Clicky
  • home Home
  • keyboard_arrow_right NEWS
  • keyboard_arrow_right Posts
  • keyboard_arrow_rightAfrican countries’ policies must shift to achieve zero hunger

African countries’ policies must shift to achieve zero hunger

By: Sheryl L Hendriks, University of Pretoria; Elizabeth Mkandawire, University of Pretoria, and Nosipho Mabuza, University of Pretoria

File 20181015 165900 3tejc9.jpg?ixlib=rb 1.1
Hunger is a daily reality across large parts of Africa.
Jon Hrusa/EPA

 

For the third year in a row hunger is rising across the world. And, as a recent report by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation shows, the situation is worsening in most regions in Africa. Almost 21% of the continent’s population of 1,216 billion is undernourished.

Many factors drive this trend. Among these are rising population growth, conflict and poor governance. Severe weather conditions and climate change also play a role. This leads to food insecurity: a state of deprivation ranging from starvation through severe and constant hunger to deficiencies in vitamins and minerals. It’s rooted in poverty and inequalities that deprive people of the right to adequate food to meet their needs.

We reviewed whether the food security plans of 10 countries were aligned with the African Union’s Malabo Biennial Review technical guidelines (which is related to agriculture and food security), the continent’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goal targets. The ten countries were Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria and Togo.

We found that the plans were generally compliant with the Sustainable Development Goal indicators directly related to agriculture and food security. However, they were not as closely aligned to Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the Malabo commitments. They generally missed the opportunity to advance agricultural transformation to reduce poverty, inequality and unemployment.

Countries could benefit from more closely aligning these plans with their national visions, policies and strategies. A greater focus on core development goals could reduce competition for budget resources.

The plans can be strengthened and better aligned. This would offer opportunities to streamline monitoring and reporting on international, continental and national policies. It could also reduce the need for parallel reporting systems.

The African Union needs to provide clearer guidance and active oversight on these matters. The teams responsible for drafting countries’ plans related to food and agricultural investment should be regularly trained and their skills updated.

A lack of coordination

In 2014, most African governments signed the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihood. This reiterated commitments made in Mozambique more than a decade earlier, and in the continent’s Agenda 2063.

Once the declaration was signed, governments were expected to design and implement agriculture and food security investment plans. These are five-year integrated development strategies. They set out key priority programmes to achieve the Malabo Declaration’s goals related to advancing agricultural growth, improving food security and reducing malnutrition.

For example, when it comes to food security the plans need to prioritise crops that can increase household incomes. They must also make food more affordable and smooth the seasonal availability of nutritious foods. Through the plans and programmes, governments must directly increase people’s dietary diversity.

It’s one thing to come up with these plans. But implementing the programmes is tough. Integrated programmes require coordination and collaboration across multiple ministries. They involve the participation of a range of stakeholders with differing priorities. Yet, very few professionals are trained to work across disciplines. Also, budgets and performance management systems are typically associated with these siloed units. This makes collaboration tricky.

It’s important for African governments to align their plans with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Agenda 2063 and their own national development plans. Doing so improves the coherence and efficiency of planning. It saves resources, the costs of data collection and makes for a coherent system.

But African governments just aren’t doing this, as our research shows.

We found that, based on their plans, most countries didn’t understand what food security really means. They focused their actions and indicators narrowly on agricultural production and support services. This suggests that ministries are still working in silos rather than embracing a multisectoral approach to integrated planning.

Several countries including Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo, have shown that coordinated effort can achieve real gains in dealing with hunger and related issues. Integration is crucial if these gains are to be replicated elsewhere on the continent.

Better indicators

Of course, increases in agricultural production – which featured prominently among most countries’ indicators – are necessary for achieving food security. But they’re not enough.

A comprehensive food security strategy needs to address the four dimensions of food insecurity. These are the availability of food, access to food (such as social protection programmes), nutrition and the resilience of food systems. These elements were largely missing from the plans.

Indicators related to social inclusion were also often absent despite instability, conflict and migration being significant challenges for agricultural growth and food security in Africa.

Similarly, despite the high levels of corruption in Africa, none of these countries included indicators for managing and mitigating corruption.

Training and planning

Our research suggests that countries in Africa should think more deeply about how to align their National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans with other relevant frameworks.

This will require a greater consciousness at all levels of African governments about what commitments have been made on various international and continental platforms. The teams responsible for drafting these plans should be trained with alignment in mind – with a good understanding of what other frameworks matter.The Conversation

Sheryl L Hendriks, Professor in Food Security; Director, Institute for Food, Nutrition and Well-being, University of Pretoria; Elizabeth Mkandawire, Research Assistant, University of Pretoria, and Nosipho Mabuza, Research Assistant, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Written by: Natasha



UpComing Shows

DownLoad Our Mobile App

Privacy Policy

THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT FORMS PART OF KAYA 959’S TERMS OF USE POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY TERM OF THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT, YOU MUST CEASE YOUR ACCESS OF THIS WEBSITE IMMEDIATELY. 

