Kaburu Anthony: Our Future depends on how we fight desertification...

Kaburu Anthony: Our Future depends on how we fight desertification...: Over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification and drought, and about one billion people in over one hundred countries ar...

Kaburu Anthony: Our Future depends on how we fight desertification...

Kaburu Anthony: Our Future depends on how we fight desertification...: Over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification and drought, and about one billion people in over one hundred countries ar...

Our Future depends on how we fight desertification and drought

Over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification and drought, and about one billion people in over one hundred countries are at risk. These people include many of the world‘s poorest, most marginalized and politically weak citizens.

As the population of the world grows, so does the demand for land to live on, feed off, grow fibre for clothing and food for animals. All this activity is making fertile areas become increasingly more arid, bringing about desertification and drought.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development declares that “we must all be determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations”. Specifically, Goal 15 states our resolve to halt and reverse land degradation.

The #WorldDaytoCombatDesertificationandDrought observed tomorrow on 17^th and annually since 1995 is meant to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat desertification. It’s also a unique moment to remind everyone that land degradation neutrality is achievable through problem-solving, strong community involvement and co-operation at all levels.

Causes of desertification;

·         Climate change

So much could be said about the effects of climate change on the health of our lands, as climate change can lead to land degradation for many reasons. As the days get warmer and periods of drought become more frequent, desertification becomes more and more eminent. Unless climate change is slowed down, huge areas of land will become desert; some of those areas may even become uninhabitable as time goes on.

·         Overgrazing

Overgrazing and desertification have been always closely linked together. Animal grazing is a huge problem for many areas that are starting to become desert biomes. If there are too many animals that are overgrazing in certain spots, it makes it difficult for the plants to grow back, which hurts the biome and makes it lose its former green glory.

·         Farming 

Farming is one of factors that cause desertification all around the world. Farmers are clearing average land, and using it which takes away the richness in the soil. People should let the average land replenish itself before farming.

·         Deforestation

Deforestation is one of the main human causes of desertification. When people are looking to move into an area, or they need trees in order to make houses and do other tasks, then they are contributing to the problems related to desertification. Without the plants around, the rest of the biome cannot thrive. Forests are being cut down at much larger scale than ever before, to be used as fuel, to provide products we use in our daily life.

The effects of desertification

·         Soil becomes less usable

Topsoil is crucial for plant growth because it contains most of the organic matter and 50 percent of important nutrients such as phosphorus and potassium. The soil can be blown away by wind or washed away rain. Nutrients in the soil can be removed by wind or water. Salt can build up in the soil which makes it harder for plant growth.

·         Hunger

The food will become much scarcer without farms in these areas, and the people who live in those local areas will be a lot more likely to try and deal with hunger problems. Animals will also go hungry, which will cause even more of a food shortage.

·         Causes famine

Desertification is a serious form of land degradation that results in the destruction of natural ecosystems. Places that have war and poverty are most likely to have famine occur. Drought and poor land management contribute to famine.

·         Flooding

Desertification can cause flooding, without the plant life in an area, flooding is a lot more eminent. Not all deserts are dry; those that are wet could experience a lot of flooding because there is nothing to stop the water from gathering and going all over the place.

Practices that can be applied to those acts that may be causing desertification and drought

·         Alternative farming 

It’s difficult to try and prevent desertification from happening. Alternative livelihoods that are less demanding on local land and natural resource use, such as dryland aquaculture for production of fish, crustaceans and industrial compounds, limit desertification.

·         Land and water management

Like farming, water management is so important. Sustainable land use can fix issues such as overgrazing, overexploitation of plants, trampling of soils and irrigation practices that cause and worsen desertification.

·         Education

Education is a very important tool that needs to be utilized in order to help people to understand the best way to use the land that they are farming on. By educating them on sustainable practices, more land will be saved from becoming desert.

We must all be reminded that desertification can be effectively tackled, that solutions are possible, and that key tools to this aim lay in strengthened community participation and co-operation at all levels. The world has long known that people need trees.

At this critical time in history, it is now time to know, and to act on the fact that more than ever, trees need people, for the sake of the earth, and for the sake of all the earth’s inhabitants, including human kind. It is time to move beyond comprehension of, and remorse for the damage we have done. It’s time to act. Knowledge and sentiment will not save us from this impending peril of our own making.

Fortunately, at the very time when unparalleled action is called for, we have a tool commensurate to the task of countering the enormous challenges before us. It is time for decisive action. We can ensure that we don’t turn the entire world into a desert.

We must all be determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations.

Let us today recommit ourselves to the goals of the Convention, and to achieving sustainable development for all, including in the dryland rural areas where the world's poorest people live, the solutions to these issues are possible, and that key tools to this aim lay in strengthened community participation and co-operation at all levels.

Let us also unite our efforts to achieve a sustainable future and better tomorrow #FightingDesertification #LandManagement #Environment #SDGs

#CombatDesertificationandDrought #SDG15 

Kaburu Anthony: How corrupt leaders are draining Africa’s Economy

Kaburu Anthony: How corrupt leaders are draining Africa’s Economy: Africa, a continent abundantly gifted with natural resources and astronomical value of human capital is yet to find its rightful place amon...

How corrupt leaders are draining Africa’s Economy

Africa, a continent abundantly gifted with natural resources and astronomical value of human capital is yet to find its rightful place among the comity of nations. A key cause that has been to blame for her lack of socioeconomic development is the trend of bad leadership and corruption.

