Pan-African Approach to Tackle Food Insecurity Arising from Conflict and Climate Shocks — Global Issues
Nairobi, November 22 (IPS) – International upheaval, war in Ukraine, conflict in the Horn of Africa, severe climate shocks, high international inflation, rising global commodity prices , high agricultural input prices and low intra-continental trade are fueling food insecurity across Africa.
Of the 24 countries listed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World food program by 2022, 16 people in Africa. The continent accounts for 62% of all food-insecure people in hotspot countries.
“Over time, climate shocks have had a significant impact on Africa’s fragile food chain. The most severe drought in the Horn of Africa in decades is ongoing, flooding in West Africa and severe cyclones in Madagascar and Mozambique. Hafez Ghanem, former World Bank Group Regional Vice President and current senior non-resident member of the World Bank Group, said: The Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution.
External factors – the disruption of the food system caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent reduction in purchasing power, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, resulting in food, fuel and fertilizer prices across the world. The world has increased – along with extreme weather changes, and continued or increased conflict and insecurity have damaged already fragile food chains.
Ghanem said that conflict and climate change are the most pressing challenges facing Africa, facilitating food insecurity, exacerbating food insecurity and making it difficult for this continent in the provision of food on the table. In contrast, increasing food insecurity is a catalyst for conflict.
One in five, or an estimated 140 million people, in Africa, face severe food insecurity. The situation is even worse in conflict-affected countries and regions, including the Horn of Africa, northern Nigeria, eastern DRC and the Sahel region.
According to FAO and WFP, three countries – the DRC, Ethiopia and Nigeria – account for more than 56% of food insecurity in Africa.
“The three countries have two common characteristics: conflict and vulnerability to climate change. This situation is made worse by external factors such as the war in Ukraine, global inflation and high fuel prices,” he commented.
As a net importer of food and fuel, FAO research shows that Ethiopia is particularly affected by high international prices. Food price inflation averaged 40% in the first half of 2022.
According to a joint report by FAO and WFP, floods that started in 27 states of Nigeria in early February 2022 damaged 450,000 hectares of farmland, severely affecting the 2022 harvest. similar agricultural sector in South Sudan.
Ghanem said that these climate shocks followed by the 2019-20 locust outbreak, which affected 1.25 million hectares of land in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, had significant negative consequences for food security in the region. Political instability and conflicts in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia have made the situation worse.
He said that the Sahel – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – has seen a 50% increase in food insecurity compared to 2021. He said, reflecting a “strong increase in instability” Politics and conflicts in Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, and high world food, fuel, and fertilizer prices.
Ghanem called on political and civil society leaders to address the root causes of conflict and instability, and said solutions include dealing with social, political and exclusionary exclusion. economy of a large part of the population. He said everyone should feel invested in their country.
Against this backdrop, he argues in favor of pan-African initiatives to boost food production “African agriculture is the least productive in the world. Africa has the least percentage of irrigated land and the least fertilizer use per hectare. The continent also invests the least in research and development.”
In the absence of up-to-date research to create innovative methods to combat the challenges facing the agricultural industry today and without the use of quality fertilizers, certified seeds and seed varieties varieties that are new and more resilient to climate change, he says the continent will be hard pressed to tackle growing food insecurity.
“Despite these challenges, I am optimistic that joint Africa-wide initiatives and projects can address these gaps, including the establishment of four or five agricultural research centers,” he explains. on the continent, joint irrigation projects and the construction of fertilizer manufacturing companies”.
“Africa imports about 60 percent of the total fertilizer used, which makes it very expensive for our farmers, resulting in low fertilizer use. We already have major fertilizer companies, including Dangote in Nigeria and OCP in Morocco. The continent can work with such African fertilizer producers to establish more fertilizer plants on the continent.”
He emphasized that Africa is ripe for inter-African cooperation opportunities and that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which all 54 countries have signed on the continent, will accelerate the free flow of of goods and services and may increase pan-African investments in agriculture.
Besides open markets and free trade, this will be an opportunity to spur multinational regional investment in infrastructure, thereby enhancing agricultural productivity and resilience, Ghanem said. to climate change.
Furthermore, he sees such an approach as an opportunity to establish an African council to coordinate and encourage agricultural research and development. Equally important, a pan-Africa approach can provide a basis for ensuring vulnerable African countries can finance food imports in times of crisis.
Excited by its vast natural resources and human resources, he said that a unified vision for Africa would help develop Africa’s breadbaskets and provide a future of food security for all. everyone. For more on this topic see Ghanem’s article here.
Report of the UN IPS Office
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