POPIA ActTo promote the protection of personal information processed by public and private bodies; to introduce certain conditions so as to establish minimum requirements for the processing of personal information; to provide for the establishment of an Information Regulator to exercise certain powers and to perform certain duties and functions in terms of this Act and the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000; to provide for the issuing of codes of conduct; to provide for the rights of persons regarding unsolicited electronic communications and automated decision making; to regulate the flow of personal information across the borders of the Republic; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

RECOGNISING THAT—

  • section 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, provides that everyone has the right to privacy;
  • the right to privacy includes a right to protection against the unlawful collection, retention, dissemination and use of personal information;
  • the State must respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights in the Bill of Rights;

AND BEARING IN MIND THAT—

  • consonant with the constitutional values of democracy and openness, the need for economic and social progress, within the framework of the information society, requires the removal of unnecessary impediments to the free flow of information, including personal information;

AND IN ORDER TO—

  • regulate, in harmony with international standards, the processing of personal information by public and private bodies in a manner that gives effect to the right to privacy subject to justifiable limitations that are aimed at protecting other rights and important interests,
  1. Definitions and Interpretation

1.1.“Personal Information” means information relating to an identifiable, living, natural person and where it is applicable, identifiable, existing juristic person, including all information as defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. 

1.2  Parliament assented to POPIA on 19 November 2013. The commencement date of section 1Part A of Chapter 5section 112 and section 113 was 11 April 2014. The commencement date of the other sections was 1 July 2020 (with the exception of section 110 and 114(4). The President of South Africa has proclaimed the POPI commencement date to be 1 July 2020.

 
1.3. “Processing” means the creation, generation, communication, storage, destruction of personal information as more fully defined in the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013.  

1.4. “You” or the “user” means any person who accesses and browses this website for any purpose. 

1.4. “Website” means the website of the KAYA 959 at URL www.kaya959.co.za or such other URL as KAYA 959 may choose from time to time.   

  1. Status and Amendments

2.1. KAYA 959 respects your privacy. This privacy policy statement sets out KAYA 959’s information gathering and dissemination practices in respect of the Website. 

2.2. This Privacy Policy governs the processing of personal information provided to KAYA 959 through your use of the Website. 

2.3. Please note that, due to legal and other developments, KAYA 959 may amend these terms and conditions from time to time.  

  1. Processing of Personal Information

3.1. By providing your personal information to KAYA 959 you acknowledge that it has been collected directly from you and consent to its processing by KAYA 959. 

3.2. Where you submit Personal Information (such as name, address, telephone number and email address) via the website (e.g. through completing any online form) the following principles are observed in the processing of that information: 

3.2.1. KAYA 959 will only collect personal information for a purpose consistent with the purpose for which it is required. The specific purpose for which information is 
collected will be apparent from the context in which it is requested. 

3.2.2. KAYA 959 will only process personal information in a manner that is adequate, relevant and not excessive in the context of the purpose for which it is processed. 

3.2.3. Personal information will only be processed for a purpose compatible with that for which it was collected, unless you have agreed to an alternative purpose in writing or KAYA 959 is permitted in terms of national legislation of general application dealing primarily with the protection of personal information. 

3.2.4. KAYA 959 will keep records of all personal Information collected and the specific purpose for which it was collected for a period of 1 (one) year from the date on which it was last used. 

3.2.5. KAYA 959 will not disclose any personal information relating to you to any third party unless your prior written agreement is obtained or KAYA 959 is required to do so by law. 

3.2.6. If personal information is released with your consent KAYA 959 will retain a record of the information released, the third party to which it was released, the reason for the release and the date of release, for a period of 1 (one) year from the date on which it was last used. 

3.2.7. KAYA 959 will destroy or delete any personal information that is no longer needed by KAYA 959 for the purpose it was initially collected, or subsequently processed. 

3.3. Note that, as permitted by the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, KAYA 959 may use personal information collected to compile profiles for statistical purposes. No information contained in the profiles or statistics will be able to be linked to any specific user.    

  1. Collection of anonymous data

4.1. KAYA 959 may use standard technology to collect information about the use of this website. This technology is not able to identify individual users but simply allows KAYA 959 to collect statistics. 

4.2. KAYA 959 may utilise temporary or session cookies to keep track of users’ browsing habits. A cookie is a small file that is placed on your hard drive in order to keep a record of your interaction with this website and facilitate user convenience. 

4.2.1. Cookies by themselves will not be used to identify users personally but may be used to compile identified statistics relating to use of services offered or to provide KAYA 959 with feedback on the performance of this website. 

4.2.2. The following classes of information may be collected in respect of users who have enabled cookies: 

4.2.2.1. The browser software used; 

4.2.2.2. IP address; 

4.2.2.3. Date and time of activities while visiting the website; 

4.2.2.4. URLs of internal pages visited; and 

4.2.2.5. referrers. 

4.3. If you do not wish cookies to be employed to customize your interaction with this website it is possible to alter the manner in which your browser handles cookies. Please note that, if this is done, certain services on this website may not be available. 

  1. Security

5.1. KAYA 959 takes reasonable measures to ensure the security and integrity of information submitted to or collected by this website, but cannot under any circumstances be held liable for any loss or other damage sustained by you as a result of unlawful access to or dissemination of any personal information by a third party. 

  1. Links to other websites

6.1. KAYA 959 has no control over and accepts no responsibility for the privacy practices of any third party websites to which hyperlinks may have been provided and KAYA 959 strongly recommends that you review the privacy policy of any website you visit before using it further. 

  1. Queries

7.1. If you have any queries about this privacy policy please contact us by emailing [email protected]