**2.6 Cases of countries affected by food insecurity and acute malnutrition stemming from protracted conflicts, crises, and political unrests**



malnutrition challenges of its member countries. And as an intergovernmental body, the FAO was formed to promote the "common welfare by furthering separate and collective action for the purpose of raising levels of nutrition and standards of living of the peoples under their respective jurisdictions; securing improvements in the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products; bettering the conditions of rural populations; and thus contributing towards an expanding world economy and ensuring humanity's freedom from hunger [22]." Though the FAO has had the mandate to tackle agricultural issues and concerns of its member countries, from its inception, the governments of its member countries were primarily the major actors that formulated and addressed the issues of agriculture within the United Nations'system. However, since the end of the Cold War, other actors and stakeholders such as the NGOs, CSOs, and a multitude of transnational corporations have also become relevant actors in policy formulations addressing hunger, food issues, and nutrition security governance in Africa. This has especially been so since the establishment of the MDGs covering the year 2000– 2015 and the SDGs in place from 2015 to 2030. Nevertheless, this proliferation of stakeholders and actors in food security governance that is now being shared among the UN agencies and the private sector, civil society, NGOs, and the concerned governments has led to an increase in collaboration and partnerships among all the stakeholders that address and formulate policies dealing with the food and nutrition challenges in Africa today. As an example, transnational corporations such as *Unilever* have now jumped into global threats issues such as world hunger and food security and malnutrition challenges. This is becoming common in corporate governance because leading global corporations have now realized that those aforementioned issues are global threats in nature and no longer local per se. And therefore, they affect everyone and every country in this age of economic, political, technological, and cultural globalization [23]. Furthermore, corporations such as *Unilever* and many others like it have also understood that addressing those issues as a company or private sector is actually adhering to social corporate responsibility which is increasingly aligned with the interests of a business in this globalized and interdependent world. In fact, this new *social-business* approach has become the new *modus operandi* of socially responsible companies everywhere in the world today. In other words, it's good business to be a global corporate citizen. In effect, big corporations and brand-name companies now understand that consumers want them to also be social citizens while pursuing their economic and business profits and interests [24]. And as a response to all these new developments, in 2013, the FAO published its new *strategic framework* with a new focus on "governance, creation of enabling environments, and policy support in member countries is the direct outcome of its adaptation and repositioning process." This new framework was conceived to officially help the FAO collaborate and share policy spaces with other actors and stakeholders in food and nutrition security governance in Africa [25] and

*Understanding Africa's Food Security Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91773*

**2.8 Africa's engagements and commitments to ending food insecurity and**

Africa's responses to the food security challenges can at best be summarized as ineffective and inefficient thus far, to say the least. However, since the advent of the new millennium and the food crisis of 2007–2008, there has been a somewhat sincere and renewed commitment by the African leaders, the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities, the national governments, civil society, private sector, and all the stakeholders in Africa in support of food security. This newfound engagement in food security challenges is aimed at supporting agricultural

anywhere else for that matter.

**nutrition deficits**

**11**

#### **Table 2.**

*African countries in protracted crises, conflicts, and fragile situations (Source: Data extracted and compiled from [21]).*

from poverty, misery, and the never-ending threats and real cases of food insecurity and chronic malnutrition that have for years affected both the youth and general Somali population.

4.**The Central African Republic.** This country is the latest case of food insecurity and widespread malnutrition in Africa. This has been the case since the short-lived Civil War of 2013 and the ensuing political unrest, rebellion, and ongoing sectarian aggressions between the Christian and Muslim communities.

## **2.7 Collective engagements and responses of the international community to tackling food insecurity in Africa**

The international community heretofore understood as international institutions; private sector; multinational and transnational corporations (MNCs and TNCs); civil society; private foundations such as *the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation*, *the Clinton Foundation*, and NGOs; leading nations such as the United States, China, India, Russia, and Brazil; the Global South; the European Union (EU); and celebrities like George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Bono, and many others are all stakeholders in food security and hunger debates. However, the United Nations (UN) system has thus far been the leading multilateral institutional voice that addresses and shapes the policy debates and proposes policy prescriptions for the food insecurity and malnutrition challenges that Africa and other regions of the world face.

