Month: August 2024

Benoit Gnonlonfin

Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS), Global Program Lead, CABI

Intra-African trade in agricultural commodities can transform Africa into a food-secure region, especially as climate change increasingly affects markets. However, without strict food safety guidelines, cross-border trade risks distributing unsafe food.

In 2005, Nigeria benefited from bumper harvests due to favorable weather and effective policies that improved access to farm inputs. In contrast, neighboring Niger faced extreme food shortages due to severe drought and locust invasions, leading to widespread hunger and malnutrition despite the food surplus in Nigeria.

In 2017, regions of Ethiopia had a successful season due to sufficient rainfall that year. However, in South Sudan, a neighbouring country, there was famine exacerbated by severe drought and conflict. Food from Ethiopia could not be supplied due to a lack of infrastructure and political instability.

Improving trade can unlock significant benefits, as highlighted in the 2023 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor report: “In addition to promoting economic growth through broader market access, trade also has clear potential to improve food security by increasing the availability of and access to food through a variety of channels.”

The report further explains that one of the most important avenues to greater food security is through increased incomes from trade, which boosts consumers’ purchasing power, allowing them to consume more and better-quality and safe food.

In short, increased trade will mean more income for farming communities, creation of jobs, enabling them to purchase whatever they need. It also means there will be a greater variety of food in the market from different quarters, giving consumers a wider range to choose from, thereby improving their nutritional standards.

Boosting trade

Agenda 2063, the African Union’s (AU) blueprint for economic development, prioritizes agricultural growth. This is outlined in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and further elaborated in the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods.

With the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in March 2018, such commitments seek to harness market and trade opportunities locally, regionally, and internationally.

For instance, Agenda 2063 envisions a food secure continent with sustainable farming techniques that will be instrumental in reducing poverty, hunger and malnutrition, while CAADP provides a clear framework for acceleration of agricultural growth, thereby encouraging countries to dedicate at least 10% of their budgets to agriculture.

The AfCFTA, which is a flagship project of Agenda 2063, creates a free trade area for all African countries with a population of over 1.3 billion. By eliminating tariffs and reducing non-tariff barriers, it encourages intra-African trade to ensure that farmers have a wider market for their enhanced harvests.

Mitigating risk

However, expanding intra-African trade in agricultural commodities must be managed carefully to prevent the increased risk of unsafe food, which could reverse gains in food security and reintroduce previously controlled health risks.

Studies show that Africa is the greatest contributor to the burden of unsafe foods in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa accounts for nearly one-third of global deaths from food-borne diseases, with approximately 137,000 fatalities out of 420,000 annually. At the same time, unsafe food leads to productivity losses of about US$95 billion a year in low and middle-income countries.

It is imperative we take steps to improve food safety at the national, regional, and international levels to ensure proper application and harmonization of food standards. According to Amb. Josepha Sacko, the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, improved implementation and harmonization of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) systems is critical to ensuring that any agricultural trade protects human, animal and plant health.

The SPS agreement under the World Trade Organization (WTO) focuses on how governments can apply sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and regulations to ensure human health, plant health, animal health, and food and feed safety. However, adhering to the SPS measures has been difficult for some importing countries, leading to limited market access for low- and middle-income economies.

The African Union (AU) introduced the SPS Policy Framework in 2014. This framework was developed to help AU member states align their SPS measures with international standards, thereby enhancing intra-African trade, access to global markets, and food safety. So far, the AU SPS Policy Framework lays out a roadmap to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of SPS systems on the continent to protect human health and facilitate intra-African trade.

CABI’s SPS strategy for 2024-2034 focuses on strengthening sustainable SPS capacity through three core outcomes addressing diverse needs across member countries.

Outcome 1: Increased synergies and collaboration of stakeholders to drive catalytic SPS improvement. This is a continuation and building on ongoing initiatives. Working at a global, regional, and national level, CABI will facilitate, convene, and connect relevant stakeholders who have the potential to play a key role in SPS capacity development in CABI’s member countries and beyond.

Outcome 2: Improved regional and national SPS institutional capacity for effective participation, greater access to, and use of best practices and knowledge products.

This is a continuation and building on ongoing initiatives. CABI will facilitate and deliver core, member-driven activities to build, strengthen, pilot and learn from collaborative and innovative approaches in developing SPS capacity.

Outcome 3: SPS research in tertiary education strengthened. This is a new area of work. Working with partners, CABI will create an interdisciplinary, experiential SPS research model and tertiary education that will address and focus on the rapidly emerging need for innovations at the nexus of food security, food safety, agricultural productivity and economics from local to global scales.

