Africa’s conflicts, climate change and diseases are the main cause of more than half the continent’s food crises, a leading aid agency, Oxfam International, said in a new report published in Nairobi Monday.
According to Oxfam, the current situation in Sudan’s troubled region of Darfur, where 3.4 million people are dependant on food aid, is a classic example of the devastating humanitarian emergency that conflict creates.
The report says HIV/AIDS pandemic is exacting a terrifying toll on one of Africa’s key
resources for food production – people.
“By 2020 a fifth of the agricultural workforce in Southern African countries will have been claimed by AIDS,” said Oxfam in a report titled: Causing Hunger: An overview of the food crisis in Africa”.
The British charity said climate change is also wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of small landholders and nomadic pastoralists in Africa.
Researchers predict that about 60 million more Africans will be at risk of hunger by the 2080s because of a rise in global temperatures, it said.
“It will cost the world far less to make a major investment now in a tackling the root causes of hunger than continuing the current cycle of too little, too late that has been the reality of famine relief in Africa for nearly half a century,” Oxfam Director, Barbara Stocking said.
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the proportion of human-induced food emergencies has more than doubled over the last 20 years.
The aid agency urged donor governments, particularly the US, to re-examine their food
aid policy, untie their contributions, and look to increase the proportion of locally purchased food
“They must also ensure interventions work more to support livelihoods of those most at risk,” it said in a 39-page report published in Nairobi.
The report also called on African governments to adhere to the commitments made at the 2003 African Union summit for national governments to increase agricultural spending to 10 percent of budgets.
“Governments should also establish long-term “social protection” schemes for people affected by chronic food insecurity and make available resources for a predictable need,” the report said.
It also called on aid agencies, donors, UN and governments to increase their use of
innovative alternatives to food aid such as cash-based programming to ensure that Africa’s poor are given more sustainable and flexible assistance. Enditem