Within the United Nations system, however, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which was established as an intergovernmental body is the organization mandated to address the agricultural issues such as food security, nutrition, and

#### *Understanding Africa's Food Security Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91773*

malnutrition challenges of its member countries. And as an intergovernmental body, the FAO was formed to promote the "common welfare by furthering separate and collective action for the purpose of raising levels of nutrition and standards of living of the peoples under their respective jurisdictions; securing improvements in the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products; bettering the conditions of rural populations; and thus contributing towards an expanding world economy and ensuring humanity's freedom from hunger [22]."

Though the FAO has had the mandate to tackle agricultural issues and concerns of its member countries, from its inception, the governments of its member countries were primarily the major actors that formulated and addressed the issues of agriculture within the United Nations'system. However, since the end of the Cold War, other actors and stakeholders such as the NGOs, CSOs, and a multitude of transnational corporations have also become relevant actors in policy formulations addressing hunger, food issues, and nutrition security governance in Africa. This has especially been so since the establishment of the MDGs covering the year 2000– 2015 and the SDGs in place from 2015 to 2030. Nevertheless, this proliferation of stakeholders and actors in food security governance that is now being shared among the UN agencies and the private sector, civil society, NGOs, and the concerned governments has led to an increase in collaboration and partnerships among all the stakeholders that address and formulate policies dealing with the food and nutrition challenges in Africa today. As an example, transnational corporations such as *Unilever* have now jumped into global threats issues such as world hunger and food security and malnutrition challenges. This is becoming common in corporate governance because leading global corporations have now realized that those aforementioned issues are global threats in nature and no longer local per se. And therefore, they affect everyone and every country in this age of economic, political, technological, and cultural globalization [23]. Furthermore, corporations such as *Unilever* and many others like it have also understood that addressing those issues as a company or private sector is actually adhering to social corporate responsibility which is increasingly aligned with the interests of a business in this globalized and interdependent world. In fact, this new *social-business* approach has become the new *modus operandi* of socially responsible companies everywhere in the world today. In other words, it's good business to be a global corporate citizen. In effect, big corporations and brand-name companies now understand that consumers want them to also be social citizens while pursuing their economic and business profits and interests [24]. And as a response to all these new developments, in 2013, the FAO published its new *strategic framework* with a new focus on "governance, creation of enabling environments, and policy support in member countries is the direct outcome of its adaptation and repositioning process." This new framework was conceived to officially help the FAO collaborate and share policy spaces with other actors and stakeholders in food and nutrition security governance in Africa [25] and anywhere else for that matter.

#### **2.8 Africa's engagements and commitments to ending food insecurity and nutrition deficits**

Africa's responses to the food security challenges can at best be summarized as ineffective and inefficient thus far, to say the least. However, since the advent of the new millennium and the food crisis of 2007–2008, there has been a somewhat sincere and renewed commitment by the African leaders, the African Union, the Regional Economic Communities, the national governments, civil society, private sector, and all the stakeholders in Africa in support of food security. This newfound engagement in food security challenges is aimed at supporting agricultural