When executed with strict adherence to food safety standards, intra-African trade could become the cornerstone for transforming food systems across the continent. Improved agricultural productivity, expanded market access, and enhanced regional cooperation through frameworks like AfCFTA and CAADP will reduce post-harvest losses, give consumers access to a greater variety of safe foods, and significantly decrease poverty, hunger, and malnutrition.

By Dr Rebecca McLaren, MD, MPH, Research Advisor, GAIN, Ty Beal, PhD Senior Technical Specialist at GAIN and Stella Nordhagen, Senior Technical Specialist at GAIN

The 2024 Africa Food Systems Forum is centred on the theme, “Innovate, Accelerate, and Scale: Delivering Food Systems Transformation in a Digital and Climate Era.” As the continent faces unprecedented challenges, from climate shocks to economic pressures, the Forum seeks to accelerate the adoption of digital tools to revolutionize food systems and tackle these pressing issues.

The Food Systems Dashboard: a critical tool for transformation

At the heart of this digital transformation is the Food Systems Dashboard, a powerful tool that allows users to easily access and analyze food systems data. This innovative platform enables stakeholders to set priorities for action and track progress, providing crucial insights into the effectiveness of policies and interventions.

The Food Systems Dashboard stands out by bringing together diverse country-level and subnational data across all food system components. It compiles 300 indicators from over 40 public and private sources, presenting this wealth of information in simple, visually appealing graphics. This comprehensive approach gives policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders a complete view of food systems, including their drivers, components, and outcomes. Moreover, the Dashboard offers in-depth analysis and guidance on how users can effectively leverage this data to identify gaps, monitor progress, and develop impactful interventions.

For instance, the Dashboard includes indicators on food affordability, diet quality, agricultural productivity, and climate vulnerability. A measure of food affordability on the FSD is the percentage of the population unable to afford a healthy diet. This indicates the share of the population whose food budget is less than the cost of a healthy diet. The FSD includes several measures of diet quality from the Global Diet Quality Project, such as minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W). This newly proposed SDG indicator reflects the share of women who consumed at least the minimum recommended food groups the previous day, which makes it more likely they consume adequate micronutrients. For those wanting to look at the climate impacts of food systems, the FSD contains indicators on agri-food systems greenhouse gas emissions as well as the emissions intensity for important food groups. The indicators on the FSD allow policymakers to quickly assess areas of strength and weakness in their food systems, and to track progress over time.

Addressing Africa’s unique challenges

Africa stands at a critical juncture. The continent faces a complex web of challenges, including conflicts disrupting food supply systems, economic shocks making nutritious diets unaffordable, and climate-related events reducing agricultural production capacity. Coupled with a growing population, these factors underscore the urgent need for transformative solutions in African food systems.

To address these challenges, several African countries are leveraging the power of the Food Systems Dashboard at a sub-national level. Nigeria, Kenya, and Mozambique have already launched unique country dashboards, with Rwanda currently developing its own. These tailored and more detailed dashboards are created in close partnership with national governments and local stakeholders, with the ultimate goal of full country ownership. This approach ensures that the data and insights provided are directly relevant to each country’s unique food system challenges and opportunities.

Empowering data-driven decision making

The Food Systems Dashboard enables governments to develop policies rooted in facts and objective analysis. This data-driven approach leads to more informed, targeted, and impactful policy decisions, addressing food system issues more effectively. Moreover, it increases government accountability and transparency in the decision-making process.

By leveraging the insights provided by the Dashboard, countries can enhance local food production, develop resilience to climate crises, and ultimately uplift African livelihoods. This aligns perfectly with the Africa Food Systems Forum’s vision of harnessing the continent’s potential to tackle global challenges.

A collaborative effort for global impact

The Food Systems Dashboard is led by The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, The Columbia Climate School, Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, with collaborators at many other institutions. This collaborative effort ensures that the Dashboard remains a cutting-edge tool in the global effort to transform food systems.

As we look towards the 2024 Africa Food Systems Forum, the Food Systems Dashboard stands as a testament to the power of digital innovation in addressing complex food system challenges. By providing accessible, comprehensive data and analysis, it empowers stakeholders across Africa and beyond to make informed decisions, develop effective policies, and drive meaningful change in their food systems.

The transformation of African food systems in the face of climate change and population growth is no small task. However, with tools like the Food Systems Dashboard, we are better equipped than ever to innovate, accelerate, and scale solutions that will ensure food security and sustainability for generations to come.

Over the last two decades, multiple food system convenings have been held across Africa, during which significant declarations and partnerships have been announced.

