Business leaders to launch National Council of the Business Alliance Against Chronic Hunger

02 Jun '06

4 min read

As the World Economic Forum on Africa convened in Cape Town, business leaders united to launch the first ever National Council of the Business Alliance Against Chronic Hunger.

This diverse group of business leaders, politicians and representatives from civil society will work together to create innovative and scalable market-based solutions to the persistent problem of chronic hunger in Kenya.

"Business can play an important role in addressing the root causes of chronic hunger," said William Hickey, Chief Executive Officer of Sealed Air Corporation. "We are ready to commit our experience and expertise to help build solutions to this problem."

"Chronic hunger is a very real problem in the parts of the world where we operate, and for this reason Unilever has joined the Business Alliance Against Chronic Hunger," said Diego Bevilacqua, Group Vice-President of Africa, the Middle East and Turkey for Unilever.

"By combining our knowledge and interests with those of our partners, we can catalyse concrete actions to reduce chronic hunger and poverty in Kenya," he said, noting that Unilever can source from farmer cooperatives, increase access to nutritious foods and conduct information campaigns on health and hygiene.

The Kenyan government strongly supports the initiative, said Romano Kiome, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture. "We welcome this partnership and believe it will strengthen our ongoing efforts to meet the urgent food and nutrition needs of Kenyans," he said. The country's hunger levels worsened considerably this year due to severe drought.

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