Review and Appraisal of the Implementation of the World Food Summit in the African Context Addressing Structural Food Insecurity in Africa

Second Meeting of the Committee on Sustainable Development

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
26-29 November 2001

Table of Contents

 

Issues

1. In 1996, the Heads of State and Government at the World Food Summit (WFS) pledged "to reduce the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015." The Rome Declaration on World Food Security (www.fao.org/docrp/meeting/003.40527E.htm) placed food security in a broad context. It acknowledged the "multifaceted character of food security", emphasising the linkages with poverty eradication, peace, sustainable use of natural resources, fair trade and the prevention of natural disasters and man-made emergencies.

2. The Rome Declaration defined food security as "physical and economic access by all, at all times, to sufficient, nutritionally adequate and safe food." The WFS Plan of Action, structured around the seven commitments of the Rome Declaration, put forward 27 objectives and 182 proposed actions, covering almost every area of relevance for global, regional, national, household and individual food security.

3. Despite the commitment at the WFS and at the highest level, five years later, "little progress is being made in bringing about significant reduction in the number of the world's hungry" (www.fao.org/news/2000/001002-ehtm). Projections indicate that the goal set by the World Food Summit in 1996 of halving the number of under-nourished people by the year 2015 to 400 million, will not be achieved unless approached with renewed determination.

4. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2001 (SOFI 2001) indicates that unless more determined efforts are made to speed up progress, it would take 60 years to cut the number of hungry people in the world to 400 million, the target agreed upon at the 1996 World Food Summit to reach by 2015. In 1996, a decline of just 15 million a year was needed to reach the target on time. During the 1990s, the rate of decline in the number of hungry people was clearly inadequate-slightly less than 6 million per year. Today, if we are to achieve the target, the average annual decrease must reach 22 million people, far above the current level of performance.

5. The food security situation in Africa is particularly worrisome. According to FAO, the depth of hunger is greatest in Sub-Saharan Africa than any other continent. In 19 out of 46 countries assessed, the undernourished have an average food deficit of more than 300 kilocalories per person per day.

6. A new report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 2020 Global Food Outlook: Trends, Alternatives, and Choices, found that the number of malnourished children in Sub-Saharan Africa will actually increase by 18 percent, unless new action is taken (www.ifpri.org/books/globalfoodprojections2020/globalfoodprojections2020.asp).

7. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on its part has established that, since 1996, some regions/countries have significantly improved their economic performance and food security situation: several lower income countries in Asia and Latin America are clearly in this group. Sub-Saharan Africa, however, has not seen much progress, nor are its prospects for improvement sanguine (www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aib765).

8. Since food insecurity reduces the productivity of households, the prospect for sustained growth and development in the continent is bleak as hungry people cannot respond adequately to development opportunities. Besides, with wide spread hunger in Africa, the risk of conflict and threat to world security becomes very high. Hence, the present food security situation in Africa cannot be allowed to continue. Structural food insecurity must be addressed directly rather than obliquely.

9. USDA expressed the view that even with slower population growth, the outlook for food security will remain bleak, absent any increase in agricultural productivity and/or increase in import capacity (www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aib765-1). Under this shared view, the issue is not so much high population growth rate rather it is low agricultural productivity, which also affects negatively the import capacity of many African States.

10. FAO on its part argued that with the required political determination, "it lies well within current technical, institutional and financial capacities to eradicate hunger within a very short time, provided that the objective is addressed directly rather than obliquely." The issue of political will and mobilization of resources will be on top of the Agenda of the Second WFS originally planned for November 2001 in Rome, Italy. It is recalled that the Rome Declaration adopted at the First WFS in 1996 is a collective expression of political will at the level of Heads of State and Government to eradicate hunger in the world and especially in Africa.

Purpose and Objectives

11. IFPRI is of the view that "we have the power to change" the situation. This report is a contribution to the debate on harnessing and sustaining political will and mobilizing resources especially human in changing the food security situation and fighting hunger in Africa as it is recognized that the lack of political determination to address the food insecurity problem directly explains largely the current food security situation in Africa.

