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Former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has charged African leaders to urgently put in place smart measures to protect their people against extreme poverty and hunger.

According to him, there is the need for urgent action to improve the lives of people as climate change and its allied perils threaten to drive many into extreme poverty.

Speaking at the on-going climate change conference in Paris, the chief diplomat urged leaders on the African continent to step up efforts as Africa will be the biggest loser to the impact of climate change.

He said, “urgent policy action and adequate resources are needed to make food systems resilient and to ensure that high quality diets are affordable and accessible for everyone.”

He noted that growing more of the same staple crops will not be enough adding that the world needed agriculture to “be climate smart and also nutrition smart.”


He pointed out that agriculture must meet the needs of people saying we “must work to create agriculture and food production systems that are diverse, efficient and resilient.”

The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, is being held in Le Bourget, France, and is scheduled to end on December 11.

It is the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The objective of the conference is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.