With Africa’s population projected to reach about two billion in 2050, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has urged African countries to reduce its reliance on aids and focus on developing its agricultural sector to achieve economic dependency.
According to the agency’s African Development Report titled “Africa Human Development Report 2012: Towards a Food Secure Future”; nearly 218 million people on the continent are undernourished and 55 million children (40% of African children under the aged five included) are malnourished, a figure that is projected to rise. The situation affects children in particular.
This makes Sub-Saharan Africa the world’s most food-insecure region. At the moment, more than 15 million people are at risk in the Sahel alone – across the semi-arid belt from Senegal to Chad; and an equal number in the Horn of Africa remain vulnerable after last year’s food crisis in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.
Food security, as defined by the 1996 world leaders’ Food Summit, means that people can consistently access sufficient and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life at a price they can afford.
Freedom from hunger enables people to live productive lives and realize their full potential. In turn, higher levels of human development can further improve the availability of food, creating a virtuous cycle for all.
Although the report indicated that Africa has recorded an impressive economic growth rate; it stated that Africa cannot sustain its present economic revival unless it eliminates the hunger that affects nearly a quarter of its people.
An assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director for the UNDP bureau in Africa, Tegegnework Gettu, said chronic food security in sub-Saharan Africa stems from decades of poor governance. He said, “Regimes bent on amassing wealth absorbed the region’s resources into patrimonial power structures.”
“Self-serving elite quick to profit from graft and patronage have stood between the leaders and the people, monopolised state revenues and emptied the countryside, but they have provided neither employment nor industry,” he said.
“Africa must stop begging for food. That is an affront to both its dignity and its potential,” he said. “If some African countries can acquire and deploy jet fighters, tanks, artillery and other means of destruction, why should they not be able to master agricultural know-how? Why should African be unable to afford technology, tractors, irrigation, seed varieties and training needed to be food secure?”
“It is a harsh paradox that in a world of food surpluses, hunger and malnutrition remain pervasive on a continent with ample agricultural endowments,” says Tegegnework Gettu, Director of UNDP’s Africa Bureau.
Also, the Head of the Kenyan Economic Think Tank, Inter Region Economic Network Economist James Shikwati, said in the existing global trade system which is valued at $36 trillion, Africa only contributes 3%.
“If the UN really wanted to help African farmers, the point would be to leverage on the indigenous crops and foods in Africa and have them access global markets so that farmers can also tap in to this $36 trillion global trade system.” Shikwati said.
However, at the launch of the report in Kenya, the UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, says the “Impressive GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth rates in Africa have not translated into the elimination of hunger and malnutrition. Inclusive growth and people-centered approaches to food security are needed.”
Clark posits that many sub-Saharan economies are growing fast but the growth rates have not translated into significant hunger reduction.
The report however indicated that it is not wise to focus only on the agricultural sector to reverse the situation, but the focus should also be channelled towards improving other sectors like improving rural infrastructure, health, reforms on social protection and empowering local communities.
Nevertheless, Ghana has become the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve a Millennium Development Goal on halving hunger by 2015, partly by focusing on policies, which encouraged cocoa farmers to boost output. Malawi has also transformed a food deficit into a 1.3 million tonne surplus within two years, thanks to a massive seed and fertilizer subsidy programme.
The Report however recommends that social protection programmes such as crop insurance, employment guarantee schemes, and cash transfers – all of which can shield people from these risks and boost incomes.