12. The report is also a contribution in finding an alternative approach to address directly structural food insecurity in Africa and putting Africa on the path of broad-based economic growth with food security, poverty reduction and equity. The approach is based on a structural transformation of the agricultural sector and broad-based interventions, policies and actions that will help promote the self-reliant and self-help capacity of the different actors/stakeholders at household, national, subregional, regional and international levels.

13. It is postulated, in this report, that peri-urban agriculture has a key role to play and the potential to become the entry point for the successful transformation of agriculture in many African countries. Hence, peri-urban agriculture should be taken as an integral part of a comprehensive strategy for achieving long-term food security and broad based and long-term economic growth. The focus on peri-urban agriculture is in line with the Theme of the Second Meeting of the Committee on Sustainable Development (CSD) that is: "Agricultural Intensification: Feeding Ourselves and Sustaining Africa's Land Resources in the New Millennium."

14. The report is prepared in conformity with the Work Programme of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) for the period 2000-2001, which contains activities related to periodic review and appraisal of major regional and global conferences such as the WFS in the African context. The report is primarily directed to the Second Meeting of the CSD, a statutory meeting of the Commission, to be held from 26-29 November 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It has been prepared based on a number of background and information documents listed at the end of this report (see Information Sources).

15. Following the Chapter on Issues, the background to the current food security situation and the need for an alternative approach focusing on integrating peri-urban agriculture in national strategies to combat food insecurity is provided. This is followed by a discussion on alternative options to reverse the food security situation and lay solid foundations for achieving and maintaining household food security through broad-based and long-term economic growth with poverty reduction and equity. A Programme to support the interventions at national and regional levels is proposed at the end of the Chapter.

Background

16. The new endogenous growth theory (Romer: 1986, Barro and Sala -I-Martin: 1995, Jones: 1995, Lucas: 1988, Aghion and Howitt: 1999) argues that knowledge, innovation and the application of skills are the only sources of long term economic growth. Recent history shows that the countries that have had rapid economic growth in the last two decades are the ones that have rapidly acquired scientific knowledge and technical skills and have provided an environment to apply these skills in innovative ways to solve problems. The importance of human capital, especially education, technical skills and innovation cannot be over-emphasized in the development process (ECA, 2001).

17. In its Economic Report on Africa 2000, ECA argues that "the key to achieving sustainable growth and reducing the vulnerability of African economies to outside shocks is to transform the structure of Africa's economies. This will enable competitive industries to produce high value-added products that can compete in the global marketplace." In the same report, it is acknowledged that "globalization places a high premium on scientific and technological capacity to innovate and adapt and to increase productivity and competitiveness. Growth in the knowledge-driven economy is predicted on a labour force that is healthy and well endowed with knowledge and skills" (www.uneca.org).

18. In Africa, it has been established that improved agricultural performance will improve both physical and economic access to food, raise the purchasing power of the large majority of African households, generate private investment, and strengthen the capacity of the public sector to finance development. Improved food security will improve the productivity of individual household and the prospect for sustained broad-based economic growth and sustainable development in the continent as African people would be placed in a better position to respond adequately to development opportunities. Besides agriculture remains the backbone of the economy of the great majority of African States.

19. Despite all the development efforts, the performance of African agriculture remains far below potential and expectation and the food security situation of an increasing number of households continues to deteriorate. This was the case as the application of knowledge and innovations generated through decades of research work in Africa of International Agriculture Research Centers (IARCs), the administration of agricultural-related reform measures under the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) and the provision of bilateral and multilateral development aid have had minimal impact on the performance and productivity of agriculture, which is dominantly rural. Since, in many African countries the application of improved technologies and reforms measures are characterized by stop-and-go attitudes, especially among traditional rural farmers, the risk in production remains extremely high.

20. The structural factor behind the continent's poor agricultural economic performance is the lack of enabling environment for effective utilization of scientific knowledge and the labor force that is healthy and well endowed with knowledge and skills related to agriculture. Indeed, in most African countries, it has been increasingly observed that the above-mentioned labor force remains in urban and peri-urban areas, hence, absent in rural areas where it is currently most needed to apply the acquired skills in innovative ways to solve agricultural development problems.

