World Food Day is nothing to celebrate for Africa

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Today is World Food Day, an annual celebration of international action to reduce global hunger. Led by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), this year’s theme is promoting healthy diets.

For much of Africa it looks set to be a sombre affair.

World Food Day comes a day after the launch of the 2019 Global Hunger Index, which tracks hunger levels in 117 countries globally. This warns about a ‘strong correlation’ between countries struggling to combat hunger and their vulnerability to climate change, which is driving up food insecurity internationally.

Bad news for the 34 sub-Saharan African countries – of 48 globally – classified as having serious to alarming hunger levels, including important economies like Nigeria and Kenya.

This underlines a downward trajectory for food security on the continent – symptomatic of the failure to meaningfully develop the agriculture sector.

According to FAO, food insecurity is increasing in “almost all subregions of Africa”, with the continent accounting for 31 of 41 countries globally requiring external assistance for food – 30 in sub-Saharan Africa.

Food imports are soaring, costing Africa around $50 billion annually, while average government spending on agriculture has fallen from 3.66% in 2001 to 2.3% in 2017 – well short of what’s needed.

Sadly, for much of Africa World Food Day is nothing to celebrate.

This report reflects the views of the author alone, not those of How we made it in Africa.


Today’s picks

From the continent

Nigeria’s customs service on Tuesday said the country has closed its land borders to all movement of goods to curb smuggling, with no timeline for reopening them. The closure is expected to increase consumer prices for a variety of goods, including rice, poultry, and sugar. More: Reuters

Angolan president João Lourenço has said he expects Africa’s second-biggest oil producer to return to growth in 2020 on the back of efforts to drive economic diversification, following years of economic contraction due to the commodity slump. Since taking power in 2017 Lourenço has overseen sweeping economic reform, including plans to privatise 195 state companies by 2022. More: Bloomberg

The global perspective

The International Monetary Fund has trimmed its global growth forecast for 2019 from 3.2% to 3% in its latest World Economic Outlook, the weakest since 2008-09. Warning that there is little room for policy mistakes amid a “synchronized slowdown” in the global economy, the lender called for more co-operation between policy makers to de-escalate trade and geopolitical tensions. More: IMF

State-owned Abu Dhabi investment firm Mubadala has sold its 42.09% stake in the Medgaz natural gas pipeline to Spain’s Naturgy Energy Group and Algeria’s national oil company Sonatrech. The deal values the pipeline, which carries natural gas from Algeria to Spain, at €1.9 billion. More: Reuters

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