The essence of the paper rest in the fact that political leadership as well as corruption was entwined and it is alongside this backdrop that it explored the fraudulent trend of the political ruling class in Africa. The article concludes that for Africa to experience sustainable socio-economic development, reliable and trustworthy leaders must materialize to embed the act of good and selfless governance in the country.

INTRODUCTION

Africa in recent times is bombarded by an inherent predicament in comparison with other Latin American countries and Asia. In illustration from the practice of other developed Countries, one needs to be cautious in order to escape easy oversimplifications in regard to contemporary determinants for African economic and social makeover. Every significant thought of African development plan must take notice to the crucial matter of good leadership as well as eradication of corruption at all stages.

The ruling class in Africa many a times plead ignorance of the fact that they are in power in order to be of service to the citizens and not vice versa ; they exploit their positions to put as much public money as they can in their pockets and even get away with it!

Unfortunately most African leaders have come to acknowledge corruption as a normal occurrence and often see it as a means to an end. However on the other hand leaders of the developed world, are often placed under a 24 hour watchful scrutiny, their past is vigilantly investigated before ascending to any public office.

Transparency International approximates that corruption in Africa robs us 25 to 35 percent of financial support from essential service provision, in addition many research studies and newspapers have proven that African leaders extract billions every year from their economically weak countries.

Over the years, it has become increasingly clear that the former colonial masters cleverly gave up on political power while at the same time retaining economic power. African leaders were ill equipped and began leadership to a false start.

Unprepared for the economic ambush that the neocolonialism would unleash consequently our greedy leaders became easy victims for manipulation by the west. The high ideals of being a servant to the citizens remained largely a big part focus for theory and speech-making.

In harmony with the aim for political dominance as an ending in itself, African leaders were unable convert freedom from colonial power to the popular beliefs of democracy and liberty. They are unsuccessful in building capacities for the people to engage in meaningful economic and social development.

Power is always handed over to a specific individual rather than to the political party, and the leader was/is seen as a renowned wealthy family as opposed to being a representative of the country. Hence religious, cultural and ethnic walls are not synchronized via basis of equitability and fair balance of interests.

 Discrepancies that ordinarily should have been eliminated after independence were infact made worse by it. Grumbles of unfairness and ill-treatment by the marginalized parties inside these territories were utterly overlooked.

 As a result defiance to inequality and preeminence of power by influential groups or families or authoritarian leaders was restrained by bigger abuses of power. Consequently, breaches of human rights and suppression of the manpower that could have otherwise been used for nation building and development.

In Nigeria for instance, during the reign of President Olesegun Obasanjo, who was entirely in control of petroleum in Nigeria, it was investigated and reported that over 500 million dollars meant for upkeep and renovations of the oil industry had not been put to any use and infact ghost contactors had been tendered the contracts.

Further it revealed that the petroleum industry, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was one of the biggest corrupt bodies in Nigeria. Undoubtedly nations in endure effects of poor administration, inadequate judicial infrastructure and insufficient numbers of expertise.

But these short-comings cannot explain the abuse and misuse of state power in the continent. For instance, Kenya has a big figure of highly-trained professionals, as well as accountants and constitutional lawyers put down budgetary procedures, with inclusion of provisions for checks and balances. But the fact remains that Kenyan rulers have ignored the provisions of the constitution and put down administrative procedures as irrelevant to the actual workings of government.

Omar Al-Bashir, the former President of Sudan, grabbed power in 1989 in a bloodless military coup de ta in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi- a government which had been independently elected by the citizens of the country. Shortly after grabbing power, Al-Bashir disintegrated all political parties Sudan, dispersed the country’s parliament and cut out all privately-owned media firms.

His time in power has been distinguished by civil conflicts wherein more than one million people have lost their lives not to mention numbers of those who have been rendered refugees by the war and at the same time several millions have lost their livelihoods.

Not to mention that Al-Bashir  was recently over thrown and arrested besides he has a warrant of arrest on his head and has been sought after by the International Criminal Court for prompting crimes against humanity, especially with reference to heading and financing acts of carnage against the people of Southern Sudan. Distinctively corrupt, a diplomatic wikileaks cable discovered that Al-Bashir had likely siphoned several $10 billion of his Sudan’s finances into his personal bank accounts in the United Kingdom.

Very disconcerting is how corruption leaves the poverty stricken to be perpetually poor at the same time impedes the growth of democracy and societal construction.  And by deflecting away from the original purpose of funds or services, corruption is assumed to be the sole most significant factor to blame for the catastrophe of leadership and the lack of socio economic development in Africa.

Africa’s corruption is a manifestation of its leadership and institutional failure after gaining it freedom from colonialists essentially because of misuse of power mediocre management of economies, corruption, and absence of democracy, personal wealth are what our leaders today embrace. There are also those who worship the Europeans. Where they invest their ill-gotten gains and wealth stolen from their motherland.

Africa continues to be poor because politics is considered an easy ticket to prosperity, to add to that the leadership has no continuity agenda and opt for dying in office, being some of the richest people in the world amidst the most poverty-stricken citizens in the world.

In open public speeches African leaders criticize control by the west but in reprehensible booked appointments behind closed doors they are otherwise occupied appealing to Europe and China to carry on where they left off pre-independence. Captivatingly, modern china is gradually becoming a colony of Africa given all the contracts they have taken over in Africa.

Meanwhile regional Organizations like the African Union (AU) who one would presume have their work cut out for them, have regrettably done nothing to endorse good governance in Africa. I’m quite that the difficulties are known but, the answers for them continue to be hypothetical and set aside on computer memory someplace in Addis Ababa. What we possess are heads that split us up instead unifying.