21. Moreover, it has been observed in recent years that the active and skilled farm workers tend to leave the rural farming areas to look for alternative employment in urban and peri-urban areas as conditions in rural areas continue to deteriorate. The deterioration in the performance of rural agriculture is also driven by the low premium placed on scientific and technological capacity to innovate and adapt agricultural indigenous technologies in its natural habitat and to increase agricultural productivity in rural areas.

22. The important role of structural transformation of African agriculture in putting Africa on the path of sustainable and long-term growth with food security, poverty reduction and equity cannot be over-emphasized. Also, the role of the labor force that is endowed with knowledge and skills as presented above is essential in the success of the transformation process. Furthermore, rural migrants should be encouraged to undertake agricultural production in their new settlements (peri-urban areas).

23. Hence, it is suggested that while intensifying interventions in support of rural agriculture, there is a need to cover (peri-urban) areas where the above mentioned labor force (skilled and knowledgeable, rural migrant) are located and to broaden these interventions to integrate peri-urban agriculture as an integral part of the global strategy for achieving broad-based and long-term economic growth and long-term food security in Africa.

Alternatives

24. FAO argues that what is needed is not more debate or scholarly treatises but a renewed determination on the part of governments, backed by international bodies and civil society, to implement the straightforward measures which they endorsed at the WFS almost five years ago. The FAO Director-General has called for another World Food Summit in November 2001 in Rome, during which the commitment to the WFS targets will be reaffirmed and alternative ways to accelerate the process will be discussed. This meeting is now postponed to July 2002.

25. Prior to the 2001 WFS, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in July 2001, in Lusaka, Zambia, adopted a New African Initiative (NAI). This Initiative is anchored on the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world (www.dfa.gov.za/events/afrinit.htm#intro).

26. The NAI is a pledge by African leaders, based on a common vision and a firm and shared conviction, that they have a pressing duty to eradicate poverty and to place their countries, both individually and collectively, on a path of sustainable growth and development, and at the same time to participate actively in the world economy and body politic (www.dfa.gov.za/events/afrinit.htm#intro).

27. The argument developed by FAO that "the lead must come from the families, communities and countries where food insecurity is deepest..." is in line with the conviction expressed above by the African Heads of State and Government as food insecurity is deepest in Africa than any other continent in the World. In taking the lead, the OAU Summit spelled out, in the priority areas of agriculture and through the New African Initiative, a number of objectives and actions that will help lay solid foundations for sustained contribution of agriculture to broad-based and long-term economic growth.

28. The NAI takes into account a number of new challenges that have emerged since the launching of the WFS in 1996 and which have implications on the food security situation and prospect for development in Africa. These challenges are related to the emergence of information, communication and knowledge systems, the recognition of the important role of the private sector and the renewed role of government, globalization, the impact of HIV/AIDS, the role of civil society organizations, the promotion of fiscal and administrative decentralization, and the emphasis on poverty alleviation through debt relief.

29. Under the NAI, the following food security-related objectives and actions were spelled out:

1) Objectives

a. To improve the productivity of agriculture, with particular attention to small-scale and women farmers;
b. To ensure food security for all people and increase the access of the poor to adequate food and nutrition;
c. To promote measures against natural resource degradation and encourage production methods that are environmentally sustainable;
d. To integrate the rural poor into the market economy and provide them with better access to export markets;
e. To develop Africa into a net exporter of agricultural products, and
f. To become a strategic player in agricultural science and technology development.

