Agriculture is Africa's primary gateway out of hunger and poverty; the sector employs 65 - 70 percent of Africa's labor force while supporting the livelihoods of 90 percent of the population. However, for the sector to lead the path to the desired food security and superior incomes for Africa, it is imperative that conversations and investments are made towards transforming the continent's agricultural work into a profitable and sustainable enterprise.

Acute food insecurity continued to rise in 2020, driven by the pandemic shock, ongoing conflicts, and extreme weather. The number of people needing urgent food and livelihood assistance hit a five-year high. The 2021 Global Report on Food Crises (published by the Food Security Information Network for the Global Network Against Food Crises) finds that at least 155 million people experienced acute food insecurity at crisis level or worse — up about 20 million from 2019. Africa is disproportionally affected, with close to 98 million people facing acute food insecurity last year.

In recent years, value chain development (VCD) in the agrifood system has been hailed as a practical way to expand market access for smallholder producers, reduce poverty, enhance environmental sustainability, and improve food security and gender equity. Despite significant investments in VCD from governments, donors, and NGOs, however, evidence regarding the effectiveness of VCD interventions in addressing these important development goals remains lacking.

This webinar will look at the past and present experiences from Mozambique, where the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been implementing voucher interventions over the past 20 years. The event will provide an opportunity to discuss issues as diverse as food security, market development, dissemination of new seed varieties and FAO technological innovation, and will also allow our speakers to reflect on the way forward.

Join us to find out more about what FAO has been learning in Mozambique throughout the years.

Speakers:

COVID-19 has upended local, national, and global food systems, and put the Sustainable Development Goals further out of reach. But lessons and momentum from the world’s response to the pandemic can contribute to food system change. In the 2021 Global Food Policy Report, IFPRI researchers and experts explore the impacts of the pandemic and government policy responses to date, particularly for the poor and disadvantaged, and consider what it all means for transforming our food systems to be healthy, resilient, efficient, sustainable, and inclusive.

In the 2021 Global Food Policy Report, IFPRI researchers and experts explore the impacts of the pandemic and government policy responses to date, particularly for the poor and disadvantaged, and consider what it all means for transforming our food systems to be healthy, resilient, efficient, sustainable, and inclusive.

This webinar will share innovative advances in two projects focusing on early warning, climate change, resilience and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. The two projects, one in East Africa and the other in Southern Africa, are as follows:

Water scarcity remains a key challenge for agricultural development in the MENA region, including Egypt. Scarcity is rapidly growing as a result of climate change and rapid increases in water demand for other uses. Considering that Egypt’s agri-food system provided critical cushioning for economic growth, jobs, and household income negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is paramount that more consideration is given to the important role of water security for Egypt’s food systems.

The aim of the WTO Trade Dialogues on Food is to create a conversation around the role of international trade in food security.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the global economy and put pressure on food supply chains, debate has resurged about the role of trade in protecting food security. Though food supply chains have proved fairly resilient during the outbreak, many countries have faced both severe disruptions in supply and shifts in food demand. A few have responded with protectionist measures—namely export bans on key staple foods—with the intent of protecting domestic consumers, but depriving those abroad. These measures raise the question: Are food systems strongly connected with global value chains more vulnerable to disruptions or more resilient than more localized food systems?