Food Systems

Food systems around the world face growing challenges. They must be transformed to sustainably feed a growing global population and made more resilient to shocks from extreme weather to conflict. Efforts on those fronts are increasingly interlinked—and depend on well-targeted local interventions.

Despite Uganda’s rapidly growing economy, as many as 34.6 million people continue to face food insecurity. More than 72 percent of the country’s population cannot afford a healthy diet, and both undernourishment and overweight/obesity among adults pose a growing challenge. To successfully confront these challenges and encourage the sustainable transformation of Uganda’s agrifood system, stronger policies and enhanced collaboration are needed, according to a recent brief from FAO.

Creating opportunities to more effectively link farmers in Africa south of the Sahara with local, regional, and global markets has become a key development focus in recent years. However, questions remain about the impacts that increased agricultural commercialization may have on household food consumption and food and nutrition security. A recent article in Food Security examines such impacts in Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe and finds both positive and negative trade-offs to increased market integration.

The Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) has consistently served as a pivotal platform for shaping agricultural policies and practices across the continent. By convening a wide array of stakeholders, the AFSF fosters discussions that promote inclusive and sustainable food systems and address key issues such as gender equality and nutrition. This year’s AFSF Summit, held September 2-6 in Kigali, Rwanda, revolved around the theme “Innovate, Accelerate, and Scale: Delivering Food Systems Transformation in a Digital and Climate Era.”

Africa’s population is the youngest of any region, with more than 400 million young people aged 15 to 35 out of a total of 1.5 billion. But even though rising numbers of this cohort—a “youth bulge”—enter the labor market every year, African economies are still struggling to create opportunities for them, leading to high rates of youth unemployment across the continent. One-third of young people are unemployed, another third are vulnerably employed, and only one in six have wage employment.