Drawing from the example of the late Muammar El Qaddafi, these divisions turn against them and in the end the outcome is a very overpowering catastrophe that is often difficult to deal with. A renowned journalist Aguako Basaid in his address to Nigerians during a leadership conference said that, “an African leader finds it difficult to renounce power and in an attempt to perpetuate himself in power, he gets so many people involved in corrupt practices”.

Most dictatorial leaders in Africa have had tenures spreading for over 30 decades for example are former Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Cameroon’s Paul Biya, Angola’s Jose dos Santos, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, of Equatorial Guinea and like many of their predecessors these leader spent their whole careers enriching themselves, bullying opponents, circumventing all but the simple ensnares of democracy aggressively frustrating movements gunning for constitutional rule.

They were or are successful because they control the major arms of government; civil service, electoral bodies, security forces including the military, the press, media and the central banks in their countries. This trend started with the first generation of African nationalist leaders because they enjoyed great honor and prestige making them feel godly and of course absolute power does infact corrupts absolutely.

They also came off successful in eliminating or disregarding checks and balances. Instead of they exercised vast systems of patronage and in the process sported enormous power and authority allowing them to subjugate all relevant institutions consequently they helped lay a bad foundation for governance in Africa and corruption rampant in their economies. Institutions today are unable to control excesses of their dictators.

Also observed in present times are the ever present cases of electoral fraud, contested elections, presidents with too much power at their disposal and political upheaval not to mention economic policies introduced by government to sustain their domination and exploitation.

Conclusion

The misfortune in Africa is not that its countries are poor, that is a condition that is a product of history. The misfortune is that it does not have ruling classes dedicated to prevailing over the state of underdevelopment. Bad governance is not a principal predicament of lack of knowledge or infrastructural competence or even of individual dictators.

African countries are wakened by instruments of development because of the rulers, not to mention people within and out of government, are aggravated by goals that do not have the slightest to do with the general good. Until this situation changes there is little hope for Africa.

Policies aimed at controlling or reducing corruption in African countries must begin with laying the foundation for a strong institution- economic, political and social- in all sectors of the economy.  Citizens must also be encouraged to speak out against corrupt practices without fear of reprisal, and whistle-blowers must be protected.

While there is legislation to protect whistle-blowers in most African countries, the reality on the ground is that intimidation and influence is used to maintain silence and secrecy. #EndCorruption #ResourceManagement #Accountability #Leadership #BetterGovernance #Equity #Africa

Kaburu Anthony: The Status of Gender Equality in Africa

Kaburu Anthony: The Status of Gender Equality in Africa: Most African countries continue to lag behind the rest of the world on women’s participation in development, in large part due to deeply en...

The Status of Gender Equality in Africa

Most African countries continue to lag behind the rest of the world on women’s participation in development, in large part due to deeply entrenched, discriminatory views about the role and position of women and girls in society, which relegate women to an inferior position relative to men and result in unequal power relations between men and women.

Referred to as “harmful traditional practices,” these discriminatory views legitimize and perpetuate various forms violence against women including female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C); early marriage; the various taboos or practices which prevent women from controlling their own fertility; preference for sons over daughters; female infanticide; early pregnancy; and dowry price among others.

These discriminatory views and harmful practices often prevent women from achieving their full potential as productive members of society because they result in their unequal access to education, healthcare, economic opportunities, and participation in governance and politics.

Even in countries where women are playing a greater role in development, governance and politics, such as in Kenya, women are treated and judged disparately and more harshly, by institutions as well as the public, in comparison to their male counterparts.

In Kenya, recent corruption cases brought against both male and female leaders have revealed this inconsistency in treatment and judgment. One high-profile female government official’s romantic relationships became the focus of public and media scrutiny and diverted attention from the case brought against her and the broader problem of rampant corruption under the current government. While she eventually stepped down from her post, she did so after months of public humiliation. This is unlike the treatment that male politician’s face, whose intimate relationships are never scrutinized.

Gender discrimination means women often end up in insecure and low-wage jobs. It restricts women’s access to economic assets such as land, loans and productive assets. And, because women perform the bulk of household work, they often have little time left to pursue economic opportunities. Hence, women’s participation in shaping economic and social policies is very limited. 

Having empowered women in any country means great reduction in dependence rates, reduction in violence against women, increased house- hold income leading to an improved standard of living. Women’s economic participation and empowerment enables them to have control over their lives and exert influence in society.

It leads to independent decision making regarding career, education, health in general and reproductive health in particular, investments and rights. Therefore, it is inevitable that empowering women economically will directly enhance sound public policies leading to any country’s development and equal distribution of resources. 

The approach to empower women economically was first recognized at the Beijing conference, the fourth global conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace in 1995. Ac- cording to the Beijing platform of action, the areas that need improvement if the position of women is to be improved include: reducing poverty among women, stopping violence, providing access to education and healthcare and reducing economic and political inequality.

Twenty years later, the Sustain- able Development Goals (SDGs) were launched, in line with Goal 5 called for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by 2030. The global development agenda suggests that emphasis should be placed on the preconditions necessary for women to become economically empowered and that gender-aware economic policies should be promoted to advance both economic and social development. 

Despite global improvement in the health and education levels of women and girls, no such progress has been seen in economic opportunity as women continue to consistently trail men in formal labor force participation, access to credit, entrepreneurship rates, income levels, and inheritance and ownership rights.

Women can no longer be discounted as the weaker sex, particularly given their impressive success as micro-entrepreneurs around the world and as thoughtful leaders and community-builders. Under-investing in women limits development, slows down poverty reduction and economic growth.

