da Costa, praised many of the advances made in this area, but stressed that food insecurity is a worrisome reality.

"The latest report warns of very bleak indicators, with several factors in them, such as the dramatic increase in climate change, the covid-19 pandemic, and the context of insecurity triggered by the Ukraine conflict," he said.

There are, therefore, many challenges facing the CPLP and its member states in terms of food and food security, he continued.

The event that started yesterday and runs until tomorrow, Wednesday also intends to reflect on the causes of hunger and malnutrition as a major global problem for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as on the successes and political affirmation of the ESAN-CPLP.