Regional Cooperation To Improve Food Security In Southern And Eastern African Countries

The cooperation approach of the SADCC countries; Other regional cooperation schemes; Regional market integration and food security; Alternative regional cooperation arrangements to stabilize food consumption.

The food crisis in Southern Africa is compounded by socio-economic, health and environmental problems. There is a diminishing income-generating labour supply and a low food production rate in areas which may be beset by drought, famine, HIV/AIDS or conflict. That agriculture is a viable sector for economic growth is posited on the fact that this sector provides a livelihood for some 70% of the region's population. Nevertheless the continent has failed to produce enough food for consumption. The acceleration of the process of globalisation has exacerbated the difficult and imbalanced agricultural environment, in which poor countries must operate, which, so this volume maintains, can only be addressed through integrated approaches at a regional level. Furthermore, the failure of so many international food relief programmes indicates that an approach harnessed by the regional bodies such as Nepad and SADC may be the most effective strategy to ensure the prospect of food security.

This year’s edition of the Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition reports that the food security situation on the continent continues to worsen. For Africa, 20.4 percent of the continent’s population – 257 million people – are undernourished, up from 19.7 in 2016 – 241 million people. In sub–Saharan Africa, there are 237 million undernourished in 2017, up from 222 million in 2016. The worsening situation in Africa is due to difficult global economic conditions and, in many countries, conflict and climate-related disasters, sometimes in combination. Economic growth slowed in 2016 due to weak commodity prices, in particular for oil and minerals. Food insecurity has worsened in countries affected by conflict, often exacerbated by drought or floods, and in Southern and Eastern Africa many countries have been adversely affected by prolonged drought. Notably, several countries have achieved sustained progress in reducing food insecurity in the face of challenging circumstances. The deterioration of the food security situation and the lack of progress towards the WHO global nutrition targets makes it imperative for countries to step up their efforts, if they are to achieve a world without hunger and malnutrition by 2030. The need for greater efforts also emerges clearly from the findings of the inaugural biennial review of progress in implementing the goals of the Malabo Declaration. In addition to specific food security and nutrition policies, this year’s report reviews four important cross-cutting topics, namely, youth employment, remittances, intraregional trade, and climate change. It highlights their interplay with the food system and their role in food security and nutrition. The thematic part of the report presents an evidence–based assessment of the threat posed by more frequent occurrences of climate extremes and rising climate variability to food security and nutrition in the region. Climate change in combination with poor development planning, poverty and environmental degradation increases the risk of a climate event becoming a disaster. A collective approach that combines climate change adaptation with disaster resilient development is an opportunity to address climate and disaster risks within the context of broader development goals.

In the 2017 and 2018 editions of the Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition, FAO reported that the prevalence of undernourishment was rising in the region. The latest data shows that the deterioration has slowed, but there remain 256 million hungry people in Africa today. The report further documents that although many African countries are making progress towards reducing malnutrition, progress is too slow to meet six key nutrition targets, which form part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) monitoring framework and the World Health Assembly global nutrition targets. Food insecurity has been rising in Africa in recent years and the continent is not on track to eliminate hunger by 2030. The 2017, 2018 and this year’s report identify and report in detail on conflict, climate extremes and economic slowdowns and downturns as the key drivers of the rise in food insecurity. In most cases, the economic slowdowns and downturns that contributed to rising undernourishment in 2014–2018 were the result of commodity price falls. Many effective policy tools are available, but their adoption will depend on the availability of fiscal space to effect the desired policy action. In the longer-term, countries must develop policies and invest to achieve a more diversified economy and achieve an inclusive structural transformation. However, sustained economic growth is not enough: reducing inequalities, including gender-based and spatial inequalities, is essential to strengthening household resilience, laying the path to inclusive growth and reducing food insecurity and tackling the multiple forms of malnutrition.

Developing countries are active participants in the formation of regional trade arrangements (RTAs), but viewpoints differ on the desirability and on the efficient design of regional integration. The first objective of this paper is to review the regional integration debate for those involved in the preparation of food security strategies among developing countries. The paper concentrates primarily on the economic arguments while acknowledging that political motivations may often be the primary driving force behind RTAs. The second objective of the paper is to identify the potential role which regional integration arrangements might make to promoting food security among their members.

The World Food Summit, held in Rome in November 1996, recognised the urgent need for better information. As a result the FIVIMS (Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System) initiative was launched, as a co-operative venture, to assist countries and the international community to identify the "who, where and why" of food insecurity. Even before the Summit, many countries had established approaches for this purpose based on multidisciplinary networks, at national and local levels. One of these approaches, developed first in French-speaking Africa, is the FSIEWS method (Food Security Information and Early Warning System) proposed in this handbook as one of the tools available to those engaged in the fight against hunger. This contribution to the FIVIMS initiative is addressed to the national technical officers at central and decentralised level, as well as to their collaborators from the technical assistance community.

This volume brings together some of the best-known and highly-regarded academics in the field to present a timely and comprehensive review of the prospects for economic integration and development in Southern Africa, and to analyse alternative strategies and policies for the future. It presents in-depth country-specific studies of Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique and Tanzania, and has wide appeal to both policy makers and academics.