Gender equality in Africa
Gender equality in the African continent witnessed some progress; but African women are held back from fulfilling their potential by many constraints, whether as leaders in public life, in board- rooms, or in owning and growing their businesses. The constraints are not only limited to widespread poverty, but also include social constrains, lack of access to education, poor health and highly segmented labor markets.

 Despite the fact that women of Africa make a sizeable contribution to the continent’s economy by growing most of Africa’s food, they remain at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Some areas of the law, such as family laws governing marriage, divorce, inheritance and land rights, limit women’s economic rights, hindering their economic and social decision-making and restricting their ability to enter into contracts to own, administer, or inherit assets and property. 

By limiting women’s options and alternatives, such laws hinder their ability to contribute as economic and social actors to Africa’s development. Furthermore, gender inequalities are exacerbated by weak institutional structure, particularly among those mandated to promote gender equality such as ministries for women, and by lack of reliable gender statistics. 

In 2015, the African Development Bank (AFDB) launched the “Africa Gender Equality Index”, a comprehensive tool that provides ongoing evidence on gender equality for 52 of Africa’s 54 countries. The index is designed to promote development and inform actions in three important dimensions of gender equality that can bring out change: economic empowerment, human development, and laws and institutions. 

The Gender Equality Index concludes that across Africa, women and men often experience different opportunities conditions and privileges; they earn different wages, do not have the same access to education and are not always equal before the law.

 It also shows that gender inequality in Africa is exacerbated by the fact that primary development policies in many African countries, known as poverty reduction strategies, still do not take into account differences in income and power between men and women, hampering efforts to finance programs that reduce inequality.

This in turns holds back the productive potential of more than one billion Africans and negatively affects the continent’s economy. It also highlights that the most inhibiting factor is that women in Africa continue to be denied an education, often their only ticket out of poverty. Disparities between girls and boys start in primary school and the differences widen up through the entire educational system.

Since the early 1990s, Africa registered the highest relative increase among region in total primary school enrollment due to policies specifically targeting girls – but the continent is still far behind. African education-gender-responsive policies included special programs to sensitize parents through media, reducing school fees for girls in public primary schools in rural areas and increasing the proportion of female teachers to equalize the gender balance among teachers as Africa has the lowest global proportion of female teachers.

Also, many African countries embarked on programs to build latrines, assist pregnant students and distribute free textbooks. On the high school and collage levels, the gender gap becomes even wider especially in science, mathematics, computer sciences and technical programs. On the bright side, the index shows that Africa has registered improvements in adult literacy rates. However, in some countries the female illiteracy rates are still much higher than the regional average of about 50%. 

Widespread poverty also hampers the expansion of education in Africa; poorer families often face the stark choice of deciding whom to send to school and often it is the girl who stays home. Costs of tuition, the requirement to wear uniforms, long distances between home and school, in- adequate water and sanitation, all are factors that further re- strict girls’ access to education. Moreover, poverty in Africa continues to wear a woman’s face as women make up the majority of the poor, as much as 70% in some countries. 

The gender gap in employment remains high in terms of pay, labor segregation and access to support from institutions such as banks. Women dominate informal sector employment and they work 50% longer than men but they rarely own land. When they do, their holdings tend to be smaller and less fertile than those of men.

Removing the hurdles women face in their economic activities, which are mainly concentrated in the informal sector, will help unlock potential for economic growth in the continent. For example, the Gender Equality index shows that if women farmers had the same access to inputs and capacity building as males, overall yields could be raised by between 10 and 20%. 

Poor infrastructure, including clean water, sanitation, electricity and transport, in the majority of African countries also limits women’s economic participation and impacts how women allocate their time. Thus, efforts to provide affordable infrastructure for water, food and energy in Africa will help women engage in more productive market activities and promote growth.

One area where Africa is showing progress in relation to world averages is in women’s political participation. Seventeen African countries established quotas for women’s political participation at the national and sub-national levels. As a result, in women hold close to one-third of the seats in parliaments in 11 African countries, more than in Europe.

Notably, African women have also made significant strides in the continental political body, the African Union (AU), in 2003 five women and five men were elected as AU commissioners. The following year, the AU’s Pan-African Parliament was headed by a woman and ever since; women make up 25% of AU members.

Actions by Africa countries to achieve gender parity 
Despite the presence of national government bodies that deal with gender issues in almost all African countries, these units, departments or ministries showed weakness and inability to be responsive to the challenges presented by the struggle for gender justice in the continent, They also have poor resources, few staff and no power or authority within governments to advance equality and justice for women. 

However, a number of African countries took action to redress the bias in macroeconomic policies that favor men and boys at the expense of women and girls through adopting an approach known as gender budgeting.

This approach drives countries to allocate a percentage of its national budget to implement gender-trans- formative programs; guided by a thorough analysis of governments’ spending choices and their impact on women and men, boys and girls to identify dis- parities. In turn, it helps mobilize more financing to narrow the gaps. 

Some African countries also adopted a women- quota system to increase attention to reform in areas like family law, and affirmative action policies that address economic inclusion, land rights and increasing women presence in decision making positions including in businesses.

Pro-women policies can drive change 
To enable women to escape poverty; African development policies should place more emphasis on women contributions to the economy through labor force participation or entrepreneurship. Policies should also facilitate the process of obtaining basic opportunities for women and actively thwarting attempts to deny those opportunities.

