The Food and Agriculture Organisation
(FAO) UN says hunger in Africa has
continued to rise with 237 million people
affected in sub-Saharan Africa, straining
global and continental hunger eradication
efforts.
FAO’s Deputy Director-General, Climate and
Natural Resources, Maria Semedo said this
in a joint UN repot released on Friday.
Semedo said that hunger in Africa
continued to rise after many years of
decline, threatening the continent’s hunger
eradication efforts to meet the Malabo
Goals 2025 and the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development.
“The report indicates that 237 million
people in sub-Saharan Africa are suffering
from chronic undernutrition, derailing the
gains made in the past years.
“It shows that more people will continue to
suffer from undernourishment in Africa than
in any other region and evidence suggests
that in 2017, 20 per cent of the African
population was undernourished.
“The worsening trend in Africa is due to
difficult global economic and worsening
environmental conditions and in many
countries, conflict and climate variability
and extremes, sometimes combined.’’
She said that the economic growth slowed
in 2016 due to weak commodity prices, in
particular for oil and minerals.
According to her, food insecurity has
worsened in countries affected by conflict
often exacerbated by drought or floods, for
example, in Southern and Eastern Africa,
many countries suffered from drought.
“Of the 257 million hungry people in Africa,
237 million are in sub-Saharan Africa and
20 million in northern Africa.
“Compared to 2015, there were an
additional 34.5 million more undernourished
people in Africa with 32.6 million in sub-
Saharan Africa and 1.9 million in Northern
Africa.
“Nearly half of the increase is due to the
rise in the number of undernourished
people in Western Africa, while another
third is from Eastern Africa.’’
She said that at the regional level, the
prevalence of stunting in children under five
was falling, but only few countries were on
track to meet the global nutrition target for
stunting.
“The number of overweight children under
five continues to rise and is particularly
high in northern and southern Africa, thus
the progress towards meeting the WHO’s
global nutrition targets is slow at the
continental level.
“In many countries, notably in eastern and
southern Africa, adverse climatic conditions
due to El Niño led to a decline in
agricultural production and soaring staple
food prices.
“The economic and climatic situation has
improved in 2017, but some countries
continue to be affected by drought or poor
rainfall.’’
Semedo said that greater efforts and
collaborations were needed to achieve SDG
2 and the global nutrition targets amidst
the important challenges faced by the
continent, such as tackling youth
employment and climate change.
“Agriculture and the rural sector must play
a key role in creating decent jobs for the
10 to 12 million youths that join the labour
market each year.’’
Semedo said that another growing threat to
food security and nutrition in Africa,
particularly to countries relying heavily on
agriculture “is climate change’’.
“The effects of climate change reduced
precipitation and higher temperatures
negatively influence the yields of staple
food crops.
“At the same time, there are significant
opportunities for agriculture in developing
intra-African trade, harnessing remittances
for development, and investing in youth.
“Although agricultural intra-African exports
rose from two billion dollars in 2000 to 13.7
billion dollars in 2013, they remain
relatively modest and often informal.’’
Semedo said that remittances from
international and internal migration played
important role in reducing poverty and
hunger just as it stimulates productive
investments.
“International remittances amount to nearly
70 billion dollars, about three percent of
Africa’s GDP, and present an opportunity
for national development that governments
should work on to strengthen.’’
According to her, the signing of the African
Continental Free Trade Area agreement
provides an opportunity to accelerate
growth and sustainable development by
increasing trade, including trade in
agricultural products.
She said that opening trade of food also
carried risks to consumer and producer
welfare, and governments should avoid
using trade policy for multiple objectives.
“Government should rather combine trade
reform with additional instruments, such as
safety nets and risk-mitigating programmes,
to achieve food security and nutrition
goals.’’
She however called for greater action to
address the threat from climate variability
and extremes in line with the year’s
Regional Overview titled: Addressing the
Threat from Climate Variability and
Extremes for Food Security and Nutrition.
“This illustrates that climate variability and
extremes in part due to climate change are
important factors underlying the recent rise
in food insecurity and severe food crises on
the continent.
“Many countries in Africa are at great risk
to climate-related disasters and suffer from
them frequently.
“Over the last 10 years, climate-related
disasters affected on average 16 million
people and caused annually 0.67 billion
dollars in damages across the continent.’’
Semedo noted that not all the shorter-term
climate variations might be attributable to
climate change.
“The evidence shows that more numerous
and more frequent occurrences of climate
extremes and a rise in climate variability
are threatening to erode gains made
toward ending hunger and malnutrition.
“Therefore, greater urgency in building
resilience of households, communities and
countries to climate variability and
extremes is needed.
“We need to face myriad challenges to
building institutional capacity in designing,
coordinating and scaling up actions for risk
monitoring and early warning systems,
emergency preparedness and response.
“Also vulnerability reduction measures,
shock-responsive social protection, and
planning and implementing resilience-
building measures must be addressed.
“Strategies toward climate change
adaptation and disaster risk reduction must
be aligned as well as coordinated with
interventions in nutrition and food systems
across sectors.â€
FAO’s Deputy Director-General said that in
terms of developing climate adaptation
strategies and implementation, there was
the need for greater efforts in data
collection, monitoring and implementation
of climate smart agriculture practices.
“Continued efforts through partnerships,
blending climate change adaptation and
disaster risk reduction and long-term
financing can bridge humanitarian and
development approaches,’’ she said.
Source:
guardian.ng/news/nigeria/national/
hunger-in-africa-continues-to-rise-fao/
