Southern Africa should prepare itself for recurring drought, likely to strike at least twice every decade, says a new report. The report, 'Anticipating and Responding to Drought and Emergencies in Southern Africa', was prepared for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and noted that the region could experience a recurrence of the devastating drought of 2002/03, which resulted in a food deficit of 3.3 million mt. While the general regional situation shows some hopeful signs, the report noted the concerns of some policy experts that many households have become more vulnerable to shocks.
Poverty and health
Southern Africa must prepare for recurring drought, report says
Southern Africa: Food Insecurity - 2015-2016
ReliefWeb, June 2016
Indications of significant food supply shortages are likely to impact on the next marketing season. The rains experienced in late March and early April provided some relief to livestock farmers, but arrived too late for both staple foods and cash crops. These adverse weather conditions are likely to reduce crop production in southern Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar and South Africa. The negative impact of flooding will also affect food security in Malawi, Madagascar and Mozambique. Nearly 29 million people are currently food insecure in southern Africa region mainly due to the carry-over effects of the past poor harvest season combined with other structural factors. Unless a two-track approach is quickly taken to address the current food insecurity and to establish measures to mitigate against the El Niño effects, the existing food insecurity will deepen and increase in scope with its effects will last till 2017. In July, Southern African Development Community (SADC) launched the Regional Appeal seeking US$2.7 billion.
Southern African households burdened by an increasing number of AIDS orphans
By 2010 more than one in five children in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe will be orphaned by AIDS, a joint UN and US report warned. "Children on the Brink 2004" is the fourth edition of this biennial report, based on surveys conducted by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UNAIDS and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Alarmingly, the studies found that 20 percent of households with children in Southern Africa were taking care of one or more AIDS orphans.
* Children on the Brink report
http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_22212.html
Speculating with lives: How global investors make money out of hunger
Knaup H, Schiessl M and Seith A: De Spiegel, 1 September 2011
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Food Price Index, overall food costs rose by 39% in 2011, while grain prices went up by 71%. The authors of this article point to investor speculation in commodity futures as the main culprit for price increases, as the more the price of food commodities increases, the more money pours into the sector and the higher prices rise. Although the volume of index fund speculation increased by 2,300% between 2003 and 2008 alone, the FAO estimates that today only 2% of commodity futures contracts result in the delivery of real goods. The problem is particularly glaring in Ethiopia, the authors note, where 5.7 million Ethiopians are dependent on international food aid, while the government sells or leases large tracts of fertile land to foreign investors. They, in turn, export most of the food they produce to other countries. Since 2007, the Ethiopian government is reported to have approved 815 foreign-funded agricultural projects. Given the threat posed by climate change, the authors call for a radical departure from agricultural mass production, as well as an end to large-scale monocultures and the massive use of pesticides. They argue that this type of agriculture contaminates water and dries up the soil, and that the export-oriented agricultural industry destroys markets in developing countries. What is needed is a re-orientation toward a system of agriculture driven by small farmers who grow their crops at the local level, using both sustainable and environmentally compatible methods. However, governments and economists continue to push for large-scale agriculture as the solution to poverty and hunger, even though it is actually a contributing factor to the problem, the authors argue.
Squeezing Africa dry: Behind every land grab is a water grab
GRAIN: 11 June 2012
The tensions over huge land purchases and leases by foreign companies and governments in south western Ethiopia illustrate the central importance of access to water in the global land rush, according to this article. Hidden behind the current scramble for land is a world-wide struggle for control over water. Those who have been buying up vast stretches of farmland in recent years understand that the access to water they gain, often included for free and without restriction, may well be worth more over the long-term, than the land deals themselves. In recent years, Saudi Arabian companies have been acquiring millions of hectares of lands in developing countries to produce food to ship back home, as their country lacks water needed for agricultural production. Indian companies are doing the same, as their country’s aquifers have become depleted by decades of unsustainable irrigation. All of the land deals in Africa involve large-scale, industrial agriculture operations that will consume massive amounts of water. These water resources are lifelines for local farmers, pastoralists and other rural communities. These mega-irrigation schemes will not only put the livelihoods of millions of rural communities at risk, they will threaten the freshwater sources of entire regions, says GRAIN.
