REPORT HOLDS AFRICAN GOV’TS RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTINENT’S MISFORTUNES

Chronic food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa stemmed from decades of poor governance. Regimes bent on amassing wealth absorbed the region’s resources into patrimonial power structures. Self-serving elite, quick to amass wealth from graft and patronage, have stood between leaders and the people, monopolized state revenues and emptied the countryside, but they have provided neither employment nor industry. These are among the highlights of the latest UNDP-Africa Development report. The report was made available on May 15 after its embargo elapsed. Africans are not fated to starve - provided that governments move decisively to put in place appropriate policies and support mechanisms. Famine, starvation and food insecurity are preventable. The shameful scenes of feeding tents and starving children that have been associated with sub-Saharan Africa for far too long can be eliminated once and for all, Tegegnework Gettu, UNDP Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director, Bureau for Africa, was quoted in the report as saying. The report, which is the work of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), argues that sub-Saharan Africa can extricate itself from pervasive food insecurity by acting on four critical drivers of change: greater agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers; more effective nutrition policies, especially for children; greater community and household resilience to cope with shocks; and wider popular participation and empowerment, especially of women and the rural poor.

Tegegnework Gettu Gettu said: “A well-nourished and empowered population, in turn, is more likely to seek education, participate in society and expand its productive and human potential. With the right policies and institutions Africa can sustain this virtuous cycle of higher human development and enhanced food security.” The report highlights African governments’ lacunae, whilst laying emphasis on daily violation of people’s dignity, “with many governments not fulfilling their basic responsibilities of protecting their citizens from hunger”. The chain of food security that runs from availability through access to use comes under constant stress in a region vulnerable to the impacts of erratic weather, volatile food prices, and conflict and violence. Agricultural productivity remains low— much lower than in other regions. Many sub-Saharan African countries are net food importers and even depend on food aid during all-too-frequent humanitarian crises, the Report explains. The report, entitled ‘Toward a food secure’, observes that misguided policies, weak institutions and failing markets are the deeper causes of sub-Saharan Africa’s food insecurity. “For decades the policies of national governments and international institutions neglected sub-Saharan Africa’s rural and agricultural development in favour of urban populations,” the report states. “Their damaging legacies include ineffective postcolonial industrialization plans that exhausted development resources, leaving agriculture behind. Structural adjustment programmes aimed to close budget gaps but instead created large human development deficits, especially among the vulnerable poor and skewed allocations of national revenue and foreign aid that overlooked agriculture and nutrition.” Despite some improvements since the mid-1990s, the report holds governments responsible for sub-Saharan Africa’s smallholder farmers’ giving up the struggle to compete against the world’s most formidable agricultural systems, citing heavy subsidies and other factors as bottlenecks. “African governments continue to [put] burden on domestic agriculture with high, arbitrary taxes while bestowing subsidies, incentives and macroeconomic support on other sectors. Meanwhile, many developed countries have moved the other way, heavily subsidizing agriculture long after its role as a development driver has passed, giving their farmers a tremendous advantage in international trade. Sub-Saharan Africa’s smallholder farmers, sidelined by biased policies and squeezed by failing markets, long ago gave up struggling to compete against the world’s most formidable agricultural systems.” How Food Insecurity Persists amid Abundant Resources? The report argues that despite sub-Saharan Africa’s rich land and water resources, yet hunger and starvation are widespread. “This contradiction stems less from the continental availability of food and more from glaringly uneven local production and access and chronically deficient nutrition, especially among the poorest.” Food systems in a region vulnerable to the effects of erratic weather, volatile food prices, and conflict and violence, are some of the dynamics undermining the three interrelated components of food security: availability, access, and use.

Measured by agricultural production, food availability has gradually improved, but agricultural productivity remains low – much lower than in other regions. Most sub-Saharan African countries are net food importers, and many depend on food aid during all too frequent humanitarian crises. Even where food is available, millions cannot afford it or cannot acquire it because of underdeveloped markets and weak physical infrastructure. “But food security goes beyond availability and access. Proper use of food determines whether food security sustains human development. Insufficient access to safe water, energy and sanitation conspires with diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria to perpetuate food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa.”