Browsing: Hunger in Africa

A farmer planting in Zambia. Smallholder farmers need support to stay in agriculture. www.theexchange.africa

Fixing Africa’s agro-food systems. Will leaders get it right this time?

Africa

The potential for Africa to feed the world cannot be underestimated. IFAD’s The Field Report indicates that a quarter of the world’s arable land is found in sub-Saharan Africa yet the region produces only 10 per cent of the world’s agricultural output. 

Sadly for Africa, rural poverty keeps driving people away from the countryside to the cities in search of a better life. Year after year, cities that have become overcrowded are putting the vulnerable at risk with forced migration. 

Globally, there will be more than 9 billion people on earth by 2050 which is an extra two billion mouths to feed. 

If policies are right, Africa is primed to tap into the opportunity offered by this population growth. IFAD indicates that economic growth from agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is 11 times more effective at reducing extreme poverty than any other sector. African governments have to get their priorities right. 

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UNICEF US$255 million appeal for 1.5 million African children

Africa

According to SOS Children’s Villages, 3.2 million children under the age of five die every year because of hunger and drought in Africa. In other words, more than half the children who die of hunger-related causes come from the continent.

In the same breath, he said that there has also been inconsistency in the flow of funds to UNICEF to support humanitarian response.

UNICEF said more than 255,000 children received treatment for severe wasting in Somalia last year. On Tuesday, January 2022, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the widespread drought in the Horn of Africa has severely affected the country the most, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency in November.…

Over 28 million people facing hunger in West, Central Africa amid conflict, economic hardships

Africa
  • The number of acutely food insecure people in West and Central Africa has risen to a record high of 28 million people
  • This is the largest number of people facing high acute food insecurity in West and Central Africa recorded since 2014

A new report has indicated that the number of acutely food insecure people in West and Central Africa has risen to a record high of 28 million people; days after Save the Children said more than 260,000 children may have died from extreme hunger or related diseases in East Africa.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), West and Central Africa trends point toward a further deterioration if support to stem the spread of hunger is not increased.

Data by the two UN organizations indicate that in the Sahel and West Africa, 26 million people …