Risk and Resilience

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have vast potential for improving agriculture and food security and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ICTs can contribute to agriculture in a variety of ways, from helping farmers get fair prices for their produce to increasing agricultural yields.

While significant progress has been made in reducing hunger and food insecurity in Africa in recent decades, around one in five people in the region continue to face chronic undernourishment. In a new report from the Malabo Montpellier Panel, “Nourished: How Africa Can Build a Future Free from Hunger and Malnutrition” , researchers take a systematic country-level approach to identify where progress has been achieved and how to replicate and scale up successful policies.

Vulnerability to poverty – the risk of falling into poverty in the future – remains a challenge in developing countries for researchers and policymakers alike. While reducing populations’ vulnerability to shocks that could drive them into poverty is clearly an important step in improving well-being, measuring and quantifying vulnerability is complex and is often further complicated by a lack of accurate data.

Africa south of the Sahara is the only developing region in the world where the number of people living below the poverty line continues to rise.  Since agriculture contributes substantially to the economy in this region, spurring agricultural growth is crucial to reducing poverty. But while improved technology has been the driving factor in increased agricultural production growth in other developing areas, in Africa south of the Sahara, growth has been extensive rather than intensive, which will not be sustainable over the long term.

Last week, a panel of global and regional experts joined the Africa south of the Sahara Food Security Portal for a virtual dialogue on ICT use in African agriculture .  The dialogue centered on four main discussion questions: