G7 food security initiative criticized by African farmers

deleciousfood | June 23, 2024 | African Food | No Comments

Food insecurity seriously affects many people on the African continent. According to the United Nations, in 2022, 281.6 million people on the continent were undernourished. Climate change is a significant part of this, creating significant instability in the growth of staple crops.

The G7 Apuila Food Systems aims to combat food insecurity. It plans to mobilize finance for agricultural adoption and mitigation, using food insurance schemes, debt-for-food swaps, increased investment from development banks and helping countries to include food and agriculture in their national climate plans.

The initiative, supported by the Italian presidency of the G7, will focus particularly on Africa.

However, some key players in Africa’s farming communities have criticized the initiative, saying it fails to take into account farmers themselves. Previous G7 initiatives, they suggest, have failed, and many of the same problems threaten to undermine this one’s goals.

What is the objective of this initiative?

The initiative aims to combat food insecurity in countries where it is prevalent, particularly on the African continent.

It aims to alleviate stunting and childhood wasting due to malnutrition which, according to the United Nations (UN), “prevents children from reaching their physical and cognitive potential”.

Unnatural debt

Part of the G7 plans is to further develop “debt swaps”. Debt-for-nature swaps are already an established form of debt relief.

Debt-for-nature swaps are deals to reduce a country’s debt in exchange for protecting vital ecosystems. Considered for the first time by a New York Times Reported in 1982, they help, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), developing countries free up financial resources so they can focus on climate initiatives and other development projects without fiscal risk.

For example, the world’s largest debt-for-nature swap last year, reported by Reuters, saw bank Credit Suisse help Ecuador pay off $1.6 billion in debt for $644 million. In exchange, Ecuador agreed to invest $18 million per year for 20 years in the conservation of the Galapagos.

It aims to further develop the “financial architecture” to reduce food insecurity by initiating debt swaps and increasing cooperation of G7 development banks and development finance institutions (DFIs) to mitigate transformation risks sustainable agriculture and food systems. It aims to develop a rapid response system to serious food crises, financing which will include private capital.

“The G7 initiative aims to combat climate change and food insecurity in Africa. It aims to raise public and private funding to support a range of programs to promote healthy soils and indigenous crops, create more resilient coffee supply chains, and help countries integrate food and agriculture in national climate plans (thus implementing the UAE COP28 Declaration). Joe Mzinga, regional coordinator of the Eastern and Southern Africa Small Farmers Forum (ESAFF), told FoodNavigator. ESAFF represents 5.5 million smallholder farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa.

COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action

The UAE COP28 Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action recognized the importance of agriculture and food systems in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and outlined several strategies to improve them.

These include scaling up activities and adaptation and resilience responses to protect food workers; supporting food workers; intensify efforts to protect people vulnerable to food insecurity; strengthen water management in food and agriculture; and protect and restore natural ecosystems. The signatories aimed to integrate food and agriculture into national climate plans before COP30.

What are the criticisms of the initiative?

Some African farming communities have criticized the project because it neglects the views of farmers themselves. For example, said Elizabeth Nsimadala of the East African Farmers’ Federation, “mobilizing finance to address the huge agricultural adaptation gap is vitally important, but Puglia cannot stop there. It must remove the barriers that prevent farmer organizations from accessing the affordable, long-term financing they need to adapt.

ESAFF’s Mzinga agrees, suggesting the initiative marginalizes smallholder farmers, who are critical to its success.

Matéi map

Apuila Food Systems will build on an Italian government plan called the Mattei plan, first unveiled in 2023. With initial funding of €5.5 billion, the plan will invest development funds in Africa, focusing on five key pillars: education and training, water. , agriculture, health and energy. The plan will involve civil society, Italian government agencies and the private sector.

It will start with nine pilot projects in Algeria, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique and Tunisia.

“African farmer organizations were not consulted in the development of the plan, even though we will be key to its success: we represent 70% of the food consumed on the continent and are essential to product supply chains such as coffee and cocoa. ” he told FoodNavigator.

“As a result, the challenges faced by African farmers and the solutions they propose are not reflected in the initiative as it stands. For example, there appears to be no plan to ensure that more funding reaches small producers where it would have the greatest impact. It is also unclear whether funding will focus on more diverse and nature-friendly approaches essential to climate adaptation (e.g. agroecology).”

According to Mzinga, past G7 initiatives, such as the Global Alliance for Food Security (GAFS) in 2022 and the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in 2012, have failed for this reason: lack of engagement with the main stakeholders.

“The main issues were the failure to involve key stakeholders – such as smallholder producers (women, youth and poor men) – from the start to ensure the plans met our needs; the failure to promote a transition to more resilient, sustainable and just food systems and the inability to secure finance where it is most needed, including small-scale food producers. Unfortunately, Puglia risks repeating many of the same mistakes.

What is the potential of the initiative?

According to a recent report from consulting firm Climate Focus, only 0.3% of climate finance goes to small family farms, even though they produce more than a third of the world’s food. In other words, they are an integral part of the food system.

The new initiative, according to Mzinga, “could have a huge impact – both on food and nutrition security in Africa and on the global supply chains to which we contribute – but it will only succeed if the G7 listens to our concerns and works with us to ensure that it meets the needs of African farmers.

Cultivated and plant-based meat for food security

The Plenty Foundation, a non-profit organization, believes that plant-based and cultured meat is one of the ways to reduce food insecurity in Africa. Due to its low land and water use, its production requires fewer resources, which is essential in a resource-scarce region of the world.

The organization aims to distribute its plant-based and cultured meat hybrids to alleviate food insecurity in Africa, in partnership with NGOs, governments and the private sector (including its commercial partner Newform Foods). It will target the areas most affected by malnutrition.

“The key will be to ensure that more funding is targeted to family farmers, where they can have the most impact. This will not happen by chance. It is also essential that funding is used to support a transition to diverse, nature-friendly approaches that science shows are essential for adaptation. »

The cocoa and coffee sectors, whose prices have recently increased, are supported by small African farmers.

The plan includes a public-private initiative to increase the resilience of coffee supply chains for smallholder farmers. It’s “essential,” Mzinga told us. He stressed, however, that such plans must extend beyond a single product. For example, it does not deal with cocoa, he stressed.

The initiative focuses on the coffee sector. This needs to go beyond a single product, Mzinga suggested. Image source: Getty Images/Yaroslav Astakhov