Food Security

According to a new technical report from IFPRI’s Malawi Strategy Support Program (MSSP), despite the fact that Malawi has exceeded the 10 percent agricultural investment goal set forth by the CAADP, the country’s agricultural productivity has remained stagnant in recent years and food insecurity and undernutrition remain rampant.

Over the past decade, both the scale of and the access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) - including mobile phones, audio-visual communication, digital technologies, and internet services - have grown considerably in Africa south of the Sahara. The potential benefits of ICTs for the region’s agricultural sector, and its poor farming households, are especially important, as Africa south of the Sahara has the lowest rates of agricultural productivity and the highest rates of undernutrition in the world.

Latest GIEWS External Food Assistance Report

According to the March 2017 edition of the GIEWS report on external food assistance needs , 28 countries in Africa are in need of food aid. The underlying factors driving the need for assistance vary and include lack of food availability, widespread lack of food access, and severe localized problems impacting food security. The GIEWS report is updated four times per year.

Efforts to increase rural incomes and reduce rural poverty in developing countries often focus on policies to lower transport costs and increase market access among poor and remote rural populations. Despite the growing importance of such policies, however, it is not entirely clear to what extent and through which channels increased market access impacts rural individuals’ and households’ nutrition outcomes and overall wellbeing. A recent paper published in World Development seeks to answer these questions in the context of rural Ethiopia.

FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) has recently released several new country briefs for the Africa South of the Sahara Food Security Portal’s prioritized countries. The country brief series provides information regarding countries’ current agricultural season and harvest prospects for main staple food crops, as well as estimates and forecasts of cereal production, cereal imports, and food prices and policy developments. This latest round of updates includes new information for Senegal , South Sudan , Nigeria , and Zambia .