food security

The United Nations (UN) says it is running out of food for millions of starving Somalis in part because the United States is delaying aid amid fears it could be intercepted by militants linked to al-Qaeda.

Starting October, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it cut rations by up to half for some people in the lawless, impoverished east African nation and will run out of supplies in December.

While some regions around the world battle with increasing obesity, much of Africa continues to experience severe food shortages, as millions of African people suffer daily from hunger. The reality of food shortages in Africa is well-known. So well known, in fact, that the average middle-class fast food eating person is generally unable to feel anything but blasé about it. There are many others, however, who do try to help, and countless organisations and programmes working to provide food for the hungry.

The severity of poverty worldwide prompted 189 world leaders in 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit to make a promise about the eradication of poverty by the year 2015. These commitments became to be known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Now with six years to go until the MDGs deadline of 2015 and for South Africa five years (as we have identified 2014 – 20 years into our democracy – as our target), we need to assess whether sufficient progress has been made in reaching the goals. This narrative paints a bleak picture.

Lise Grande, coordinator of (United Nations) UN humanitarian efforts in South Sudan, says a vast under-developed region in a grip of renewed tribal violence, is facing a massive food shortage.

Grande states that, "The southern Sudan is faced with a massive food deficit caused by a combination of late rains, high levels of insecurity and displacement, disruptions of trade and high food prices."

Without a doubt I vote HE Bingu wa Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi, one of the best performing African Presidents. The reason for this is simple: in 2004 when he came into power he made a pledge - “I will not be a president who goes around begging for food”. Unlike other rhetorical commitments we have often been treated to, he has put his words into action.

Rural Development and Land Reform Minister, Gugile Nkwinti, says significant changes are to be made to the willing buyer-willing seller model of land restitution.

Addressing the members of parliament in the National Assembly, Nkwinti pointed out that less costly, alternative methods of land acquisition would be investigated by engaging with all stakeholders in the sector.

The African Monitor (AM) has warned that foreign ownership of land might result in crops being grown for export, rather than to feed hungry locals.

AM’s Warren Nyamugasira says countries such as China, South Korea and Qatar, which have rushed to lease large tracts of land in Africa, want to produce food that can be exported to ensure their own food security, and boost their own earnings.