Promoting African women’s ability to influence how decisions are made, how public policies are shaped and how resources are allocated can have a significant impact on boosting their productivity rapidly.
The first step is to build knowledge for evidence- based policymaking that is based on real-time diagnosis and analysis of the current landscape. Next is reforming and enforcing laws.

While all African countries recognize the principle of nondiscrimination in their constitutions, the traditional practices are not in sync especially in areas like marital property, inheritance, land ownership and labor where women are not treated as full citizens.

By custom, often only male heads of households are able to enter into contract, travel and access markets. Many men also exercise sole control over household finances even when the women contribute equally to the household’s earnings.  As a result, women’s participation in society and the economy continues to be mediated by male members of their families. 

Introducing reforms to available laws, including family laws, to increase the minimum marital age for women, remove the husband’s ability to deny the wife permission to work outside the home, requiring the consent of both spouses to manage marital property and guaranteeing women access to reproductive health services including family planning commodities; can lead to increased levels of women’s labor participation and levels of vocational skills that increase women ability to move from self- employment into more sustainable entrepreneur- ship. 

Adopting a pro-women agenda of action
Translating gender-sensitive policies and laws re- quires a progressive pro-women economic agenda of actionable strategies, plans, justice mechanisms, programs and interventions to strengthen African women’s economic empowerment in all sectors.

Such an agenda can also facilitate the elaboration of a clear road map that supports increased country level dialogue on gender equality, contributes to closing the gender pay gap and maximizing women’s economic security. 

Actionable steps to promote gender equality include adopting gender-responsive free trade agreements and agriculture policies that ensure women’s access to local and regional markets, support women’s access to agro processing and post-harvest management, investing in regional centers for excellence and business incubation hubs to foster training and learning processes focusing on women’s financial literacy training for women and entrepreneurs, increasing countries’ focus on providing financial services for women, including loans, savings, guarantee schemes, insurance and grants, and building partnerships with the private, social and voluntary sectors.

Countries should also seek to address constraints on women’s access to quality employment in the formal sector and invest in promoting women’s access to new and labor-saving agricultural technologies to boost production, including innovative technologies aimed at supporting climate-smart agricultural approaches.

Removing hurdles faced by African women can create future business leaders and drive growth 
To end poverty and accelerate development in the continent, women in Africa must be able to develop their full potential as business leaders.  African women are both economically active and highly entrepreneurial. They form the backbone of Africa’s agricultural labor force, and they own and operate the majority of businesses in the informal sector.

However, they are predominantly in low-value-added occupations that generate little economic return and they face an array of barriers that prevent them from moving into more productive pursuits. The challenge in Africa is not one of encouraging women to be more economically active, but rather to remove the barriers to women becoming more efficient business leaders. 

Outside agriculture, African women’s labor force participation rates are high throughout Africa, except in North Africa. However, African labor markets are heavily gender segregated, with women working primarily in low- paying occupations.

African women are far more likely to be self-employed in the informal sector than to earn a regular wage through formal employment where they earn on average two-thirds the salary of their male colleagues.

While notable progress has been made to reduce gender inequality and improve women’s empowerment in the African region, efforts need to be sustained and intensified, particularly at the national level.

African governments that have not yet enacted laws and/or put in place policies, plans, and programs to ensure equal access to education, healthcare, economic opportunities, and leadership for girls and women should do so. But beyond this, there is a need to ensure the enforcement of laws and implementation of policies, plans, and programs if progress is to be achieved.

Therefore, governments must work in partnership with communities and must allocate the necessary financial and human resources and tools for successful implementation, including gender sensitive data collection and reporting tools.

 Notably, African governments can learn from each other about what works and what does not work in the region. In addition, there is an increase in evidence that can assist governments in identifying and designing effective interventions for tackling harmful traditional practices though more research in this area is needed.

Given the current status, there is optimism that African governments are headed in the right direction. This optimism will only be justified if efforts are sustained in countries where the most progress has been made and intensified in countries that are lagging behind.

The SDGs fifth goal focuses on achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls and can be expected to have a larger impact, given the SDGs broad emphasis on inclusivity. #WomenEmpowerment #GenderEquity #GenderEquality #SDG5 #SDGs #HumanityandInclusivity #StandUpforWomen #SupportWomen #AfricanWomen

Kaburu Anthony: Addressing Africa’s Food Insecurity

Kaburu Anthony: Addressing Africa’s Food Insecurity: Sub-Saharan Africa faces specific and complex challenges, the number of hungry people in the continent rose to over 240 million last year...

Addressing Africa’s Food Insecurity

Sub-Saharan Africa faces specific and complex challenges, the number of hungry people in the continent rose to over 240 million last year 2019 and over 40% of children less than five years old are stunted due to malnutrition.

Africa's population is expected to almost double by 2050, bringing it to almost 2 billion people. Based on present trends, the current African food production system would be able to meet only 13% of the continent's needs by 2050.

Challenges

Food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa is caused by more than just inadequate access to agricultural machinery, however. Population growth, weak institutions and rule of law (particularly in relation to land ownership), poor infrastructure, increasingly unpredictable and volatile weather patterns, weak international trade links, limited storage facilities, food loss and waste, pestilence, disease and economic instability have also taken a toll.

While better access to agricultural technologies could ameliorate some of those factors, it will prove insufficient to overcome all of the social, political and economic challenges that also affect regional food security.

Low agricultural productivity is often cited as the main cause of food insecurity across the region; crop yields are 44 per cent lower than the international average. Lifting farm productivity is therefore seen as the main way to improve food security in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Most African countries do not have food self-sufficiency, thus imports are essential to feed their ever-growing populations. It should also be noted that intra-regional trade is very low in Africa, particularly in the agriculture sector, which is often attributed to the complexity of trading and logistics with neighboring countries. Agricultural supply chains can be extremely complex and fragmented, particularly in African countries.

