The focus on food security this year is an important issue of concern in the Lake Victoria basin. This is because while there is growing demand for water from the burgeoning urban centers, agriculture and agro-related enterprises, the same sources of water in this ecosystem continues to be heavily polluted. This puts the poor people as the most disadvantaged and further marginalizes them. This has been aggravated by the increasingly harsh climatic conditions.

East Africa is prone to food security as it depends heavily on rain-fed agriculture to feed its fast growing population in the face of the unpredictable climatic conditions. Hence, in run up to the Rio + 20 Summit in Brazil (end of June) that has already pointed out water and food as two critical issues, it is important to heed to the key messages of UN – Water (an inter-agency mechanism that provides an efficient, coherent and proactive mechanism for coordinating the work of UN System agencies and programmes in relation to water resources, water supply and sanitation related issues). More