16 July, 2019 – Pretoria
The past 12 months have been characterized by a worsening of the food security and nutrition situation in southern Africa. The region’s current food and nutrition status is dire, compared to the same time last year. According to the Southern Africa Development Community’s (SADC) Food and Nutrition Security Report for 2019, southern Africa now has 41 million hungry people, compared to 29.4 million people in the 2018 report. The report further notes that not much progress has been registered on nutrition, with stunting levels still very high.
Commenting on the release of the report, the Managing Deputy Regional Director (MDRD) for CARE International (Southern Africa), Matthew Pickard said, “We appreciate SADC for consistently producing sub-regional annual updates on the state of food and nutrition, but we are worried that the situation is getting worse, with increasingly more people being food insecure and malnourished. Climate change continues to affect agriculture investments and production. We are calling on governments, private sector and non-governmental organizations to focus on climate smart agriculture (CSA) by intensifying irrigation, research and technology development.”
Food insecurity has increased by 28% in the southern Africa region largely due to floods, droughts and pests, and further exacerbated by climate change. Most households will exhaust their food in under three months.
“We must applaud SADC for the timeous release of this important report. It is ample proof of the entrenchment and institutionalization of the multi-sectoral processes and routines necessary for its development, both at national and regional levels. The next step should focus on ensuring that this knowledge product becomes an integral part of national and regional policy making, as the region moves to address the worsening food and nutrition insecurity”, said Dr Tshilidzi Madzivhandila, the Chief Executive Officer and Head of Mission of FANRPAN.
Dr Shungu Gwarinda, Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Graça Machel Trust (GMT), notes that “The report provides multisectoral players, including policy makers and practitioners with critical information to urgently deliberate on key interventions required to not only stem the deterioration in the food and nutrition security situation in the region, but also catalyse an urgent response from SADC. The Trust strongly urges governments in the region to use the opportunity presented by the SADC Summit in Tanzania next month to deliberate on the findings and more importantly develop a response to the worsening situation”. A multisectoral and multi-stakeholder approach that encompasses both the public and private sectors is required to address this situation in a sustainable way.
Reflecting on this observation, CARE USA’s Advocacy and Partnerships Coordinator for Southern Africa, Mr. Vitumbiko Chinoko said “Stunting has negative impacts on the development of whole countries as it impacts directly on the youth dividend. It is known that stunting impedes the functional and cognitive development, educational performance, and productivity of the child”. As a solution, Mr. Chinoko recommended that Governments should actively prioritize addressing the nutrition issue by promoting and investing behind nutrition sensitive agriculture, and committing to increase national budget allocation to nutrition specific challenges.
With their focus trained on the future, CARE, FANRPAN and GMT call on a collaboration of governments and development partners towards ensuring that the 2019/20 agriculture investment is diversified enough to adequately respond to the changing climate scenarios, with robust contingency plans against droughts and floods, among other things. There is need to build the adaptive capacity of communities and ensure that the special needs of rural smallholder farming families are addressed.
About CARE
Care International is a confederation of 14 member and 4 affiliate organizations working together to end poverty. In Africa CARE is working in 27 countries implementing poverty fighting development and humanitarian aid projects. In 2016 Care International reached out to 80 million people directly and 256 million indirectly. Care International focus is women and girls because we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities. Website: www.care.org
About FANRPAN
The Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) is a pan-African network that provides independent evidence to inform policy processes at national and regional levels. FANRPAN’s membership includes food, agriculture and natural resources (FANR) related government departments, parliamentarians, research and farmer organizations, private sector, civil society organizations and the media. Website: www.fanrpan.org
About Graça Machel Trust
The Graça Machel Trust is a non-profit organisation that works in Africa to ensure women and children are put at the centre of Africa’s development agenda. Through our building of networks and alliances to champion transformative change, we support local initiatives and connect multisectoral stakeholders at a regional, national and sub-national level to catalyse action that tackles institutional and social barriers to the advancement of women and children in Africa. By using our convening power the Trust amplifies the voices of women and children; promotes children’s holistic development and protection, influences governance; and promote women’s contributions and leadership in the Second Liberation: the economic social and political development of Africa. Website: www.gracamacheltrust.org
For more information contact:
Vitumbiko Chinoko, CARE Southern Africa, Advocacy and Partnerships Coordinator E-mail: vitumbiko.chinoko@care.org Mobile: +265996893692
Francis Hale, FANRPAN, Director – Policy Advocacy and Communications, E-mail: fhale@fanrpan.org Mobile: +27 664 716 624
Rachel Toku-Appiah, GMT, Nutrition Program Manager, E-mail: RachelT@gracamacheltrust.org, Mobile: +27 71 403 4647
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.