2) Actions

a) On the African level:

  1. Increase the security of water supply for agriculture by establishing small-scale irrigation facilities, improving local water management, and increasing the exchange of information and technical know-how with the international community;
  2. Improve land tenure security under traditional and modern forms of tenure, and promote the necessary land reform;
  3. Foster regional, subregional, national and household food security through the development and management of increased production, transport, storage and marketing of food crops, as well as livestock and fisheries. Particular attention must also be given to the needs of the poor, as well as the establishment of early warning systems to monitor droughts and crop production;
  4. Enhance agricultural credit and finance schemes, and improve access to credit by small-scale and women farmers, and
  5. Reduce the heavy urban bias of public spending in Africa by transferring resources from urban to rural activities.
  1. Develop new partnership schemes to address donor fatigue for individual, high-profile agricultural projects;
  2. Developed countries should assist Africa in carrying out and developing its research and development infrastructure in agriculture;
  3. Encourage access for African food and agricultural products, particularly processed products so as to meet the standards required by international markets;
  4. Support African networking with external partners in the areas of agricultural technology and know-how, extension services and rural infrastructure;
  5. Support investment in research in the areas of high-yield crops and durable preservation and storage;
  6. Provide support for building national and regional capacity for multilateral trade negotiations, including food sanitation and other agricultural trade regulations, and
  7. To promote the development of infrastructure, agriculture and its diversification into agro-industries and manufacturing to serve both domestic and export markets.

30. Owing to the multiplicity of forces acting on Africa's prospects for food security as clearly identified in WFS Plan of Action and re-emphasized for Africa in the New African Initiative, a broad range of issues must be considered at household, national, continental and global levels if African households are to become and remain food secure. Above all, African leadership must be committed to address food security issues directly rather than obliquely and the self-help and self-reliant capacity of households to take the lead in meeting continuously their food security needs should be further developed including through the structural transformation of agriculture and the promotion or expansion of peri-urban agriculture.

31. The promotion of peri-urban agriculture will, in particular, provide a golden opportunity to improve household food security and to ensure physical access of the entire continent to quality food through improved trade and regional cooperation. Indeed, peri-urban agriculture has the potential to use effectively current technical, institutional, human and financial capacities within a very short period of time, to respond adequately to reform measures and to establish dynamic links between research and development, production and demand, farming communities and decision makers and Africa and the rest of the World in a globalized economy.

32. A strong peri-urban agriculture, that will generate a strong farmers' association, can stimulate continuously the capacity of farming communities to take stock of their resources and the particular opportunities open to them, to help them test alternative solutions and to improve their access to sources of relevant knowledge and expertise as well as capital and markets. A strong peri-urban agriculture can drive and support rural agriculture as a peri-urban farmer used as a model or peri-urban agriculture serving as a best practice would have greater chance of influencing continuously the behavior of rural farmers and rural farming to respond to demand, innovations and other development opportunities.

33. Since, property rights are known to be a prime mover for private investment to become the engine for economic development, the creation of certainty in property rights, especially for land and water, will accelerate and sustain the transformation process of African agriculture. This will provide opportunities for private banking and finances sector to invest further in agricultural sector and related sectors to support peri-urban agriculture and farmers with a trickle down effect on the rest of the sector, farming communities and economy.

34. With the promotion of peri-urban agriculture, opportunities will be provided to absorb the growing outflow of rural migrant labor in activities that they know best, the newly graduate of Agricultural Schools and Universities and the urban unemployed through the creation of well-rooted agribusinesses. This will contribute in strengthening African social security system through further developing the self-help and self-reliant capacity of rural farmers and providing safety net to rural poor.

35. The promotion of peri-urban agriculture will help generate a pressure group to harness political will and mobilize public and private sectors, and civil society organizations in support of long-term food security in Africa. The pressure group will ensure that the integration of African economy into international economy is restructured to remove the bias that disadvantages African people and economy.

36. At continental level, it should be recognized that some of the underlying causes of food insecurity are of a distinctly regional nature and cannot be addressed by separate national or local institutions or investments. For instance, cross-border issues need to be dealt with systematically if they are to create opportunities for faster economic growth and exploitation of the comparative advantages that are available to the different countries within the region.

37. For example, common policies regarding external trade and financial market integration could provide scope for enhanced trade, which would benefit all parties. The development of regional infrastructure, especially roads linking neighboring countries and telecommunications, and the establishment of information networks would all enhance trade and serve to generate potentially huge external benefits for the economies of the continent.

38. At global level, to sustain the process of fighting hunger, African leaders, individually and collectively and under the NAI, should follow best practices. For instance, they should give high priority to the development of agriculture through providing the required political and financial support as their counterparts in Europe and North America do, notwithstanding the views and advice of foreign development experts.