In 2003, for example, African Union (AU) leaders met in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, and committed to increasing their national budget allocations to agriculture development to at least 10 percent. Two years later, recognizing the need to accelerate the restoration of Africa’s depleted soils, AU heads made the Abuja Declaration, pinning them to increase their national fertilizer application to at least 50 Kg/ha.

The Maputo commitment was reaffirmed in 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in addition to multiple other pledges around agricultural development, poverty reduction, and nutrition, all to be achieved by 2025.  A year later, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations members, creating 17 world Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

Just recently, in 2023, at the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, a resolve was made to accelerate climate funding to avert impending challenges affecting African countries, notably their agri-food sectors.

With the above events in mind, various other pledges have been made by governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders, all of which have pushed for the acceleration of food system transformation objectives.

Unfortunately, nearly all deadlines have been missed, with the continent being significantly off track for the pending ones, notably the Malabo Declaration (2025) and the SDGs (2030).

However, a turnaround may be achieved by shunning the business-as-usual approach and establishing transparent and collaborative partnerships that hold all stakeholders accountable. Accountability mechanisms encourage stakeholders to work together towards shared goals, leveraging their respective strengths and resources. With precise accountability mechanisms in place, financial, human, and technological resources can be allocated more efficiently while reducing the duplication of efforts and ensuring that investments are targeted toward initiatives with the most significant impact.

In this regard, governments should urgently develop and enforce policies that promote transparency to the already-established commitments. This is as other stakeholders, including the private sector and civil society, commit to pursuing accountability at the community level.

Thankfully, all the continental pledges and commitments made so far are supported by reporting processes and monitoring tools, which comprise trackable indicators that can pinpoint existing loopholes.

We can start with Malabo, enforced by the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), a reporting programme comprising a Biennial Review process highlighting the progress and areas needing attention to actualize critical food security and nutrition goals. The fourth Biennial Review (BR4) report was released earlier this year, with all 49 reviewed countries needing to catch up in achieving the Malabo Declaration goals. Six countries did not participate, two more than in BR3 when Rwanda was the only country on track.

Against this backdrop, all stakeholders are now called to accelerate the actions under review by the CAADP. If achieved as envisaged, this will fast-track the primary food system objectives, forming the foundation of many other continental agendas.

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The private sector is a key demographic whose unique strengths for capital mobilization and innovation must be harnessed to accelerate Africa’s food system transformation.

Multiple researchers have found that rapid transition could be achieved by tapping the private sector to improve distribution networks, set up post-harvest management facilities, and expand market access. However, government leadership is still critical in providing direction, starting with policy investments that shield smallholder farmers and other small players across the food and agricultural value chains from exploitation. Other solutions include the development of regional food balance sheets and appropriate infrastructure to avert the incidence of post-harvest losses, which accounts for up to 40% of all the food produced in Africa.

For market development, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which, when fully implemented, will open up a $3.4 trillion market across the 55 African countries, stands as a remarkable opportunity. The common market introduced under the AfCFTA is expected to engage the private sector in capturing Africa’s diverse strengths in food value chains and specialties, reducing overdependence on foreign agricultural inputs through enhanced intra-African trade.

Additionally, government-led investments in youth projects can be leveraged to rope in private investments. A good example is the Government of Tanzania’s Building a Better Tomorrow – Youth in Africa (BBT-YIA) initiative, a $500m project aimed at boosting youth participation in agriculture. The six-year project is expected to draw more support from the private sector during its implementation as it focuses on transforming the country into a tech-led agricultural production powerhouse.

Meanwhile, the continent’s youth is a resource that should be tapped to inject renewed vigour into food systems, creating the grounds for private sector investment to introduce multiple opportunities for job creation, a critical imperative. Indeed, there is a need to celebrate successful youth agripreneurships, like Hello Tractor, a tractor-hailing platform; KeepItCool, a cold-chain investor; and Magofarm, an insect protein feed maker, whose success is capturing the interest of young people in food systems innovation.

Finally, establishing sustainable financing strategies is a key requirement for private-sector participation. In relation, the Agribusiness Dealroom at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFS Forum) in Kigali, Rwanda, from September 3 – 6, 2024, comes as a critical opportunity for fundraising. The AFS Forum will be held under the theme, ‘Innovate, Accelerate and Scale: Delivering Food Systems Transformation in a Digital and Climate Era’, in recognition of the urgent need to transform African food systems by prioritizing youth participation. Activities at the forum will also strive to engage private sector leadership in the continent’s food system transformation, including through multiple opportunities for investment across varied food system value chains.

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