Devex Dish: As donor aid declines, Africa seeks strategies to feed itself

More than 6,000 delegates are gathered in Dakar, Senegal, this week for the Africa Food Systems Forum, the continent’s biggest agriculture conference.

The timing could not be more pressing: Heads of state have joined global development experts and private sector leaders to figure out how to rewrite strategies for feeding the continent at a time when global aid is in retreat. Devex contributor David Njagi is on the ground in Dakar and brings us his impressions.

The numbers tell a complicated story. Africa’s agriculture output has been growing at a pace of 4.3% annually since 2000 — a faster rate than any other region of the world, according to the latest report from the gathering’s host organization, AGRA, formerly known as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. But alongside this progress is rising hunger and malnutrition — some 282 million Africans are undernourished and 1 in 3 children suffers from stunting — along with an annual food import bill of more than $50 billion and counting.

The report illustrates a growing recognition that a food-secure future for the continent depends on a comprehensive approach that connects food production with nutrition, environment, trade, finance, and governance.

But agriculture is not just about food — it’s also about hope, said Paulin Basinga, the director for Africa at the Gates Foundation, adding that the sector creates jobs, promotes equity, builds resilience to global shocks, while safeguarding the planet’s biodiversity.

“It is a story of possibilities. Our farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs and especially our young people in Africa are truly rewriting the future of food. Over the past 25 years we have seen higher yields, smarter trade, and stronger policies for resilient, inclusive and climate-smart food systems,” Basinga added.

A major objective of this year’s AFS Forum is developing action plans for transforming food systems in line with the Kampala Declaration and Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, a 10-year plan that aims to eliminate hunger and alleviate poverty by boosting economic growth for the continent’s largely farming-based economies. Its commitments include increasing agrifood outputs by 45%, reducing post-harvest losses, and mobilizing $100 billion in public and private investment by 2035.

A step toward that lofty financing goal was made this week as the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office announced a £5 million ($6.7 million) partnership with AGRA — along with the African Union and New Partnership for Africa’s Development — to deliver on the Kampala Declaration by improving agriculture trade growth and food corridors across the continent. In addition, speakers called for more private-sector investment: Alvaro Lario, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, urged multilateral development banks to redesign financing strategies to incentivize micro enterprises and bring them into national investment programs. And Claver Gatete, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, called on leaders to tap innovative finance such as green, resilience, and diaspora bonds.

A key message from African leaders has been self-sufficiency, particularly as Western donors pull back on development aid. Africa has “all it needs” to feed itself and could help “feed the whole world,” Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said Monday. ‘‘With 65% of the world’s arable land, a creative youth, and immense resources, our continent has the assets to build its food sovereignty.’’ Youths comprise some 2,000 of the attendees at this year’s event.

“We need to move from talking to doing. The youth must also step up and match their demands with real action,” said Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Stay tuned for more reporting from David from the conference.

Background: African countries adopt new 10-year agriculture strategy

Related: Alice Ruhweza’s vision for AGRA and African agriculture

See also: The number of hungry people worldwide is falling, says UN report

And don’t miss: Aid cuts spark a rethink of African agriculture rooted in agroecology 

Hey Dish readers! Will you be at the Africa Climate Summit next week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia? Devex reporter Ayenat Mersie would love to meet you. Get in touch at ayenat.mersie@devex.com.   

Season of change

A decade of Akinwumi Adesina at the helm of the African Development Bank came to an end this week. Known for his megawatt smile and signature bow tie, Adesina was the first person with an agriculture background to lead a regional development bank — and true to his roots, he centered strengthening food systems and agribusinesses in the bank’s plans and policies.

The son of a farmer from Nigeria’s Oyo State, Adesina worked at The Rockefeller Foundation and AGRA before serving as Nigeria’s agriculture minister from 2010 to 2015. He spearheaded reforms that increased access to improved seeds and fertilizer, boosted food production, and improved farmers’ access to credit — first in his home country and then continentwide, writes my colleague Ayenat Mersie in a profile of Adesina’s tenure. In 2017, he was named the World Food Prize laureate.

