Achieving food security

What next for sub-Saharan Africa?

Halving hunger and extreme poverty by 2015 is the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG). However, persistent hunger is still prevalent worldwide, slowing progress towards all other MDGs, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Without major changes in development practices, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) predicts that globally by 2015:

• 600 million people will suffer from hunger
• 900 million people will live in absolute poverty
• 128 million pre-school children will be malnourished.

Most experts agree with IFPRI's 2005 assessment that food security is achieved when households can 'reliably obtain food of adequate quality and quantity to support a healthy and active life for all members'. The African Union estimates that 27 percent of Africans are undernourished, a 2 percent decline since 1995. However, since Africa's total population has increased from 589 million to 764 million over this period, the estimated absolute number of undernourished people has risen from 176 million to 210 million.

International human rights laws recognise the right of all people to adequate food and eradicating hunger also stimulates economic growth, as undernourished people have a reduced capacity for productive work. Large numbers of hungry people who are marginalised from work can also create social instability and conflict.

While a national increase in food production generates more food and income, it does not always deliver food for everyone. Food production, food affordability (dependent on food and non-food prices and wages) and access to food (which can be affected by gender, age or illness) are also important. Many regions have progressed towards achieving food security, notably South Asia since the Green Revolution. However, this issue of id21 insights focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, the only developing region where food security has worsened in recent decades. Monty Jones and Frances Kimmins explain why an alternative approach to Asia's Green Revolution is needed in Africa, due to differences in farming systems, climate and infrastructure.

Many problems facing Africa today are due to decreasing investment by donor and African governments in agriculture over the last 20 years. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimates that global financial assistance for African agriculture decreased from US$6.2 billion to US$2.3 billion between 1980 and 2002, with funding going to other sectors instead. This was because donors and governments felt that agriculture had failed to achieve sufficient progress towards food security. The situation is now changing; African leaders and development partners once again recognise the importance of agricultural development to achieving economic growth, poverty reduction and food security.

The CAADP framework

To improve upon past efforts to achieve food security, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has developed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). The African Union Assembly endorsed the CAADP in July 2003. The CAADP has four priorities (pillars) for investment and action:

• Extending the area under sustainable land management and reliable water control systems, for example by increasing access to irrigation.
• Increasing market access through improved rural infrastructure and other trade-related interventions.
• Increasing food supply and reducing hunger across the region by increasing smallholder farm productivity and improving responses to food emergency crises.
• Improving agricultural research, improving systems to disseminate appropriate new technologies and increasing support to farmers to adopt these.

So how will these four pillars be achieved?

Increasing investment in the agriculture sector

To achieve the first MDG, the CAADP sets a goal of improving agricultural productivity at an average growth rate of six percent each year. To realise this, several African governments have committed to allocating at least 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture within five years. This was agreed at the African Union meeting in Maputo, 2003. Many have already achieved this and NEPAD will monitor these commitments.

Stronger and expanded partnerships

Achieving food security will require researchers, private sector bodies, policymakers and civil society to work together in a more integrated fashion. Tsedeke Abate shows how this approach to agricultural research is increasing crop yields and farmer incomes in Ethiopia. The challenge now is to scale up these successes throughout the region. This will also require agricultural policymakers and researchers to work closely with health, education and infrastructure sectors: Todd Benson urges policymakers to consider the importance of nutrition, food safety and quality as well as quantity. The spread of HIV and AIDS is another fundamental cause of food insecurity, reducing food production through death and illness amongst agricultural workers and a loss of farming knowledge. Strengthening links between agriculture, health and education is vital.

Investments in infrastructure

Improving Africa's roads and transport networks will increase agricultural productivity. Jennifer Leavy and Howard White describe how poor infrastructure in rural Zambia reduces farmers' access to markets and agricultural inputs, such as fertilisers. Developing transport networks between cities and rural areas will help farmers to benefit from new technologies and agricultural inputs, as well as raising incomes if they can sell their crops at markets. Better infrastructure will also speed up the delivery of food aid in crisis situations.

Reforming aid policies

Many international donors are realigning their development assistance around the CAADP agenda, promising additional investment to the agricultural sector. The G8 leaders committed themselves to ending famine and raising agricultural productivity in line with CAADP in 2004. Not all donor investment policies are straightforward, however. Subsidising fertilisers is particularly controversial. Paul Thangata claims that fertiliser subsidies encourage farmers to risk investing in poor quality soils; Malcolm Blackie argues that fertilisers can be expensive and distort local markets. A NEPAD conference in Nigeria focuses on this debate in June 2006.

Food aid is another contentious issue: it saves lives and can improve livelihoods if it sources food locally and is well-targeted and reliable. Critics argue, however, that long-term reliance on food aid distorts local economies and creates dependency. Edward Clay and Tony Worthington analyse the potential for policy reform and improved practice. Systems to predict food shortages also need reviewing: Robert Cheke analyses experiences in Niger and southern Africa and concludes that early warning systems are of limited use without an effective response from policymakers.

Will the CAADP achieve food security in sub-Saharan Africa?

How will the CAADP work when other initiatives have failed in the past? The CAADP was conceived in Africa and is an African-owned vision that has the support of African leaders. No previous development efforts in sub-Saharan Africa have had this level of political endorsement and continent-wide focus. The CAADP does not tackle many new issues, but provides the first comprehensive effort to address them as an integrated process. This framework, with common objectives and targets, should enable lessons to be shared and successes to be scaled up more effectively than before.

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Working with partners including farmers' organisations, agri-business operators and the Regional Economic Communities, NEPAD can coordinate the actions and policies of African governments. NEPAD must help to ensure that policies are implemented rapidly after consultation with these stakeholders. This will help to ensure coherence and coordinated action on important regional policies such as trade, food safety standards and the control of transboundary pests and diseases. The key challenge for NEPAD is to balance national and regional priorities so that both receive adequate support.

Richard Mkandawire
Agriculture Advisor, NEPAD Secretariat, P.O. Box 1234 Halfway House, Midrand 1685, South Africa
T +27 11 313 3338
F +27 11 313 3450
Mkandawirer@nepad.org
www.nepad.org

Kerry Albright
Policy & Advocacy Advisor, Natural Resources International Ltd, Park House, Bradbourne Lane, Aylesford, Kent ME20 6SN, UK
T +44 (0)1732 878683
F +44 (0)1732 220497
k.albright@nrint.co.uk
www.nrinternational.co.uk

See also

Status of Food Security and Prospects for Agricultural Development in Africa, African Union: Addis Ababa, 2006
Link (Word .doc)

Looking Ahead: Long term Prospects for Africa's Agricultural Development and Food Security, IFPRI 2020 Discussion Paper 41, International Food Policy Research Institute: Washington by Mark W. Rosegrant, Sarah A.Cline, Weibo Li, Timothy B. Sulser and Rowena A. Valmonte-Santos, August 2005
www.ifpri.org/2020/dp/vp41.pdf (PDF)

Official Development Assistance to Agriculture, UK Department for International Development Working Paper, 2004
Link (PDF)

Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, New Partnership For Africa's Development, 2002
Link

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