The Gabonese Prime Minister, Daniel Ona Ondo officially opened this 30th September the 2nd international conference on nutrition (CNI2) for Central Africa. He pleaded for a mobilisation of resources to enable the real implementation of the commitments of CNI2, by all member countries of CEEAC. This is even more important considering the concerning statistics on the subject. Indeed, according to Daniel Ona Ondo, malnutrition is on the rise in Central Africa and figures predict 58.9 million malnourished in 2016 against 24.2 million in 2012.

For the Gabonese prime minister, "without a shared vision of the major challenges in nutrition and alimentation, without strong cooperation between countries of the sub-region and without a dynamic and constructive economic partnership, the nobles goals set will never measure up to the legitimate expectations of the Central Africa people".

In his intervention, the PM nevertheless rejoiced about the fact that Gabon had reached the first of the Millenium Development Goals (MDG), by significantly reducing the proportion of the population suffering from hunger. But this prize given by FAO, Daniel Ona Ondo insisted, hardly hides the dependency of Gabon which still imports over FCfa 250 billion worth of foodstuffs from other countries. Therefore to reverse this trend, the head of government insisted that the national GRAINE programme aim is guaranteeing food security, while also helping to fight against unemployment and promoting the empowerment of populations through the development of money-generating activities.