The lack of modern tools is one of the main impediments to increased agricultural productivity in Africa and is one of the reasons that it has been a net importer of food since the 1970s. The scarcity of machinery across the food production system, from field preparation to sowing, harvest, post-harvest storage, processing, transport and retail, makes Sub-Saharan Africa’s food security considerably more vulnerable than that of the rest of the world.

While some African governments have attempted to raise agricultural productivity by increasing access to fertilizers and improved seeds, with variable success, agricultural mechanization has received less attention.

Despite this urgent need, African crop yields have been largely stagnant over the past 50 years. Less than 4% of farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is irrigated. Almost three-quarters of its soils are degraded due to years of planting crops without replacing nutrients; fertilizer use is by far the lowest in the world with most farmers unable to afford it.

Decades of research have led to substantially improved understanding of the nature of food insecurity. A combination of economic growth and targeted programs resulted in a steady fall (until the food crisis of 2007/08) in the percentage of the world’s population suffering from under nutrition (from 20% in 1990/92 to 16% in 2006).

Yet over a billion people still face both chronic and/or transitory food insecurity due to long-standing problems of inadequate income, low-productivity in agricultural production and marketing, and related problems of poor health and absence of clean water.

Assuring adequate food security for such a large share of the world’s population is increasingly challenging due to continuing resource degradation driven by a combination of population pressure and outdated agricultural practices, poorly functioning input markets, rapid urbanization, increased concerns about food safety, and climate change.

Summary

The size of the food and agribusiness sector is growing rapidly in Africa and could grow to a trillion-dollar market by 2030. It is expected that this expanding market opportunity will encourage more of the large local and international players to go into agriculture-related businesses. What is important though is that larger companies develop partnerships with smallholder farmers, as they are the key to unlocking Africa’s agricultural potential.

 In addition to making significant contribution to national socio-economic development, it makes good business sense for big companies to share access to markets, technology, and knowledge to help smallholder farmers turn their subsistence farms into profitable businesses.

Food security occurs when all people, at all times, have access to enough food to meet their dietary needs. To declare countries “food secure” I look at a combination of availability, access and utilization.

Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, Namibia and Senegal are among the top 10 most food-secure countries on the continent. This is attributed to the use of new crops and agricultural production technologies.

But ultimately the ability to achieve food security depends on political will and the effectiveness of government and national strategies in the agricultural and food sector.

Innovation and technology

Though the 2018 rise in food insecurity is disheartening, some African countries have made progress over the last decade. And there were some new recent initiatives that deserve a special mention for the precedents they set, countries recorded improved food production because of modern technologies provided by governments, aid agencies or entrepreneurs. These included:

The adoption of improved seed varieties, Modern equipment, and fertilizers or better practices such as conservation agriculture.

In Ethiopia, for instance, farmers increased wheat yields by 14% as a result of newer agricultural technologies.

In Rwanda, farmers reported increased productivity due to solar-powered irrigation technology.

In Nigeria, increased agricultural productivity was linked to the use of smart and affordable tractors by smallholder farmers.

And in Kenya, the practice of conservation agriculture has taken root, resulting in bigger yields. Equally important are the growing number of innovations in financing. To improve productivity, and achieve food security, farmers must be able to invest in technology.

But, many African farmers live below the poverty line. They can rarely borrow from formal financial institutions as they don’t have collateral. Today, only 6% of total bank credit on the continent goes to agriculture.

Tanzania addressed this challenge by rolling out a toolkit that allows farmers to pre-pay for discounted agricultural inputs using mobile money. Farmers are also provided with customized plans that guide them on how to maximize crop yields.

New policies

Several African countries have strengthened and launched new agricultural policies. These will play a key role in improving food security. For example, policies can lower the cost of agricultural input prices by introducing subsidies. Or they can allocate resources in a way that benefit farmers – like road construction for market access.

The Nigerian government deserves mention for some key initiatives it introduced. For starters recently it launched the National Policy on Food and Nutrition which allocated 92 billion Naira (US $290 million) to the agricultural sector. Policies were also enacted that gave farmers access to agricultural inputs and provided them with modern equipment at subsidized prices. One example is a a fertilizer initiative that delivered over 4 million bags of fertilizers to farmers at affordable prices. This meant more farmers could buy fertilizer, giving them bigger yields.

In terms of areas of policy areas, 2019 turned out to be a good year for irrigation.

So, even though the number of food insecure in Africa has risen this year, discovering effective new technologies and policies that work is important for the future. This year, these gains were in targeted government interventions and the adoption of modern agricultural technologies. This allowed farmers to improve productivity, allowing African countries to make progress in the quest to attain food security

Only 7% of Africa is irrigated. In Nigeria’s case the potential irrigable area is 21 million hectares (about the size of Italy) – with only 200,000 hectares currently irrigated. This year the Nigerian government completed irrigation projects covering over 33,000 hectares of land. Things are set to improve even further following a World Bank announcement that it’s investing US $495 million in irrigation.

Meanwhile in Rwanda the government has made a commitment to intensify irrigation initiatives to help citizens cope with climate change. Over 44,000 ha of land would be developed with formal irrigation infrastructure – that’s about 82,000 football fields.

In Malawi, the government launched a similar initiative which would put over 100,000 hectares of land across the country under irrigation – about 187,000 football fields.

Because irrigation improves food security, these initiatives will continue to play a vital role in moving towards food security.

