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Zawya
25-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Africa food systems not on track, time for decisive action
As the world assembles for the UN Food Systems Summit in Addis Ababa this week, we confront a simple but profound invitation not merely to reflect on four years of progress since 2021, but to fundamentally rethink how we finance, produce, and govern agri-food systems. This is because, from the intensive discussions on nutrition in Paris during the Nutrition for Growth Summit in March to the recent International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, and now, the sobering data of the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, the message is unmistakable: we must change and the time for change is now. The SOFI 2025 report offers both warning and nuance. While hunger receded in Southern Asia and Latin America, food insecurity worsened in both rural and urban Africa between 2022 and 2024. The global gender gap in food insecurity narrowed from 2021 to 2023 only to widen again in 2024, leaving women disproportionately exposed to malnutrition. Conflict, climate volatility, and post-Covid inflation have combined to erode hard-won gains, casting a long shadow over our pursuit of SDG 2 – ending hunger. These mixed signals demand clarity: Africa is not on track, and without decisive action, vulnerability will deepen across the continent. In light of these challenges, we must continue making the case for agri-food systems. What does this actually mean? To me, it means calling for courage from donors, multilateral lenders, and investors to rethink risk, unlock catalytic capital, and shift away from short-term projects towards long-term, systemic financing. It means embracing unconventional tools like concessional finance, blended models, pay-for-results frameworks, and payments for ecosystem service (PES), among other novel ideas. It also means financing food systems through cross-sector channels, including health, climate, and social protection because food systems are not a silo, but the very infrastructure of resilience. Most crucially, it means putting farmers and food producers, especially young people, at the centre of the conversation. I am convinced that agri-food systems must become an active driver of our food security and nutrition sufficiency transformation, not a passive recipient of aid. If centred in policy and resourced effectively, it will catalyse economic growth, unlock livelihood improvements, and simultaneously deliver on climate and nutrition goals. It is where climate action meets healthy diets, where dignified employment meets rural renewal, and where innovation meets inclusion for women and youth. In Africa, this synergy is not a distant aspiration, it is an imperative for survival and prosperity. At AGRA, with our two decades experience co-designing African solutions to sustainably raise farmers' productivity and connecting them to a growing marketplace, we continuously embrace what has worked while evolving new ideas. Our work with researchers, donors, African governments, the private sector and civil society has seen small and medium enterprises thrive, digital and nature-based solutions scaled, and tangible results realised through increased smallholder productivity, reduction in post-harvest, and emergence of new market opportunities. For example, AGRA has facilitated 42 policy reforms across 11 focus countries thereby reducing approval times from between eight to 10 years to between three to five years. In Tanzania, 2017 fertiliser regulations centralised oversight, increasing trade by 47 percent and reducing prices by between 10 percent and 40 per cent. AGRA supported 10 National Agricultural Investment Plans (NAIPs) and 10 flagship programmes, mobilising $1.4 billion, including $400 million from governments. In Kenya, the 2019 Seed Act expanded certified seed access for 2.5 million farmers. These policy reforms unlocked $1.5 billion in public budgets. Ethiopia's extension system trained 70,000 agents, serving 15 million farmers, while Nigeria's revived state councils secured $5 million in investments. But too often, these successes cannot be scaled, sustained or replicated across countries not for lack of innovation, but financing. Regrettably, as we seek to accelerate progress, finance is unwinding in the opposite direction. Official development assistance from G7 donors has fallen by nearly 28 percent since 2021, while debt burdens in low- and middle-income countries have surged, constraining fiscal space for essential investments. Globally, it will take $1.2 trillion to $1.4 trillion a year to transform global agri-food systems, just one percent of global GDP. This is a fraction of the $12 trillion we're already losing annually to the hidden costs of poor health, environmental degradation, and inequality. The case for action is clear: responsible investment could unlock $4.5 trillion in new business opportunities each year. These estimates, captured in the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development's 2025 White Paper on Financing Agri-food Systems, a process to which AGRA is proud to have contributed, reminds us that the issue isn't a shortage of capital, but whether we choose to deploy it where it matters most. Ultimately, if stakeholders are serious about transforming Africa's agri-food systems, they must also get serious about financing her people and harness their creativity. The question before us in Addis Ababa is clear: will we seize this moment to mobilise the capital, creativity, and courage required to build the food systems that Africa and the world urgently needs?Alice Ruhweza is President of AGRA, an African-led organisation focused on putting farmers at the centre of our continent's growing economy. © Copyright 2022 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Arabian Post
30-04-2025
- Health
- Arabian Post
Philanthropic Coalition Unveils $500 Million Initiative to Combat Maternal and Newborn Mortality in Africa
A consortium of philanthropic organisations has launched a $500 million fund aimed at reducing maternal and newborn mortality rates across sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative, known as the Beginnings Fund, was announced in Abu Dhabi and is spearheaded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Mohamed Bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity, and other partners. The fund aims to save the lives of 300,000 mothers and infants by 2030 through targeted interventions in ten African countries. The Beginnings Fund seeks to address the alarming statistic that over 800 women and 7,000 newborns die daily from preventable complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. These deaths are predominantly due to infections, postpartum hemorrhage, and respiratory issues, which are often exacerbated by inadequate healthcare infrastructure and limited access to essential medical supplies. The initiative will focus on implementing low-cost, high-impact solutions in hospitals with high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. These solutions include the provision of intravenous iron to treat anemia, the use of antibiotics like azithromycin to prevent infections, and the administration of oxytocin and misoprostol to manage postpartum bleeding. Additionally, the fund will support the deployment of portable ultrasound devices equipped with artificial intelligence to assist healthcare workers in remote areas with prenatal diagnostics. A distinguishing feature of the Beginnings Fund is its emphasis on collaboration with local governments and organisations. By partnering with entities such as the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Delta Philanthropies, and the ELMA Foundation, the initiative aims to ensure that interventions are culturally appropriate and sustainable. The fund's operations will be coordinated from Nairobi, Kenya, facilitating closer engagement with the target regions. See also Washington Accord Signals New Phase in Congo-Rwanda Peace Efforts This substantial investment comes at a time when international aid for maternal and child health has seen significant reductions. The World Health Organization has warned that such cuts could reverse decades of progress in reducing maternal and infant mortality rates. The Beginnings Fund represents a concerted effort by private philanthropies to fill the void left by dwindling public funding and to reinvigorate global commitments to maternal and newborn health. Complementing this initiative, the Gates Foundation has also pledged $200 million to improve access to medical supplies and contraception in low- and middle-income countries. This funding will be divided equally between Unitaid and the United Nations Population Fund , supporting efforts to expand healthcare access and reproductive health services. At the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris, philanthropists including the Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Jackie and Miguel Bezos committed over $2 billion to combat global child malnutrition. These pledges underscore a growing recognition among private donors of the critical need to invest in maternal and child health, especially in regions where public funding is insufficient. Despite previous gains in reducing maternal and newborn mortality, progress has stalled in recent years. The Gates Foundation reports that maternal mortality rates have remained static globally since 2016, with two-thirds of these deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Addressing underlying vulnerabilities, such as malnutrition and lack of access to quality healthcare, is essential to reversing this trend.
