Risk and Resilience

This piece originally appeared on IFPRI.org .

The COVID-19 pandemic has crippled a number of African agricultural exports, while dependency on food imports and lower purchasing power across much of the continent threaten to push millions more into food insecurity and poverty. A Sept. 17 IFPRI policy seminar , organized with the support of USAID, explored the interaction of the pandemic’s macroeconomic and microeconomic effects, and how Africa must grapple with global and regional markets in order to recover economically.

By Obayelu Abiodun Elijah and Obayelu Oluwakemi Adeola

By Kalle Hirvonen, Gashaw Tadesse Abate, and Alan de Brauw

Join the Food Security Portal (FSP), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) in the launch of the global foresight tool Impacts of Alternative Investment Scenarios. The tool was recently developed by IFPRI’s IMPACT model team and the FSP. The Global Foresight tool provides researchers and policymakers with a flexible way to explore the impact of various agricultural investment scenarios on agricultural production, productivity, and hunger for the period 2010-2050.

This post first appeared on the D+C Development and Cooperation site and IFPRI.org.

The deadlines to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris climate goals draw ever closer. The ambitious imperative of the SDGs is to “leave no one behind.” The implication is that we must urgently revitalize rural areas, especially in Africa south of the Sahara. Now is the time for a dramatic, system-wide transformation to make rural areas more productive, more sustainable, more climate-resilient, healthier and more attractive places to live.