Overview of Africa: Food and Water

(The following is taken from The United Nations System-wide Special
Initiative on Africa Booklet published on the  Internet at
http://ww.undp.org/undp/ news/unsia02d.htm.  It is edited here to
include only an overview of Africas current situation, leaving out
descriptions of the future work being  planned by the United Nations.)


    Food and water security is necessary (but not sufficient) to address
the nexus of food, environment and population, which together may well
result in the most formidable challenge faced by Africa in the modern
era. Simply put, the continuity of long-term environmental and food
production trends would be a disaster in Africa. . . .  Africa, which
was a net food exporter, has become a net importer since the early
1960s. Per capita food production has declined because the population
has been growing faster at an average rate of 3.0 per cent per annum
than food production, which has been increasing at an average rate of 2
per cent per annum. The causes of slow growth in food production
include political instability and civil wars, low priority to
agriculture in general and food production in particular, which
receives around 10 per cent of governments public spending, the low
status of women who produce the bulk of food, and land degradation,
droughts and desertification. The capacity to import the balance to
meet total food requirements has been  constrained by the external debt
problem.
    Since the 1970s, African economies have performed poorly. Unemployment
has increased drastically. Consequently, a large share of the African
population has become absolutely poor. A combination of food shortages
and poverty (the ability to access food and afford food prices) has led
to serious food insecurity. During the 1980s, average daily caloric
intake was 87 per cent of requirements. Forty per cent of the
population does not have enough food. Hunger and undernutrition are
widespread, particularly among children and women. The number of the
undernourished has nearly doubled from around 100 million to nearly 200
million since the late 1960s. The incidence of food insecurity is more
severe in rural areas where 90 per cent of Africas poor live. . . . 
According to an FAO study, Agriculture: Towards 2010, the prospects for
the continent do not look bright. The number of chronically
undernourished is projected to increase by another 100 million by the
year 2010. The pressure on land, vegetation and water supplies has made
Africa increasingly prone to food security crises. Emergency responses,
though increasingly effective, are costly and cannot be a sufficient
global response. Increased emphasis also must be made on longer-term
solutions to reduce the vulnerability of the poor, particularly women 
(who produce the bulk of the food), to recurrent droughts. To
complement on-going efforts, especially those designed to meet the
long-term food security challenges of the continent and to ensure the
environmentally sound management of water resources, the priority is to
cover the following areas: land degradation and desertification
control; soil quality improvement; and food security with special
emphasis on women.

Land Degradation and Desertification Control
Africa is a continent suffering from degradation of its natural
resources base through overcropping without supply of the appropriate
inputs to the land, overgrazing and deforestation. Tropical forests in
Africa are being lost at a rate of more than 4 million ha., or 0.7 per
cent of the  total forest area, per year (average 1980-1990). About 270
million ha. of African lands (some 11 per cent of the total  land area)
is at least moderately damaged by water or wind  erosion. This damage,
combined with the progressive depletion of much arable land in Africa
through continued cropping with little or no replenishment of plant
nutrients, has resulted in a loss of land productivity and contributed
to widespread poverty and food insecurity.
    Since large areas in all sub-regions of Africa, except the center, have
an arid, semi-arid or dry subhumid climate, desertification is a threat
to food security and sustainable livelihoods. In this respect,
implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification is of
prime importance to Africa. African countries, the OAU and sub-
regional organizations played a key role during the negotiations
leading up to its adoption in June 1994. . . .  African countries have
understood that desertification is both a cause and a consequence of
poverty, and regard the Convention as an important international
instrument to achieve their objectives of sustainable development. 
African governments have requested the support of the donor community
and United Nations agencies in financial, technical and advisory
services. In view of the priority given to Africa in the Convention,
the Secretary-General intends to provide support for its implementation.

(Editors Note: The report goes on to include considerable detail of the
United Nations plan of action in the areas of 1. Assuring Sustainable
Use of and Equitable Access to Fresh Water, 2. Household Water
Security, 3. Freshwater Assessments, and 4. Water for Food Production.)