Browsing: fortifying Africa’s food security

• The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, is threatening to impose a new burden on food security systems in Africa.
• African economies find themselves compelled to choose sides between Israel and Palestine carefully.
• However, our analysis indicates that Africa faces a no-win situation when dealing with instability and the worsening conflict in the Gaza Strip.

The aftermath of the Israel-Hamas war is having devastating effects on Africa’s economic and political spheres, with food inflation being the first tangible negative impact.

As African economies are still recovering from the effects of the global COVID-19 lockdown and grappling with the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war is further destabilizing fragile food security systems in the continent.

The disruption in trade is attributed to new security challenges and what economists describe as investors opting for a “flight to safety.” These investor actions are strengthening the US dollar and causing …

Into a menacing economic quick sand African economies have been sinking, taking hefty blows from numerous unprecedented challenges birthed by the overarching global crisis. The status quo has instigated a clarion call to cushion them from dipping further beneath the horizon, by casting different viable iron rods, as the ‘one shoe fits all’ approach is not feasible due the dynamic nature of African economies. Inarguably, Africa has not been left unscathed amid the ongoing global ‘polycrisis’, as described in the 2023 World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Risks Report, to mean  a cluster of related global risks with compounding effects, such that the overall impact exceeds the sum of each part.

In light of this, on day three of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland, UN Secretary General António Guterres in his speech, stated that at present the world faces “a category five” storm of challenges that need urgent action. These include …