Does development aid help or hinder food sovereignty in Africa?

To learn more, join us at GLF Africa 2024: Greening the African Horizon on 17 September.

Last year, 733 million people faced hunger globally. That’s one in 11 people around the world, including one in five Africans. Meanwhile, nearly 60 percent of Africa’s population is moderately or severely food insecure – and all of these figures are rising sharply.

Clearly, something needs to change. But how?

Africa still struggles to produce enough to feed its population, and the continent has relied on food aid since the 1960s. In 2021, African countries received USD 58.4 billion in development aid – making up a third of global aid.

The U.S. has since pledged an additional USD 2.5 billion in food assistance to help African countries combat rising food prices and increasing hunger across the continent.

But given Africa’s heavy reliance on foreign aid, it’s crucial to examine how this aid impacts the continent’s agricultural practices, seed access and food markets. Specifically, we need to understand how aid influences the ability of African countries to make independent decisions on their food systems.

In other words, does foreign aid actually help Africa feed itself and achieve self-sufficiency, or does it merely reinforce a cycle of dependency?

What is food sovereignty?

To answer these questions, we first have to understand the concept of food sovereignty.

Coined by La Via Campesina in 1996 at the World Food Summit, food sovereignty envisions a transformative future led by producers and democracy. It champions the right to healthy, culturally appropriate food grown sustainably, embracing agroecology as a path to harmony with nature.

Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime, and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determined by local producers and users.

La Via Campesina

This revolutionary concept recognizes food as a fundamental right and public good rather than a mere commodity. In doing so, it actively combats discrimination, supporting women, Indigenous Peoples, youth and LGBTQ+ farmers.

By advocating for the equitable distribution of land, seeds, water and resources, food sovereignty ensures that everyone has a voice, promoting a just and inclusive food future.

Simply put, at the table of food sovereignty, everyone is invited to join and share equitably.

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So, should development aid be used to promote food sovereignty in Africa?

Last year at GLF Nairobi 2023: A New Vision for Earth, we asked three bold thinkers for their thoughts on the issue. Read on to find out what they had to say, and re-watch the full debate to learn more.

Mordecai Ogada: Development aid undermines food sovereignty

The issue of aid to African food and livelihood systems stems from differing principles. Traditional systems in Africa are diverse, complex and sustainable, utilizing various resources like medicinal plants and grazing areas.

However, the aid provided often comes from a savior mentality, promoting monocultures and extractive practices, which are not sustainable. These aid practices prioritize profit and total extraction, neglecting the needs of local systems to bolster and sustain them, especially in the face of climate shocks.

To achieve true food sovereignty, aid should support Indigenous methods and tools rather than imposing extractive techniques that ultimately undermine sustainability and local autonomy. This mismatch of principles is the core challenge that needs to be addressed.

Nancy Rapando: Africa needs development aid

Addressing Africa’s food system, which is primarily driven by resource-poor smallholder farmers, requires understanding key issues and principles.

Climate change, COVID-19 and other hazards have constantly set back efforts to build a resilient food system. During the pandemic, Africa showed resilience by prioritizing food movement and farmer activities, highlighting the importance of cross-boundary food mobility.

To achieve food sovereignty in Africa, we need effective policies that support food mobility and genuinely consider farmers’ voices. While aid is beneficial, it should not dictate the system.

There’s a disconnect between farmers, researchers, policy advisors and aid providers, leading to misguided efforts and funds. It’s crucial to convey the true nature of Africa’s food system to donors, emphasizing respect and dignity for farmers and consumers.

Ultimately, the focus should be on developing a dignified food system that addresses health issues without exacerbating them, ensuring the aid supports sustainable and resilient food practices.

Annie Wakanyi: Aid can be valuable – if done right

Development aid can promote food sovereignty in Africa – if governments ensure proper policies and implementation.

The current levels of poverty and hunger are unacceptable and are exacerbated by environmental shocks and crises like the war in Ukraine. Collective action is crucial, with farmers at the center of solutions.

Aid should empower farmers to improve productivity, increase yields, and build climate and economic resilience. Governments must provide infrastructure support (e.g. roads and storage facilities) and create a conducive policy environment for the private sector and other actors to provide service to farmers. Development partners must ensure aid is environmentally and socially sustainable and impactful.

We need immediate, coordinated action from all stakeholders to address these challenges and promote food sovereignty in Africa.