39. For instance, under SAPs, the resource-poor farmers in rural areas have seen few benefits from globalization or economic liberalization, while being exposed to fiercer international competition. They have also gained little from the opening up of financial markets, since they are considered poor credit risks. This situation of African farmers is an added reason to find alternative reform measures and solutions to address the problem of structural food insecurity in Africa.

Recommendations

40. A Long-term Food Security Programme for Africa (LTFSPA) to address structural food insecurity directly rather than obliquely is proposed. This Programme should help reinforce government ownership of development process through bringing research and development partners around nationally and regionally identified and agreed priorities so that a much stronger basis for the effective use of scarce resources will be provided. The Programme should help develop and maintain the self-help and self-reliant capacity of various stakeholders at household, national, regional and international levels. The Programme should contribute to broad-based economic growth and sustainable development with food security, poverty reduction and equity.

41. The Programme will be guided by Food Security Partnership Agreements (FSPA) between Africa and major partners such as the United Nations, the United States of America and the European Union under the aegis of the African Union. The FSPA may, for instance, focus on UN response to long-term food security needs of Africa through making the interventions of the United Nations system (Secretariat, Funds, Agencies and Programmes) in the areas of food security (broadened concept) more effective, coordinated and integrated. The Initiative of the United Nations Secretary General on UN response to the Long-term food security needs of the countries of the Horn of Africa could be extended to cover the entire continent through the African Union.

42. Similarly, under the EC Partnership Agreements and within the framework of Cairo Plan of Action adopted at the Europe-Afrique Summit, the European Union may be approached to provide financial support through the Programme. It is recalled that under the food security budget line, the EU has a provision of about 500 million Euro annually for food security.

43. LTFSPA should be conceived as an innovative mechanism for providing high quality technical support services and well targeted financial support to member States individually and collectively and to individual investors in addressing long-term food security problem in Africa. Second, the Programme should play a catalytic role in making public interventions in the areas of food security more effective. Third, it should contribute to stimulate investment in food security sector, especially peri-urban agriculture, through developing and maintaining an environment enabling the private sector across Africa to operate more effectively and to play a key role in integrating the economy of the region into the global economy. Fourth, it should play a catalytic role in making more efficient the use of the resources of Research and Development partners of member States.

44. Two instruments are proposed to support the Programme. These include:

1) Food Security Fund for Africa (FSFA) to stimulate private investment in support of long-term food security and peri-urban agriculture in particular through:

2) Technical Facility for Long-term Food Security for Africa (TFLTFSA) to help foster broad-based interventions, policies and actions targeted at achieving broad-based economic growth with food security, poverty reduction and equity. The Facility will help build coherence between food security goals and trade policy, macro-economic management, regional integration and environmental concerns. The Facility will bring together a critical mass of experts to play a catalytic function and foster strategic partnership between regional and international research and development agencies working on African food security. The Facility will develop itself into a knowelgde base and act as a clearing house for best practices in the areas of peri-urban agriculture, food security, agricultural development and related aspects. The Facility will, in particular, help:

Information Sources

Abdoulaye Niang, 2001a. "Achieving Long-term Food Security in the Horn of Africa: Concept and Institutional Arrangement" (draft). A report prepared as a follow-up to the World Bank Regional Consultation on Food Security in the Horn of Africa, Nairobi, Kenya 2-4 July 2001.

ECA, 2001a. "Transforming Africa's Economies". www.uneca.org

ECA, 2001b. "Overcoming Africa's Marginalization: Implementing the New African Initiative (NAI) - (Draft)" - United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

FSSDD, 2001a. "Report on the Implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action: 5 Years Later: The Promotion of the Rural Banking, Credit and Savings Schemes to Support Sustainable Food Security and Diversified Rural Development." United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

FSSDD, 2001b "Review of the African Agriculture and Framework for Increased Investment to ensure Greater Food Security." United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

FSSDD, 2001c. "The State of Agricultural Research in Africa." United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

FSSDD, 2001d. "Africa's Food Situation Outlook"