production, replacing the prevalence of undernourishment, eradicating hunger, achieving food security, and meeting nutrition needs and targets. This has been so since the 2008 food price hikes and the subsequent social unrest and disturbances that took place in several African capitals and shook the sitting governments of that time. As a result of those vivid developments, the national security implications of food and nutrition insecurity were in plain view for all to see. In addition, the increased awareness of climate change threats and the rising awareness of the unforeseeable consequences of the rapid population growth on the food production system and on the stability of the *state* made African leaders take note and entice them to initiate various national policies to support food and nutrition security. Soon thereafter, as a result of those political events, several respective African governments devised new policy strategies in line with their national economic policies in support to food production, transformation, and security. For example, countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya partner more now with the private sector and the civil society in administering and managing their food systems. They basically have shifted their schemes towards private-public partnerships and involved wider private sector(s) in their food production and transformation policies. In contrast, countries like Ethiopia, South Africa, Angola, and Mali have integrated more of their food policy programs in recent years as well. That is, they have aligned them with their national economic strategies to support their food production, combat their food shortages, and replace their prevalent malnutrition. Nevertheless, what remains to be accomplished to date is the transformation of the said renewed political commitments into concrete policy actions such as (1) a visible and sustainable high-level leadership and effective governance, (2) an increase in publicprivate partnerships (PPPs) and shared co-leadership in fighting against hunger and food insecurity, (3) a supportive and enabling environment by the sitting governments and their decision-makers, and (4) a comprehensive and clear policy approach with all stakeholders involved in support of food production and security. Furthermore, at the continental and regional levels, it is worth highlighting also that the leading voices in formulating policies to combat food insecurity and curb the nutrition challenges in recent decades have been *the African Union Commission* (AUC), *the NEPAD*, and *the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) such as ECOWAS in West Africa and ECCAS in Central Africa*.

principles and practices. And as previously explained, the economic conditions of those countries later showed that those policy prescriptions did not provide the intended and expected economic results. Instead, they worsened the food insecurity in Africa. That's because by advising and encouraging African governments to cut their aid, subsidies, and assistance to their farmers in the name of the market-based principles, food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa worsened dramatically. Moreover, the chapter also acknowledged that, save the commodities and natural resources exporting African countries, the economic growth of the majority of African countries has not performed as expected either. That is, the GDP growth rates of many sub-Saharan African countries have not kept pace with their rapid respective population growths, especially the rapid urban population growth that many African countries have experienced in recent years. In addition to the mentioned economic policy challenges, new challenges such as climate change and its effects and the internal displacements and migrations pushed many sub-Saharan African countries to depend more on food imports and foreign aid. Consequently, in actuality, many of them are unable to feed their populations today, and food insecurity and malnutrition have become the daily staple of millions of their citizens. Last but not least, the food price hikes of 2008 and their direct political consequences thereof, namely, riots and protests in many African cities, also exposed in plain view the economic policy failures of the African countries to the whole world to see. The rioting and protests showed how inept and incompetent many African leaders had for years been in failing to provide food security to their low-income and respective vulnerable citizens. Also, one of the visible consequences of the failure of African leaders in food security management has thus far been the continuous rise of import food bills in Africa year after year [26–34], while agriculture dependence has remained high. In sum, the combined reasons as analyzed above are the real reasons why sub-Saharan African countries have for years seemed unable to eradicate hunger, achieve food security, and meet nutrition targets and needs for their people(s). In essence, this is fundamentally why African countries struggled to meet the MDGs targets (2000–2015) despite the assistance and resources granted to them by the international community. With that in mind, if recent history is any indication, sub-Saharan African countries are going to struggle again in order to meet a few targets of the SDGs (2015–2030). In summary, hopefully African leaders will prove

*Understanding Africa's Food Security Challenges DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91773*

their skeptics and all of us wrong this time around.

The diagnostics of Africa's food security and malnutrition challenges has been thoroughly examined in this chapter. The international community, the African Union and respective African governments and anyone else interested in the issues of food insecurity, climate change threats, and protracted conflicts and wars in Africa have all launched policies against food insecurity in Africa. However, in order for Africa as a whole to achieve food security and lower its dependence on food imports and aid, *African political leaders and economic decision-makers* will have to surmount in true sense each one of the challenges mentioned in this chapter. For as those challenges are extensively analyzed in this chapter, they have been shown to be the real culprit of Africa's never ending socioeconomic and political problems. For decades now, they have been the challenges that have crippled Africa and hijacked the wellbeing and welfare of its citizens. Below are the specific policy proposals that if implemented could contribute to help overcome the challenges of food insecurity and nutrition deficits and many other challenges that have kept Africa for years from

meaningful economic transformations beneficial for all its citizens.

**4. Policy recommendations**

**13**
