Opinion
By Olusegun Obasanjo and
Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe
Africa has so far escaped
the worst health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the continent
looks like it could be the worst hit from the economic fallout of the crisis:
80 million Africans could be pushed into extreme poverty if action is not
taken. And disruptions in food systems raise the prospect of more Africans
falling into hunger. Rural people, many of whom work on small-scale farms, are
particularly vulnerable to the impacts of the crisis. It is therefore vital
that the COVID-19 response address food security and target the rural poor.
At this time, the
international development agenda is prioritizing health, economies and
infrastructure. But there must also be a focus on food security, agribusiness
and rural development. This is especially important on the African continent.
Agriculture contributes 65
per cent of Africa’s employment and 75 per cent of its domestic trade. However,
the rich potential of agriculture as a tool to promote food security and fight
poverty is at risk from the effects of COVID-19.
In March, the UN Economic
Commission for Africa predicted growth in Africa would drop from 3.2 per cent
to 1.8 per cent in 2020. Within the continent, lockdowns are disrupting
inter-regional trade. The effect of restrictive measures on food trade is
especially worrying, in particular for food-importing countries, but also
because of shrinking export markets for the continent’s farmers.
Across the European Union
(the largest export market for Africa’s fresh fruits and vegetables), demand
has dropped for popular produce such as Kenyan avocados, South African citruses
and Moroccan vegetables. Kenya has also recorded an 8.5 per cent decline for
tea exports to destinations like Iran, Pakistan and UAE. Within countries, we
are already seeing that interruptions to transport and distribution systems are
impeding small-scale farmers from accessing essential inputs – like seeds and
fertilizer – and from getting their food to markets.
African governments have
defined stimulus measures to mitigate national and regional economic impacts of
COVID-19. As they do, they must remember that investments in agriculture can be
up to five times more poverty-reducing than investments in other sectors.
Investments in rural, small-scale agriculture are particularly important for
the region’s food security, for safeguarding the livelihoods of some of its
most vulnerable people and for sustaining the gains in poverty alleviation and
wealth creation.
Small farms everywhere
traditionally make a huge contribution to global food security. Around the
world, small-farm dominated systems produce 50 per cent of all food calories on
30 per cent of the world’s agricultural land. In sub-Saharan Africa, however,
the role of small-scale farms is even more significant: 80 per cent of farms
are small in most of these countries.
Even before the current
crisis, globally more than 820 million people were going hungry daily. And the
majority of the world’s poor and hungry people live in the rural areas of
developing countries. In Africa, reliance on food imports, and lack of services
and infrastructure to enable small-scale farmers to produce and market food,
along with the shocks of climate change, have all increased the fragility of
food access.
In April, the World Bank
projected the pandemic would hit Africa the hardest of any region, pushing 23
million people into poverty. This raises the question of how small producers in
Africa can get access to inputs and finance to grow and sell the food needed to
ensure food security and support livelihoods. African leaders must be in the
vanguard of funding solution.
In April, the International
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) (https://bit.ly/2WSOWbw) launched a
multi-donor fund- COVID-19 Rural Poor Stimulus Facility (RPSF) (https://bit.ly/2AmoUpj)
- to address the immediate fallout of COVID-19 for rural people in Africa and
elsewhere. IFAD specializes in investing in poor rural people, targeting the
poorest and most marginalized. Among other goals, the new facility will provide
small-scale farmers and fishers with basic inputs, and help them access markets
and maintain cash flow. IFAD committed US$40 million to the new fund, but aims
to raise at least $200 million more from UN Member States, foundations and the
private sector.
The facility will complement
and scale-up the work IFAD has already
been doing to repurpose existing project activities. In Malawi, for example, a
programme is providing social cash transfers to ultra-poor farmers and delivering
messages about financial literacy and
COVID-19 prevention. In Eritrea, vulnerable households are receiving small
ruminants and seeds to strengthen, maintain production, access markets and
safeguard household food security during the crisis.
These immediate actions are
essential to mitigate the worst risks of the crisis. They are also important to
safeguard IFAD’s past and ongoing investments to build the long-term resilience
of rural livelihoods. Ultimately, we need to ensure that rural people and their
businesses are the foundation of resilient rural economies and food systems
across Africa. Then, when the next crisis strikes, the vulnerable people of
today will be better able to protect their livelihoods and avoid the risk of
falling into poverty and hunger.
So while it’s urgent to feed
people today, we also must look to the days, months and years ahead. This is
one reason why IFAD prioritizes
long-term rural and agricultural development and building resilience to future
shocks. It is also why we urge policy makers to adapt any relevant lessons from
how previous outbreaks like the Ebola virus affected agriculture and food
systems.
In the long term, this
pandemic underscores the need for Africa to transform agriculture and
agribusiness as the surest path to inclusive economic growth, wealth generation
and greater resilience.
As Special Envoys, we
believe in IFAD’s exceptional mandate and will continue to work closely with
the Fund in mobilizing resources to support the most vulnerable on the African
continent. The pandemic will expose the livelihoods of rural marginalized groups
to unprecedented challenges. To restore hope to those affected, we commit
strongly to the idea that no one will be left behind, especially in Africa.
The authors are Olusegun
Obasanjo, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Hailemariam
Desalegn Boshe, former Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of
Ethiopia. Both are IFAD Special Envoys engaged to mobilize support and advocate
for greater investment in rural areas.
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