**3.5. Impact of mycotoxins on Africa's self-sustainability and increased dependence on foreign aid**

Africa has been caught in a vicious circle of the cause and effects of mycotoxin contamination and poverty. Mycotoxins aggravates poverty, and due to poverty, many African countries lack the resources to sponsor effective mycotoxin research and mitigation interventions, which further worsens the situation on the continent. As such, majority of the mycotoxin projects conducted on the continent are sponsored by external sources, hence, increasing Africa's dependence of foreign aid. For instance, the US government via the Feed the Future (FTF) initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Food Security budgeted 2–5 million US\$ per year in 2010, and 15–20 million US\$ per year in 2014, for AF-specific researches in African countries and developing countries in other continents [95]. Ghent University, Belgium sponsored an international thematic network 'Mytox-South' established in 2017, with an initial approved funding of 600,000 EUR. This intends to build/ strengthen the human capacity of researchers from the Southern Hemisphere, leveraging on infrastructure and expertise at Ghent University in order to combat the mycotoxin problem and associated food security and safety issues at global level [96]. The Standards and trade development facility (STDF) sponsored a six month project on strengthening AF control in the Republic of Malawi through the Malawi Programme for Aflatoxin Control (MAPAC) with a budget of 46,265 thousand US\$ [97]. Details on other foreign mycotoxin interventions in Africa worth millions of US\$ can be found from these sources [94, 98, 99].

Interestingly, even the private sector has not been left out. Recently, the spotlight has turned on strengthening coalitions with the private sector, while leveraging on the efforts of different actors for effective management of mycotoxins in Africa. In October 2016, PACA and CTA convened a roundtable event in Entebbe, Uganda to identify concrete areas of collaboration and evaluate avenues for effective public-private sector partnership and engagement in the common agenda for tackling mycotoxin prevalence. CEOs and other representatives from various private establishments such as Cereal Millers' Association—Kenya, AFRI-Nut—Malawi, CTA, Meds For Kids—Haiti, GrainPro—East Africa, PACA, USAID, Nestlé— West Africa, various Women's organisations in Zimbabwe and Uganda, were in attendance, amongst others [5, 6].
