In 2003 the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was established by the assembly of the African Union (AU) aiming to raise agricultural productivity by at least 6% per year and increasing public investment in agriculture to 10% of national budgets per year. This paper evaluates progress in CAADP negotiations in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region. There is in general full support in the region for an effectively multidimensional regional CAADP, anchored in ongoing programmes implemented by COMESA. But so far, there has not been enough consultation with relevant non-state stakeholders, like farmers’ organisations, and the authors urge government to include them in the process, as well as to address past failures to communicate effectively and timeously with regional stakeholders about CAADP. They also call for greater integration between regional and national stakeholders and development partners to help mainstream CAADP into ongoing regional programmes and other sectors relevant to food security. More regular dialogue is needed between COMESA, AUC-NPCA and DPs around the implementation of regional CAADP plans. The authors argue that it is very important to ensure coherence between regional policies and investments in food security and in other sectors of regional cooperation.
Poverty and health
While all stakeholders acknowledge the importance of regional food security, most agree that introducing the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) at the regional level has not been a priority for East African Community (EAC) countries in the past. Institutional capacity and financial resources are argued to have placed limits on the role of the EAC Secretariat in driving the CAADP process. Most external funders have concentrated on national efforts at food security, overlooking the role of regional support and integration. The EAC Secretariat’s relations with development partners is perceived as good, but this has not yet translated into visible improvement in regional agriculture, largely, the authors argue, because implementation remains a challenge. Slow progress in regional trade, infrastructure and other related regional initiatives have impacted negatively on regional food security and agricultural development, and national interests tend to take precedence over regional ones. The authors also call for greater consultation with all stakeholders if CAADP is to succeed.
Countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have never formally launched a regional Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) process as they are currently developing their own Regional Agricultural Policy (RAP). The authors argue that SADC governments should mainstream CAADP principles into the RAP by, for example, enlarging the range of stakeholders regularly involved in the regional preparations (especially non-state actors like farmers), as well as including accountability mechanisms governing regional food security, and ensuring policy coherence at national and regional levels. So far the major criticism of the RAP process is lack of multi-stakeholder consultation. In addition, SADC development partners are reported as not having adequately supported regional food security measures. The authors argue for more institutional support for the SADC Secretariat, given its key role in the CAADP process.
The East African Community (EAC) has made substantial progress on its regional integration agenda. Within a short period of time, it has been able to attain a common market status and is currently working towards establishing a monetary union by 2012, according to this article. Given that the region is prone to food shortages and drought, promoting regional integration and cooperation around agriculture has the potential to help the EAC address its and food security challenges. The author argues that NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Plan (CAADP) should be used as a regional integration and food security tool. The EAC Secretariat is working towards developing a regional CAADP compact in 2012, adopting a bottom-up approach, building on the existing national compacts and addressing challenges shared among partner states. Most stakeholders within the region agree that a regional CAADP process is the appropriate framework to stimulate improved coordination of regional agricultural initiatives addressing food security. Stakeholders have called for stronger commitment and action from the regional level that allows farmers, especially smallholders, to move beyond subsistence.
The authors of this paper present the argument that development occurs only if people make provision for the future. If they see no future, there is no growth. Using development indicators as their data for their research, they examine a basic determinant affecting decision horizons: the risk of premature death. The paper suggests that the causal relationship between mortality and poverty is bi-directional:
- on the one hand, in a poor country, unable to afford sanitation and medical care, people die young;
- on the other hand, where people have a short time horizon because they expect to die young, they have less reason to save and the economy fails to grow.
In 1972, disaster struck the coal mining town of Hwange killing 427 workers following an underground explosion at the No.2 Colliery, also known as Kamandama Mine, part of Hwange Colliery. Forty-seven years later, the author reports that the widows of the victims of the Kamandama mine disaster live in neglect and abject poverty. Following the death of their husbands, they were forced out of colliery houses to pave way for new workers and their families. Many who had no relatives in town moved to rural areas. In a commemoration to remember the women’s struggles, convened by Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) and Greater Hwange Residents Trust, with the support from Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, the surviving widows said that they are only remembered once per year, in June, when the mining town commemorate the Kamandama mine disaster. The widows called on the government and Hwange Colliery Company to compensate them and ensure they get improved access to health care. The CNRG called on the government of Zimbabwe, as the majority shareholder in Hwange Colliery Company Limited, to compensate the widows and ensure decent housing in the villages for them.
Slum-dwellers who make up a third of the world's urban population often live no better, if not worse, than rural people, a United Nations report says. Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN Habitat agency, urged governments and donors to take more seriously the problems of at least a billion people. The report provides an overview of different countries across the world, and highlights the relevance of this growing problem; for example, with respect to the health of these communities.
Two developments have led to this report. The first is the growing international awareness that many MDGs will not be reached unless malnutrition is tackled, and that this continued failure of the development community to tackle malnutrition may derail other international efforts in health and in poverty reduction. The second development is the now unequivocal evidence that there are workable solutions to the malnutrition problem and that they are excellent economic investments. The May 2004 Copenhagen Consensus of eminent economists (including several Nobel laureates) concluded that the returns of investing in micronutrient programs are second only to the returns of fighting HIV/AIDS among a lengthy list of ways to meet the world’s development challenges.
Scientists at Bulawayo's National University of Science and Technology (NUST) have embarked on research to develop simple and affordable water purification methods, as more than a billion people live without safe drinking water in developing countries. They are currently investigating if a powder made from the seeds of a tree, Moringa oleifera, commonly known as the drumstick or horseradish tree, can be used as a filter to purify water. So far, the treatment of water with Moringa seed powder has proven to be an effective method of reducing water-borne diseases and correct pH. Test results also showed that household bleach is a very strong disinfectant and raised the levels of free and total chlorine in the water, while the simple filtration columns resulted in almost 85% reduction in total suspended solids. Further research is needed, however.
Endowed with 80 million hectares of arable land (of which only 10% is used), diverse climatic conditions, and abundant water resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the potential to become the breadbasket of the entire African continent, according to this paper. Instead, the country is one of the most affected by malnutrition. The DRC has the highest number of undernourished persons in Africa and the highest prevalence of malnutrition in the world. As a result, child stunting and infant mortality rates in the DRC are also among the highest in the world. Overall, at least 50% of the population is deficient in vitamin B12, calories, riboflavin, iron, vitamin E, folate, and zinc. In rural areas, strategies to improve nutrition will need to use instruments that attack malnutrition directly rather than relying simply on rising incomes. Overall, the results highlight the paradox of the DRC - a country with huge potential for agricultural development but incapable of feeding itself in terms of both quantity and quality of nutrients.