OPINIONBy José Graziano DA Silva
In the two decades before 2015, West Africa made notable strides in reducing hunger, reducing the number of hungry people by more than 60 per cent, well ahead of its Millennium Development Goal pledge.
Yet today in Nigeria–one of the region’s star performers in that period–we now see severe hunger increasingly quickly and widely in north-eastern regions where civil conflict is uprooting people and preventing farmers from growing crops.
There is a growing risk that the impressive gains made recently will be reversed. We cannot let so much effort turn out to have been in vain.
I am visiting the Lake Chad Basin at this particular moment to raise awareness of just how urgently we must strengthen our response to the challenges there. So far, the inadequate attention and inadequate responses have only made those challenges bigger.
The Lake Chad Basin crisis (encompassing parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger) is currently one of the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with 11 million people in need of assistance. Among them, 6.9 million people are severely food insecure, as well as 2.5 million displaced, which is second largest displacement crisis in the world.
It is important to keep in mind that this crisis, while catalysed by conflict, is multidimensional and encompasses the security, humanitarian, climate change and economic issues that local populations in the Sahel region have long been facing.
The first priority is to support the affected countries in consolidating peace processes and, at the same time, responding to the humanitarian emergency.
Damage to agriculture–ranging from farmers’ access to their fields to vital infrastructure such as irrigation schemes, storage facilities and extension services–has been extensive in the affected areas of Nigeria, northern Cameroon, southeastern Niger and western Chad. Many of these people have already sold their belongings, including seeds, tools and animals, to survive.
Immediate livelihood support can ensure that critical hunger needs are met in the short-term. But this is only the initial step to reverse the current trend toward the depletion of livelihoods and consequent human suffering in affected areas.
The vicious cycle of destitution must be broken, and to this end we must ensure vulnerable populations have an opportunity to reap a substantial harvest and replenish their food stocks this year. Failure to restore food production now will lead to the worsening of widespread and severe hunger, and prolonged dependency on external assistance further into the future.
The time to act is now. Farmers need seeds in addition to food. One month ago the humanitarian community met in Oslo [Norway] to pledge funds for the Lake Chad Basin. The planting season there starts in less than one month.
Agriculture cannot be an afterthought. More than 80 per cent of people rely on farming, fishing and herding for their livelihoods.
The impressive gains of the past were achieved thanks to years of step-by-step agricultural development initiatives. We must ensure these are not wiped out by the current crisis.
We need to protect the assets and livelihood systems of farmers and pastoralists not only for today, but for tomorrow and the years to come. And this calls for longer-term resilience building.
A holistic approach is needed to address both the current main drivers of hunger, which include limited food production, high food prices and displacements, as well as the structural causes of vulnerability in the area, including demographic growth and competition over scarce natural resources.
The lack of access to basic social services – health, water, education – and to social protection, will inevitably jeopardise the lives of millions in a region that is highly vulnerable to shocks. Climate change in particular poses a menacing risk to an area exposed to droughts and floods.
FAO is enacting a three-year response strategy (2017 – 2019) to mitigate the impact of the crisis and bolster the resilience and food security of Lake Chad Basin communities affected by conflict.
The resilience of rural livelihoods is key to making sustainable development a reality by ensuring that agriculture and food systems are productive and risk sensitive.
United Nations agencies are also joining efforts to maximise the impact of their interventions.
The crisis is complex, and so is the road to sustainable development. To effectively address economic, social and environmental impacts coherently, we must have a regional, integrated and comprehensive approach in which national actors are on the front line.
Dr Da Silva is director general, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).