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Copyright: Anna-Marie Ball/IFPRI
African policy to end hunger silent on climate risk
by Baraka Rateng’
Speed read
- The Africa Union’s Malabo Declaration aims to end hunger by 2025
- A new report says it does not pay attention the risks of climate change
- Experts call for African nations to invest in climate risks knowledge creation
The African Union’s Malabo Declaration adopted in 2014 to double agricultural productivity and end hunger by 2025 underestimated the risk that climate change will pose, a report says.
The declaration failed to consider investing in Africa’s scientific capacity to combat climate threats, according to the report, which was produced by the UK-based Agriculture for Impact, and launched in Rwanda this month (14 June).
“Food security and agricultural development policies in Africa will fail if they are not climate-smart”, says Gordon Conway, director of Agriculture for Impact and chair of the Montpellier Panel, which is made up of African and European experts in fields such as agriculture and global development, in a statement.
“It is important that African governments have a voice in the international discussions and commitments on climate change.”
Ousmane Badiane, International Food Policy Research Institute
Ousmane Badiane, director of Africa at the US-headquartered International Food Policy Research Institute, and a Montpellier Panel member, tells SciDev.Net that: African smallholder farmers are among the most vulnerable groups to the effects of climate change globally, and they are already feeling the effects.
He explains that the Malabo Declaration commits to 30 per cent of farm, pastoral and fisher households being resilient to climate change by 2025, and scaling-up those climate-smart agriculture practices that have been shown to work will help this to become a reality.
Read the full article: SciDevNet
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