In a continent bedeviled with conflict in smaller, but key areas, with a humanitarian crisis the world has chosen to ignore, hunger and disease, more conflict and migration, remain Africa’s daily worries.
Amid such chaos and disorganisation, witnessed in Sudan and DRC, and the instability in Southern Sudan, and other parts of the continent, hunger and disease visit, and linger longer. Corruption also thrives. Besides, there is a likelihood of unchecked and unwarranted public borrowing, and spending on things that do not necessarily benefit the masses.
For instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic a lot of countries borrowed without proper approval by their parliaments, because it was a matter of debt or death. It is also during such times that Covid billionaires were born.
Earlier this week, as Africa’s leadership, civil society and the private sector assembled for the UN Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktake in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, there remained a great desire for strategies and actions towards climate justice, and economic accountability. The UN acknowledges the effect of “climate change, geopolitical tensions, economic shocks, and fragile contexts” as some of the disruptors of the global markets and supply chains. More at risk is livelihoods, and nutrition, while existing inequalities continue to deepen.
According to the UN’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025 report, globally, 673 million people were undernourished in 2024. Africa accounted for over 307 million people (above 20 per cent of its population) that faced “chronic undernourishment”. More projections have it that Africa could soon account for almost 60 per cent of the world’s hungry. But why would Africa be so hungry amid so much wealth, arable land, and affordable human resource? The situation worsens in countries in conflict. For instance, more than 25 million Sudanese are reportedly food insecure, part of which 750,000 experience catastrophic hunger conditions, courtesy of a civil conflict. And now the DRC, one of the richest in minerals, key biodiversity and soils, is equally fighting, and hungry.
Africa can thrive with great innovations in agriculture, but without peace, and in the face of a worsening climate crisis, food security remains a mirage, just as the Sustainable Development Goals, some which touch on ending poverty and hunger.
The climate adaptation finances have to be increased, shared with those that desperately need it, and be properly managed to ensure the most vulnerable communities are saved from losses and more damage. This also demands freeing more countries trapped in a cycle, always servicing external debt than improving their food systems, education or health.
Internally, women are key source of agricultural labour in Africa, where small-scale farmers feed us. The women, though underrepresented in land ownership, and access to finances, offer up to 70 per cent of labour. Equally important is retaining the youth around the farms, by making agriculture more profitable, more attractive, through buying their produce rather than importing.
Africa must push harder for fair and accessible climate finance, with adaptation as priority, simply because we have to be alive to address the climate crisis. Even as African leaders participate in such stocktakes, be it on food security or just climate action, they must demand debt relief to allow countries invest more in agriculture and nutrition, to maintain its sovereignty. Smallholder farmers, women, and youth must be actively and adequately involved in decision-making processes. Finally, Africa’s food systems must also incorporate local knowledge, and not be purely dictated by external markets out to inappropriately gain from the continent.
The writer is a contributing editor at Mongabay