Analysis

Agriculture is the starting point for wider economic development and poverty reduction, particularly in countries where the vast majority of the population works in the agricultural sector. A focus on improving the technology used by smallholder farmers, who operate on less than two hectares of land and account for 70 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s workforce, will build the foundation for further economic development.

Sub-Saharan Africa has been slow to adopt mechanized agriculture and 60 to 80 percent of the cultivated land is worked manually, without the use of animals or mechanical tools. That was not always the case, however, as Africa was once at the forefront of agricultural mechanization in the developing world. In 1960, for instance, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania each had more tractors in use than India.

The fact that India now has 100 times more tractors in use than those three countries combined gives some indication of just how far Africa has fallen behind. It is also estimated that tractors are only used on ten per cent of the land currently cultivated in Sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 20 per cent in East Asia, 35 per cent in South Asia, 50 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 60 per cent in the Middle East and North Africa. The slow uptake of agricultural machinery in Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the reasons for its slow progress in improving food security.

International development organizations have only recently begun to rekindle their interest in mechanization after a 30-year focus on other challenges. Farm mechanization programmes that operated from the 1960s to the 1980s produced mixed results at best. While in some cases they improved farm productivity, in many others they failed due to a lack of access to spare parts and skilled labour.

Mechanization programmes also have the potential to widen wealth inequality. Large-scale farming operations can afford to purchase and maintain machinery, but smallholder farmers struggle to do likewise. Medium- and large-scale farmers, who have landholdings greater than five hectares, are in the best position to mechanize first. If those farmers offer to rent their machinery to those who are unable to afford their own, then those disparities could be reduced.

Alternatively, smallholder farmers might be able to afford simpler, less expensive machines. Two-wheel tractors, which are cheaper to purchase and easier to maintain, are seen as a more appropriate tool for smallholders. These devices, while simple, are an improvement on the hand tools that are still used by a majority of smallholders.

As mechanization reduces the labour requirements of farm operations, it could also reduce the number of employment opportunities available to unskilled labourers. Most of the 30 mechanization programmes established in Sub-Saharan Africa prior to 1980 failed because of a lack of access to spare parts, operators and service technicians.

Agricultural mechanization could create new service and maintenance employment opportunities, if training centres are provided as part of the mechanization process. Those centres could also provide the transferable skills necessary for the economic diversification into industry that could provide jobs for the large youth population that will soon reach employment age.

There are a number of environmental concerns related to the adoption of agricultural machines. Mechanized agriculture was a factor in the creation of the dust bowls that affected the US in the 1930s. In Africa, soils are susceptible to erosion due to shallow topsoils and heavy rainfall.

Excessive tillage or the improper use of conventional tillage implements (such as disc or mould board ploughs), can over-expose soils to rain and wind erosion. Conventional tillage implements are widely used in Sub-Saharan Africa, but large-scale farms are increasingly adopting conservation agriculture practices and technologies, which aim to minimize soil disturbance.

Smallholders are also being encouraged to practice conservation agriculture. If mechanization is to be successful in the long term, efforts will need to be made to ensure that the most appropriate tools and methods are made available to all African farmers.

Land expansion is another environmental concern that needs to be addressed. Mechanization in the US and Brazil increased farm production by expanding the amount of natural land converted to crop. On the other hand, mechanization could reduce the need to clear new land for agriculture as already existing cropland could be made more productive.

China`s Influence towards securing food security in Africa

Chinese companies are the main suppliers of agricultural machinery in Sub-Saharan Africa and they are more likely to receive state support in exporting their equipment than companies based elsewhere. Indian tractor manufacturers, however, also see the region as a desirable export market and aim to significantly increase their presence there.

The involvement of China in African agricultural development has led to the idea that Beijing aims to exploit the continent for its own self-interest. That notion has some validity, but not in the way that is often articulated.

Claims that China has taken control of large amounts of agricultural land (up to six million hectares, or one per cent of all the farmland in Africa), have contributed to the notion of Africa as China’s “second continent”. Those claims have been vastly overstated, however, and it is more likely that China has only acquired about four per cent of that amount.

 It is questionable how much influence it gains from that trade. China sees African agricultural mechanization as a way to generate business opportunities for Chinese companies and sell Chinese-made products into new markets, rather than as an opportunity to improve Chinese food security through the exploitation of African land.

Officials from the Food and Agriculture Organization also see Chinese technology transfers as beneficial, stating that the introduction of small machines from China has been one of the main drivers of African agricultural development.

 The Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC), which is held every three years, aims to strengthen the Sino-African relationship and has also highlighted agriculture’s centrality to the Sino-Africa relationship. At the most recent FOCAC meeting, President Xi Jinping stated that China would offer billion of dollars to Africa. Those funds would be used to fund a variety of projects but, in terms of agriculture, he promised that:

President Xi Jinping said that china will support Africa in achieving general food security by 2030, work with Africa to formulate and implement a program of action to promote China-Africa cooperation on agricultural modernization.

They will implement 50 agricultural assistance programs, provide RMB 1 billion of emergency humanitarian food assistance to African countries affected by natural disasters, send 500 senior agriculture experts to Africa, and train young researchers in agri-science and entrepreneurs in agri-business.

There was some hostility to that announcement aired on Chinese social media. One critic, quoted in the Financial Times, stated that ‘China is a poor country as well’ before asking, ‘Is there any country that can provide China with $60 billion in aid?’ Criticism was so widespread that an article was printed in the Global Times, a media outlet that is ideologically aligned with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which argued that detractors of the CCP’s Africa policy are being influenced by ‘Western forces’:

The West has been putting the cart before the horse when it comes to its Africa policy. It emphasizes political governance yet overlooks industrialization. Western NGOs are very active in Africa, but what the continent needs most is transportation lines, power plants and manufacturing industries.

