The delicate interplay between climate change and food security has become a global concern transcending geographical, sociological, and economic barriers. Nowhere are the implications of this cooperation more visible than in Africa’s various landscapes. A continent that is more susceptible to climate change and its impact.
Africa is endowed with both tremendous agricultural potential and daunting environmental difficulties and is at the forefront of the global conversation about climate change adaptation and food security resilience. The catastrophic consequences of climate change on agricultural systems and the intricate web of socioeconomic issues require a thorough analysis of the dangers posed and the necessary responses.
According to the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises 2022 Mid-Year Update, at least one in every five Africans does not eat before going to bed, and an estimated 140 million Africans endure acute food insecurity. The Horn of Africa is reeling from extremes resulting from climate change. Climate change is emerging as a key impediment to African agricultural development. The more uncertain and variable nature of the continent’s weather systems has added to the pressure on food security and rural livelihoods.
The extensive damage to farms and houses caused by recent record flooding in Burkina Faso and Ethiopia’s lengthy drought underscores the magnitude of the risk faced by Africa’s changing climate. Climate change is anticipated to cost agriculture a large amount of money. The cumulative effect has already had a significant impact on rural development progress.
The risk of climate change on food security
Climate catastrophes that ruin crops and hinder the transportation of food are more likely in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa experiences one-third of the world’s droughts, with Ethiopia and Kenya experiencing one of the most severe conditions in at least four decades. Floods and torrential rains have also devastated countries such as Chad. Poverty and other human costs rise as a result, which is exacerbated by cascading macroeconomic repercussions such as slower economic growth.
Climate change is expected to exacerbate food poverty and undermine hard-won development gains. Increased food insecurity leading to poverty may have an impact on child nutrition and educational attainment, undoing decades of gains in Sub-Saharan African health and education.
Already, the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) on food security will be challenging to achieve during a “new normal” of frequent and recurring droughts, floods, cyclones, rising temperatures, and sea levels. SSA, for example, accounts for one-third of all global droughts.
Eastern Africa (including Ethiopia and Kenya) is going through one of the worst droughts in recent history, while Angola experienced its fifth straight year of drought. The impact of one weather event of this magnitude can increase food insecurity, particularly in these nations where agricultural production is already less than half of the global average. Food insecurity rises by 5 to 20 percentage points in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, and Tanzania with each drought or flood.
In the future, a similar or increased frequency and intensity of severe weather occurrences would further impede food production and distribution, including negative effects on transportation routes as they are transferred from rural farms to cities. This, in turn, worsens food shortages—whether from within a given country or from import-sourcing countries—and fuels food inflation, with serious ramifications for the economy, conflict, and migration.
Crop yields and growing seasons, for instance, will decline, even as changing rain patterns would exacerbate people’s access to water. Despite this, Africa’s population is expected to exceed 2 billion in less than 37 years, and in 86 years, three out of every four individuals born will be African.
Every day, around 240 million Africans suffer from hunger because of food insecurity resulting from climate change. Even a shift of 1.2 to 1.9 degrees Celsius by 2050 will raise the number of malnourished individuals in Africa by 25% to 95% (Central Africa +25%, East Africa +50%, Southern Africa +85%, and West Africa +95%). These numbers are increasing.
The situation will be grave for children who require sufficient nutrition to excel in school. According to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), stunted growth of children due to hunger might cost African countries between 2% and 16% of their GDP because they are the future.
How Africa is responding to food insecurity
Recently, climate change has had a significant impact on Africa’s agriculture and food production systems. Countries in Eastern and Southern Africa are implementing a variety of short, medium, and long-term actions with World Bank assistance to absorb the impact of the food crisis on those with the lowest incomes while putting African food systems on a stronger and more productive path in combating food insecurity caused by climate change.
The World Bank raised emergency response funds in the Sahel and West African regions to assist nations facing food insecurity in responding more quickly. In addition, it collaborated with humanitarian partners to monitor regional food insecurity and develop Food Security Preparedness Plans.
However, Africa’s food security crisis necessitates long-term solutions. Given that many of the core causes and impacts of food insecurity transcend national borders, regional methods for building food system resilience are being implemented in Western and Central African countries.
One such option is the $716 million Food System Resilience Program (FSRP). It intends to assist more than four million people in West Africa by boosting agricultural productivity through climate-smart agriculture, strengthening interregional value chains, and strengthening regional agricultural risk management capability.
As food supply chains in the Sahel and West African regions experience significant stress, there is an increasing requirement for more climate-smart investments to help countries where communities are dealing with the combined consequences of climate change, violence, and enormous environmental degradation.
The African-led Great Green Wall is a large regional program that aims to alter both the region’s economies and ecosystems through climate-smart solutions. It aims to rehabilitate one hundred million hectares of damaged land and create ten million jobs in rural regions by 2030, enhancing people’s ability to react to and adapt to climate challenges.
The World Bank has committed to investing $5.6 billion in eleven participating countries between 2020 and 2025. Over sixty projects are underway in the Great Green Wall that will change livelihoods through environmental restoration, strengthened food systems, and access to climate-resilient infrastructure.
Addressing the impact of climate change on food security in Africa necessitates a diversified approach. Implementing sustainable farming methods, producing climate-resilient crop varieties, investing in water management and infrastructure, and strengthening rural communities’ ability to adapt to climate change are all part of this. Also, international engagement and financial assistance are critical in assisting African governments in strengthening resilience and mitigating the negative effects of climate change.
