African governments have been charged to boost funding for agriculture, address peace and security challenges, and do more to genuinely tackle inequality. The charge was contained in a press release by Oxfam Africa through its Nigeria country office opining that African Union leaders face one of their most important summits (Feb 5-6) in launching a “year of nutrition” amid worsening levels of hunger and malnutrition that are now threatening sustainable development across the entire continent.
It also stated that, tough, urgent choices for African leaders as they launch “Year of Nutrition” to help millions of people facing hunger. According to statistics made available, one in five people (282m) is now under-nourished and 93 million in 36 African countries are suffering extreme levels of hunger.
The statistics contained in a press release by Oxfam Nigeria also contained that women and children are hit hardest considering the fact that in sub-Saharan Africa, one in three children under five is stunted by chronic undernutrition while two out of five women of childbearing age are anemic because of poor diets.
According to the release made available to newsmen in Bauchi recently, the UN estimates that food prices in Sub-Saharan Africa are now 30-40% higher than the rest of the world, taking into account comparative levels of GDP per capita.
It stated that the triple threat of the climate crisis, COVID-19, and conflict will require an extraordinary response from African leaders. Many countries have already taken important steps, increasing investment in healthcare, providing shock responsive social protection systems and empowering local, women-led, peacebuilding initiatives. However, such actions are still too few and far between.
Oxfam’s Pan-African program director Peter Kamalingin stressed that “People are having to skip meals to feed their children, selling livestock and other assets, begging, pulling children out of school, or harvesting immature crops. Over three million people in Somalia have recently migrated, in large part because of hunger, while millions of households in pastoralist communities in Chad, Benin, Niger, Mali and Mauritania say they are having to sell more animals than they otherwise would to pay for more food”. Nigerian Tribune