China-Africa cooperation has created a new way of cooperating with equality, mutual benefits and fruitful results. It made the West, which always wants to exercise leadership in Africa but always fails in doing so, feel uncomfortable. It is thus natural for some Western forces to use their advantage in shaping public opinion to make up for their disadvantaged position in economic collaboration with Africa.

It goes on to directly rebuke those Chinese citizens that question the CCP’s foreign policy, reinforcing the notion that international engagement is vital to China’s long-term grand strategy: Chinese people should also be aware that major powers must fulfill their obligations. Otherwise they can hardly stay where they are for long, not to mention going forward. It’s a petty mind-set to think that it is immoral to aid foreign countries because there are still poor people in China. It can hardly guide the nation’s grand practice.

China is likely to continue to be the main supplier of agricultural equipment in Sub-Saharan Africa. While it also provides technical assistance to regional farmers, it is unclear whether that will help to ameliorate the social, economic, environmental and political challenges that affect food security in the region. Developed countries, which have experience in overcoming those challenges, should also be engaged in the region’s agricultural development.

Yet the carbon footprint of African smallholder farming is low, and problems of eutrophication and other forms of agricultural pollution are less prevalent than elsewhere. Sustainable intensification is sometimes viewed as a Trojan horse for the implantation of large-scale, industrial agriculture – increasing yields through a dramatic increase in the use of fertilizers and pesticides while paying lip service to the environment and local farming conditions. As such, sustainable intensification polarizes opinion.

But the term needs to be understood in a more balanced way and reinterpreted as relevant to the realities of smallholder agriculture and the need for strengthening food security. Agricultural intensification can take many forms, including current systems, many of which are not sustainable.

With increasing pressure on natural resources and the impact of climate change, intensification must be made more sustainable. It can follow many paths, such as reducing reliance on fertilizers and pesticides; generating lower greenhouse gas emissions, and contributing to the maintenance of critical public goods, such as biodiversity and clean water.

Sustainable intensification is achievable for African smallholder farmers, and builds on many of their traditional practices. It includes: "micro-dosing" by which smallholder farmers use the cap of a drinks bottle to measure out small amounts of fertilizers, boosting yields significantly while keeping costs down for farmers and reducing the risk of fertilizer runoff into waterways; combining mixed field and tree crops, such as nitrogen-fixing varieties; harvesting and managing scarce water for supplementary irrigation; and promoting regeneration of diverse natural species in common lands.

But sustainable intensification requires more than just inputs and technology – it demands greater co-operation and organization in rural areas. For instance, supporting village "grain banks" run by local farmer associations helps smallholders to protect their grain.

Farmers deposit grain and the bank keeps it protected against pests and diseases, so that farmers can access it as needed or sell later in the season when prices are typically higher. This type of network is supported by the Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange, a private-sector firm that provides farmers with prices and other market intelligence by SMS text.

While many parts of the world have experienced large increases in crop yields over the past 50 years, production has not always been intensified sustainably. Intensification is often associated with the ills of modern agriculture seen in the west – over-use of chemicals and fertilizer, pollution of rivers and water bodies, monocrops and biodiversity deserts.

But African agriculture does not need to follow suit. Helping African farmers to increase their production and incomes while safeguarding the environment – in short, sustainable intensification – offers a balanced and practical way forward.

It is time to place sustainable intensification at the heart of African agriculture, and ensure that development goals deliver on the agenda. Sustainable intensification involves producing more crops, better nutrition and higher rural incomes from the same set of inputs – such as land, water, credit and knowledge – while reducing environmental impacts on a sustained basis.

Governments, in partnership with the private sector and NGOs, are all called upon to recognize the huge potential for sustainable intensification as a driver of development – in terms of food security, better nutrition and more resilient rural livelihoods.

Furthermore, Africa is potentially an agricultural powerhouse. The continent has 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land and could grow enough food to meet its own needs and export surpluses. Yet hundreds of millions go hungry. Despite recent progress, Africa’s farmers, most of whom are smallholders who underperform.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development clearly asserts a collective responsibility to fully achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by the year 2030. It also commits to the provision of universal access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.

This will require sustainable food production systems, resilient agricultural practices, equal access to land, technology and markets, and international cooperation on investments in infrastructure and technology to boost agricultural productivity.

In doing so, the global community needs to focus on Africa, where the prevalence of hunger is more acute, high in proportion, and the recovery potential is low due to a lack of resources and related endowments.

Finally, one of the main causes of food insecurity in Africa, in addition to regional/domestic production constraints and resource scarcity, is the lack of cost-effective and timely availability of food products from international markets. Imports are costly due to the high cost of trade.

Higher trade and transaction costs stem from cumbersome regulatory procedures, both at the export and import level, as well as from the uncertainty at destination border points due to a number of non-tariff measures (NTMs) that may require a last-minute application of various standards and, at times, be nearly impossible to comply with by the exporters and importers.

A key lesson learned from examining the experiences of countries is that hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition are complex problems that cannot be resolved by a single stakeholder or sector. Addressing the immediate and underlying causes of hunger will require a variety of actions across a range of sectors, including agricultural production and productivity, rural development, forestry, fisheries, social protection and trade and markets.

We also need to bring together leaders from the private sector, civil society and the political sphere to trigger cooperation that benefits farmers and the general population