Causes of food insecurity in Southern Africa : an assessment

[摘要] Regional food security is considered one of the major challenges for the Southern AfricanDevelopment Community (SADC) countries. SADC is one of the regions in the world currentlyfacing widespread transitory and chronic food insecurity (malnutrition), as well as persistent threatsof acute food insecurity (famine). The objective of this thesis, therefore, was to investigate andassess the prevailing causes of food insecurity in Southern Africa.The research revealed that transitory and chronic food insecurity (malnutrition) in the SADC regionexists due to the problems experienced with both the supply and demand sides of the food securityequation. However, though SADC has made limited attempts to tackle the problem of foodinsecurity in the region, the Community did not appear to learn from the 1991/92 food insecuritycrisis when it recurred in 2001/02. This study consequently recommends that further investigationstake place into the primary data available in an attempt to address various issues relating to thecauses of food insecurity in Southern Africa in order to ensure long-term food security. Such issuesinclude the following: mobilising agriculture to increase food production rapidly enough to meet theneeds of the growing population of the region; bridging the prevailing gap between the publicactors, on the one side, and the private and informal actors, on the other, in order to deliver effectivefood security services to the needy in the region; the designing of well-targeted food pricingpolicies as an interim compromise between the social concerns relating to high and volatile foodprices and long-term economic growth and food security in the region; and the identification of therole of women as food producers and agents of food security in the region.On the supply side, the main food availability problems in the region lie on the agricultural level.Low productivity and frequent disasters have been of a cyclic nature in SADC, leading to additionaldifficulties with supplies. Such difficulties have been compounded by the inadequate politicalsupport of the sector; a lack of investment therein; the instability of the world market; and anincreasingly unfair trade environment. Other major dimensions of the problem include: theimposition of trade barriers, such as tariff, non-tariff and technical barriers, particularly the complexand confusing tariff structure imposed by the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) countriesagainst other non-SACU SADC countries; the high cost of transport, especially in landlockedcountries, which has come about as a result of the weakening of the capacity and efficiency of the transport system in the region, due to a lack of investment in, as well as the poor performance of,the transport sector. A lack of a diversified production structure in the SADC region was cited asthe main obstacle to the successful trade integration and economic development of the region.Looking at the demand side, the main food access problems in the region consisted of a lack of foodentitlement (poverty) due to the weak economic growth resulting from unsuccessful macroeconomicpolicies; a poor balance of payments situation; highly skewed patterns of income andwealth distribution, resulting from maladministration due to short-sighted past colonial policies;high levels of unemployment and land tenure insecurity; the failure of governance, both as regards alack of accountability and opposition to democratisation; and financial mismanagement. Rapidpopulation growth in the region resulted in an escalation in the demand for agricultural products, inparticular foodstuffs, and the reduced availability of arable land. The widespread preponderance ofHuman Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) infectionwas complicating the task of fighting hunger and undermining any attempts to strengthen thelivelihoods of the poor by depleting the adult agricultural labour potential in Southern Africa. Alack of financial resources and institutional capacity (in the form of policy gaps) were the mainconstraints to the implementation of successful poverty and food insecurity alleviation programmesin the region, as comprehensive government intervention aimed at maintaining food security in theregion for most Southern Africans was unfeasible in the near future.The research was conducted using the qualitative method of literature study, which proved a usefuldescriptive and analytical framework for revealing significant causes of food insecurity prevailingboth in individual, households and at national levels in the SADC region. The study focused mainlyon the availability, and the ability to acquire, food, in an attempt to see how balance could beachieved between the supply and demand sides of the food security equation by means of relevantinvestigations. Documentary data were consulted in investigating the problem, in the light of thefact that publications, such as books, academic journals and documents, illustrate the problem mostclearly.In the planning of policy interventions, food insecurity in Southern Africa appears open toimprovement in the long term only if the actual income of households is increased, so that they canafford to obtain enough food. Such improvement can take place in two ways: Firstly, by giving thepeople who face transitory and chronic food insecurity the opportunity to earn enough to ensure that they can maintain an adequate food supply through domestic production, by improving agriculturalyield, and hence ensuring food security, at household level, and secondly, by means of thefacilitation of trade (in the form of food imports), by eliminating tariff, non-tariff and technicalbarriers, and investing in the development of the transport infrastructure in the SADC region.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University