Kampala, Uganda, is set to host a pivotal conference from January 9 to January 11, focusing on the future of food security in Africa. This gathering is crucial as it addresses the urgent question of whether millions of Africans will face full, half-full, or empty stomachs.
The stakes are particularly high for Kenya, which is striving to eliminate food insecurity affecting approximately 1.7 million citizens. However, the conference has attracted little attention, lacking the usual promotion seen with significant summits.
This event marks the African Union’s (AU) Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) conference for 2025, aimed at discussing and endorsing the draft Ten-Year CAADP Strategy and Action Plan (2026-2035). This new approach seeks to replace the outdated “Malabo Declaration” framework, which pledged to eradicate hunger in Africa by 2025, but instead has seen hunger rates escalate.
Currently, an alarming 282 million people in Africa are undernourished, which is 20 percent of the continent’s population. Projections indicate that by 2030, Africa could be home to over half of the world’s chronically undernourished individuals.
A significant promise from the Malabo Declaration was for African nations to allocate at least 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture and rural development. Unfortunately, only a handful have met this target consistently, with many still falling short.
Numerous challenges contribute to this crisis, including depleted soils, outdated technological practices, substandard seeds, and inadequate infrastructure. These obstacles have resulted in cereal yields reminiscent of Europe’s agricultural output centuries ago.
Despite these challenges, recent initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), launched in 2018, present a glimmer of hope, particularly in boosting intra-African agricultural trade. However, the implementation has faced hurdles, with trade bans between countries complicating the situation.
As leaders gather in Kampala, they have an opportunity to reshape policy and align with the pressing needs of their people. If successful, the next decade could convey a narrative of food abundance rather than scarcity in Africa.