At AfDB, Adesina often argued that a continent with so much arable land should not rely on food imports. He championed the bank’s Feed Africa initiative, which aimed to boost productivity, build infrastructure, and support agribusinesses. In 2024 alone, the bank supported more than 25,000 agribusinesses and reached 1.5 million farmers with climate-resilient technologies.

Feed Africa did not achieve its ambitious goal of making Africa a net exporter of food by 2025. On the contrary, the continent’s food import bill is still rising. And some critics warned that the initiative’s focus on industrial farming risked displacing smallholder farmers and increasing their dependence on expensive seed and fertilizers made by multinational companies.

Adesina has not spoken publicly about his next steps. “All I just know is that whatever it is that I do, Africa will be front and center,” he told me last year in Des Moines, Iowa, at the World Food Prize Foundation’s Borlaug Dialogue conference. He has handed the reins of AfDB to Sidi Ould Tah, a Mauritanian economist and former president of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.

Read: The bow tie bows out — Adesina’s 10 years at AfDB

See also: New AfDB president inherits a bigger bank — and tougher challenges

Number munching

That’s the size of a deal Ethiopia struck with Nigeria’s Dangote Group to build one of the world’s largest fertilizer plants, which is set to produce 3 million metric tons of fertilizer, according to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali.

Dangote Group will own 60% of the venture, while the state-owned Ethiopian Investment Holdings will have a 40% stake. It’s part of an effort to make Ethiopia a global fertilizer producer. “The project will create jobs locally, ensure a reliable fertilizer supply for our farmers who have long faced challenges, and mark a decisive step in our path to food sovereignty,” Ahmed wrote on the social media platform X. It’s also part of Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote’s vision to end the continent’s fertilizer imports. Currently, 90% of sub-Saharan Africa’s fertilizer is imported.

The deal comes as the World Food Programme has warned of a hunger and malnutrition crisis in Ethiopia amid conflict, regional instability, displacement, drought, and economic shocks. Some 10 million face hunger in the country, according to WFP, with 4.4 million pregnant and breastfeeding women in need of treatment for malnutrition. Some of the worst-hit regions are Somali, Oromia, Tigray, and Afar, where child wasting has surpassed the emergency threshold of 15%.

From the archives: African leaders pledge to triple fertilizer use to improve soil quality

Related opinion: Balanced fertilizer use is essential to agriculture in Africa  

Trimming the fat

At the U.N. General Assembly later this month, leaders are expected to adopt a political declaration on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, which are major drivers of death and disease globally. That declaration includes a call to remove trans fatty acids from food to reduce unhealthy diets around the globe. Trans fats are responsible for over 278,000 deaths each year around the world, according to the World Health Organization.

In an opinion piece for Devex, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joins ministers from Austria, Norway, Oman, and Singapore in calling for governments to join the movement to commit their countries to a future free from trans fat.

“A world safer from human-made trans fat is within reach,” they write. “As Austria, Norway, Oman, and Singapore have demonstrated, it is possible to achieve great change when strong commitment is paired with decisive evidence-based action.”

Opinion: Now is the moment to eliminate a human-made health challenge: Trans fat

See also: NCDs political declaration risks watered down ambition

Chew on this

Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan will run out of their supply of specialized lifesaving food for severely malnourished children in the next three months due to shortages caused by aid cuts, according to Save the Children. [Reuters]

“Overwhelmingly overqualified” former USAID staff struggle to find work as the State Department concludes its final round of layoffs. [Devex]

Iran-backed Houthis raided offices of WFP, UNICEF, and WHO in Yemen’s capital on Sunday and detained 11 employees. [Associated Press via Politico]

Scientists have developed a honeybee “superfood” that could protect the insects against climate change and habitat loss. [BBC]

David Njagi contributed to this edition of Devex Dish.