Structural adjustment programmes adversely affect vulnerable populations: a systematic-narrative review of their effect on child and maternal health
Thomson M; Kentikelenis A; Stubbs T: Public Health Reviews 38(13), doi: 10.1186/s40985-017-0059-2, 2017
Structural adjustment programmes of international financial institutions have typically set the fiscal parameters within which health policies operate in developing countries. Yet, a systematic understanding of the ways in which these programmes impact upon child and maternal health is currently lacking. This article systematically reviews observational and quasi-experimental articles published from 2000 onward in online databases and grey literature from websites of IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank. Studies were considered eligible if they empirically assessed the aggregate effect of structural adjustment programmes on child or maternal health in developing countries. Of 1961 items yielded through database searches, reference lists and organisations’ websites, 13 met the inclusion criteria. The authors found that structural adjustment programmes had a detrimental impact on child and maternal health. In particular, these programmes undermined access to quality and affordable healthcare and adversely impacted upon social determinants of health, such as income and food availability. According to the authors, the evidence suggests that a fundamental rethink is required by international financial institutions if low income countries are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on child and maternal health.
Students investigate intersection of poverty, climate change
United Nations Foundation: November 2009
In 2009, students from more than 90 countries tackled the intersection of poverty and climate change. For the past two years, the Global Debates have focused on several climate change issues - water rights, carbon emissions, action plans, obligation of developed nations and more. However, these issues relate also to the impact that global warming has on international development and our ability to end extreme poverty. These facts are a part of the growing evidence that students will bring to Global Debate activities this year, through writing blogs on the UN’s response to climate change and poverty, and collaborating with elected leaders on the importance of a comprehensive climate treaty in Copenhagen.
Study attributes AIDS to food insecurity in Mozambique
Mozambique's Food and Nutritional Security Technical Secretariat (SETSAN) says the country could face severe food insecurity as a result of HIV/AIDS. In a report released on Monday in the capital Maputo, at a symposium on the relation between hunger and absolute poverty, SETSAN warned that the agricultural sector might lose 20 percent of its workforce to AIDS-related illnesses by 2010.
Subsidies won't keep poverty levels down in Mozambique
IRIN News: 29 September 2010
In response to food price riots in early September, the Mozambican government has laid on a range of price cuts and subsidies to make life easier for the poor, and has promised to do some belt tightening of its own. On 21 September 2010, two weeks after the first riots, it was reported that registered bakers would receive a subsidy for wheat flour and other relief measures included halving water connection fees for low-consumption households, considerably reducing the cost of piped water to the poor, and giving free electricity to low-consumption households consuming 100 kwh or less. Food prices for some basic items were also reduced and customs duties lowered on vegetable imports from South Africa. Analysts argue that a better long-term strategy to fight poverty and the rising cost of living would be for Mozambique to grow its own food, instead of relying on imports from South Africa. An increase in agricultural output would shelter the country’s food supply from volatile international markets.
Successful sodium regulation in South Africa
Hofman K: WHO Afro, 2013
Hypertension is neither unique nor novel to South Africa (SA), but the legislative actions undertaken by the South African government reflect a new approach to addressing this growing burden. Research has shown that a significant portion of hypertension is linked to sodium consumption, and a major proportion of sodium consumption in SA comes from bread--part of the staple diet. Aware of the burden of hypertension and the high levels of sodium in processed foods, Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi and the National Department of Health (NDOH) spearheaded legislative action to regulate sodium in food products at the manufacturing level. Based on the mixed results of voluntary regulation in other countries, the NDOH decided to initiate mandatory regulation to effectively curb sodium consumption. Answers to a questionnaire distributed to food industry members showed that about half of the groups who answered preferred to have regulated rather than voluntary sodium, because they believed this could even the playing field. The government devoted a significant amount of time and effort to understanding the industry's concerns, many of which were considered in negotiations. Years of South African research and inter-sectoral interactions between government, academia, and industry culminated in successfully signed regulations. Even with this first successful step, the hypertension problem is far from solved. This report concludes with a discussion on plausible recommendations that calls for international collaboration across the African continent, in order to further address the growing prevalence of hypertension.