Food security conference ends in Nairobi

Deutsche Welle, 5 April 2012

More than 45 food experts from east, central and southern Africa have met in Nairobi. Their verdict: Africa is making progress toward ensuring the right to food for all its citizens, but more can be done.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, told DW on the phone from Nairobi that the two-day meeting had been a good opportunity to exchange ideas on best practices in the field of food security in Africa.

Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur
 on the Right to Food, convened the
 conference

"The main outcome of this conference is a register of commitments, agreed to by lawmakers, human rights organisations and NGOs, which will act as a roadmap for action in the next few months," he said.

The Nairobi meeting came at a time when a number of African nations are adopting constitutional provisions as well as national framework laws to strengthen the protection of the right to adequate food for their citizens.

The right to food as a basic human right was first acknowledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 64 years ago.

Most recently the right to food was included in the Kenyan constitution in 2010. South Africa led the way back in 1996 by including the right to food in its post-apartheid constitution.

Women and children at risk

The most dire situation in central Africa at the moment remains the crisis in Chad, where 16 percent of children are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to the World Food Programme. The reason for the food shortage is a long-lasting drought.

Even in South Africa, a leader in the field of food security on the continent, problems persist. Cameron Jacobs of the country's Human Rights Commission, says that a high proportion of South Africa's population of 49 million are still at risk.

Across Africa, children are often
 the worst hit by food shortages

"Fourteen million people are what we consider food insecure," he told DW. "Out of that 14 million, six million are children."

In Zambia, there is also particular concern about the access of children to food. Doris Musonda, of the Zambian-based African Network on the Right to Food, says that her government needs to focus more on targeting the right groups.

"If women have access to food, the chances are very high that even if children are not targeted directly, they will benefit."

Multiple reasons for one problem

Ensuring adequate access to food sources will have little effect if local food supplies aren't strong enough to support the population. Michael Ojiambo of the Kenya Freedom from Hunger Council told conference participants that African countries which experience drought should make more efforts to use water efficiently to stabilise food production.

Food security has a lot to do with
planting the right crops

Tactics could include adopting water harvesting methods and better irrigation, instead of waiting for unpredictable rainy seasons. "We know that the rains don't last long," Ojiambo told DW. "If we harvested the water, when the rains stop we would be able to use this water to irrigate the plants so that they can mature."

Ojiambo also believes that indigenous foods, such as sorghum and cassava, which are rarely planted these days in Kenya, could offer a more sustainable source of food than imported crops.

"We need to develop good varieties of crops, adaptable to areas. We have stopped eating our indigenous food. This is killing this country."

Author: Andre Leslie (with James Shimanyula in Nairobi)

Editor: Susan Houlton / rm