Africa squandering its potential, head of UN agency tells UK Parliament

8th December 2016

By: African News Agency

  

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Africa is a world leader in poverty and hunger due to a lack of committed leadership and rampant corruption, said Dr Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in an address to the upper house of the UK Parliament on Wednesday.

Britain is a founding member of IFAD, a specialised agency of the United Nations, and has contributed more than $730-million to IFAD’s investments in smallholder farming and rural development in developing countries.

Nanze told the country’s House of Lords: “Sub-Saharan Africa has 25% of the world’s arable land but generates only 10% of its agricultural output. Why is this? Lack of leadership, lack of national pride and a blind eye to greed and corruption”.

Although rich in minerals, gas and oil, and with abundant sunshine and fertile soil, 23 of the 25 poorest countries in the world are in Africa, and 389-million of its people live in extreme poverty. It is the only region in the world where absolute poverty has increased since 1990.

Last year, the largest share of new IFAD financing went to sub-Saharan Africa. Ongoing investments in Africa have more than doubled – from $1.3-billion in 2009 to $2.7-billion in 2015 – benefiting some 75-million people.

IFAD said in a statement on Thursday that the UK shared IFAD’s objective of combating extreme poverty and hunger in the world’s poorest countries.

Nwanze, who won this year’s inaugural Africa Food Prize for his support of smallholder farming on the continent, told the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development that Africa’s leaders were failing the continent due to their lack of investment in smallholder agriculture.

The IFAD president, a Nigerian national, is well known for his outspokenness in reminding African leaders to stop talking about change and deliver it.

He said investing in agriculture was essential for combating poverty since the majority of the African poor lived in rural areas and earned an income from small family farms. He noted that smallholder farmers were the largest private sector group in African agriculture, with 80% of Africa’s agricultural land farmed in plots of 10 ha or less.

African farmers lose 20% to 40% of their harvest to pests, diseases and spoilage because of lack of infrastructure. These crops could provide minimum food requirements for at least 48-million people.

Nwanze reminded the Lords that Africa spends $35-million on food imports a year.

“If this money was invested in developing smallholder farming and rural infrastructure Africa could feed itself,” he said. “But change does not just happen. It must be made to happen.”

He added that the future of food and agriculture lay in the hands of young people.

It is estimated that in the next 15 years, 330-million young people will enter the labour market in sub-Saharan Africa, mostly in rural areas.

Nwanze stressed that it is not only conflict that caused people to migrate but also hunger, poverty and lack of opportunity. If people were not given the opportunity to earn a decent income and feed their families, they would move to urban areas and beyond, threatening food security and international stability, he said.

He told the house that giving handouts to rural people in developing countries built a culture of dependence. Instead, investments should provide economic opportunities.

“By investing in rural economies, we can create a range of opportunities for Africa’s young people so they are not forced to migrate and can see a future for themselves in rural areas of their own countries,” Nwanze said.

Edited by African News Agency

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