Addressing nutrition in the post-Malabo Agenda
Currently, 2.4 billion people worldwide struggle to access adequate and affordable nutrition, many of whom are in Africa. African leaders are seeking to redress this situation, most notably as part of the third iteration of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP3), which will define the continent’s agrifood system transformation over the next decade. Among the priorities in CAADP3, tackling nutrition and food insecurity remains key.
How can Africa capitalise on this current political momentum to ensure that nutrition remains central to the continent’s agrifood systems transformation? This was a key question discussed in a recent webinar organised by the Zero Hunger Coalition, with the SUN Movement, GAIN, SDG2 Advocacy Hub, and the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate.
Dr Lawrence Haddad from GAIN opened the discussion by noting that malnutrition and under-nutrition are gradually decreasing around the world. However, the pace of improvement is much slower in Africa. This underscores the importance of nutrition-sensitive food systems in the CAADP3. As he noted, integrating nutrition into agriculture policies is essential if the continent is to close the gap in improving dietary outcomes.
The Chair of the Zero Hunger Coalition, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki indicated that nutrition has been on the CAADP agenda since 2014. While the Maputo Declaration in 2003 focused on agricultural productivity, the 2014 Malabo Declaration integrated food and nutrition security into national strategies. Policymakers are increasingly recognising the critical importance of nutrition in shaping national development outcomes.
Allocating budget for nutrition
Finance is a key challenge in advancing the continent’s nutrition agenda. As Dr Mayaki noted, the budget is the ‘skeleton’ of a strategy. Without a budget, strategies cannot be implemented, and no progress is possible. He stressed that the Malabo Declaration called on African governments to allocate 10% of their national budgets to agriculture, but progress has been slow—few countries have met this target, and even fewer have set aside dedicated funding for nutrition. For example, while the Malabo Declaration called on governments to allocate 10% of their national budgets to agriculture, progress in achieving this target has been slow with few countries meeting this goal and even fewer dedicating funding to nutrition.
For this reason, national parliamentarians are key. However, as Neema Lugangira, a member of the Parliament from Tanzania, noted, parliamentarians tend to focus on food productivitiy and neglect nutrition and healthy diets. She called for equipping parliamentarians with data and evidence to help them understand the importance of investing in nutrition. “Decision-makers need to see that investing it actually makes business sense to invest in nutrition,” she stated.
Echoing the importance of involving parliamentarians, Tendai Gunda from the SUN Movement highlighted the need for a multifaceted approach to nutrition. “To deliver effectively on nutrition, we need to make sure nutrition is well embedded across the different systems, incorporated into our national development plans.” She also noted that Africa is privileged that its leaders are committed to ending all forms of malnutriiton. However, this commitment must be translated into financing and action.
Bringing in the private investment
Public funds alone are insufficient to bridge the financial gaps for nutrition. According to George Ouma from the African Development Bank, innovative financial models, such as blended finance, could attract private capital. Blended finance, which uses public funds to leverage private capital, could potentially bring in additional investment. He mentioned that every US dollar invested in nutrition can potentially return USD 23.
A key challenge for the agrifood sector remains its perceived risk. For this reason, Mr Ouma called for the use of grants and concessional loans to de-risk the sector and make it more attractive to private investors.
Solutions to empower women
Gender inequality remains a significant barrier to achieving nutrition goals. While they comprise 40% of the agricultural labour force, women have limited access to the necessary resources. For this reason, Kyoko Shibata Okamura from the World Bank called for gender-sensitive nutrition solutions.
“Women have limited ability to access information, land and capital ownership, and agricultural inputs to build their resilience to climate impacts. We need deliberate women-centered, climate investments based on locally-built adaptation measures,” she noted.
Currently, climate finance has reached USD 1.3 trillion globally. However, only 4.3% of these funds target agriculture, of which nutrition is a small part. Agrifood systems must be included in the negotiation for climate finance with solutions that benefit women and children.
How Zambia is (re-) building its resilience
Zambia is currently facing its worse drought in 40 years. This has led to a significant food crisis as well as an energy crisis that is likely to cost the country USD 1 billion and derail previously made gains. To address these crises, the government is pulling resources from other sectors and may privilege crop productivity at the expense of nutrition.
To safeguard the progress made in nutrition, Mathews Mhuru from the National Food and Nutrition Commission in Zambia called for strong leadership and the implementation of coordination mechanisms to ensure that the focus on nutrition-sensitive food systems remains. As Mr Mhuru explained, "We have done quite a number of things to align our policies with nutrition such as including nutrition in our food production and worked with other ministries such as the green economy.”
Moving forward: a call to action
As Africa looks to the future, the consensus is clear: there is a need to accelerate progress on nutrition and food security. As Dr Namukolo Covic from CGIAR noted, this requires a holistic, well-financed approach that integrates nutrition into national development strategies, engages parliamentarians, leverages investment from the private sector and empowers women.
"We know what needs to be done—now we must focus on how to do it, and how to influence the necessary changes," concluded Dr Mayaki.