Four ways aid can help build food sovereignty

By Salina Abraham, debate moderator

The passion that lurks beneath the surface of our discussion is fueled by a history littered with mistakes and failures. Whether ill-intentioned or well-meaning, the end result of development aid has often been seen as negative for everyday people, farmers and those living in poverty.

I see four crucial preconditions to ensure that development aid and investments can help achieve food sovereignty.

Trust and mutual respect as non-negotiables

There is nothing more painful than not being in control of your own destiny, or having your knowledge and experiences dismissed by those who believe they have a better answer. Whether it’s by your own government, a foreign entity, NGO or an extension agent, this lack of trust reverberates across the food chain, limiting our possibilities.

To truly solve problems collaboratively, the pathway forward must be built on a deep abiding respect for the smallholders and communities who manage and live off the land and the supporting organizations around them. 

I’d like donors to not look at the government, but look at us as people. 
When they come from that standpoint, whatever they give, which I think is well-intentioned, will be helpful.

Mordecai Ogada

Embrace all lenses of sovereignty

Even when we think we’re on the same page, our different perspectives shape our priorities and end goals. As Nancy reminded us, food sovereignty can be approached from a lens of sufficiency or eradicating hunger, farmers’ control over systems, or the right of the consumer to healthy food.

Policymakers, donors and implementers will work from very different lenses, and it’s important that we widen our interpretation of food sovereignty to equally support and fund the full spectrum of actions. 

Build movements for bottom-up agenda setting

The story of food sovereignty speaks to steady supply as much as it does to farmers’ rights. To de-center the external lens of export and global markets in the food sovereignty agenda, we must support organized and active smallholder farmer movements.

The foundation of bottom-up agenda setting is a precondition to ‘helpful’ aid. A great example is the Indigenous Seed Fair in Nairobi, Kenya, which uplifts native seeds and foods in a country where legislation restricts farmers from sharing and selling ‘uncertified’ seeds.

The starting point is not how we can support a policy or government. Instead, all actors routinely ask: are we enabling producers with the right resources for them to take action and build their future? 

Leverage transparency as a catalyst

I’ve heard the call for collaboration across sectors too many times over the years. The reality is that there are strong incentives to compete, to fight for external funding, visibility, or survival and innovation of one’s organization.

Without coordination, development aid gives birth to new business models built on inefficiency. These social externalities ultimately mean the farmer is pulled in different directions.

One way to counteract this is to enforce transparency in data, projects and activities. Governments should coordinate actors and agendas, but at the minimum, Annie suggests subnational governments make data public on who’s working where, with whose funding, for what purpose and for how long.

Perhaps this will shift the dynamics to greater accountability?

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On 17 September, we’ll pick up where this conversation left off at GLF Africa 2024: Greening the African Horizon.

Stay tuned for a new debate on whether Africa should pursue large-scale agriculture intensification in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We’ll explore the benefits of agroecology versus conventional agriculture and examine how AI can transform Africa’s landscapes.

In Nairobi, Kenya, or online from wherever you are, join this and many other fascinating discussions on how Africa can navigate the future of its shifting landscapes – and what it can teach the rest of the world.

Tickets are now available – get yours now!

Mordecai Ogada is a carnivore ecologist and conservation policy scholar based in Nanyuki, Kenya. His current work focuses on the challenges of racism and other prejudices in the global conservation arena. He also researches and writes on the ethical challenges of the global climate movement and sustainability, including the protection of natural resource rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Global South.

Nancy Rapando is the Leader for WWF’s Africa Food Futures Initiative and a sustainable agriculture specialist with broad experience in Africa in program management, policy analysis and technical advisory work. She has worked with diverse actors across East, Central and Southern Africa on agriculture value chains, natural resource management, climate change, and food and nutrition security.

Annie Wakanyi is the director, global government partnerships at the One Acre Fund. She is responsible for developing partnerships with public donors to achieve mutual goals of economic resilience and impact at scale for smallholder farmers in Africa. A Kenyan national, Annie is committed to contributing to social justice and development in Africa and believes that sustainable agriculture is the surest path to driving prosperity in the continent.

Salina Abraham is an Eritrean-American strategist and passionate advocate for community-led initiatives in nature and climate. She currently serves as the chief of staff to the CEO at CIFOR-ICRAF. Salina is influential in shaping ambitious programs for sustainable landscapes, serving as Chair of the Steering Committee to the UN FAO Forest and Farm Facility and on the Advisory Council to the World Economic Forum Trillion Trees initiative. She also co-chairs the annual Sustainable Innovation Forum and Agri-Food Systems Summit and is an ambassador for the World Bank Connect4Climate initiative.