Climate Change and Its Impact on Food Security A Major Theme of U.S.-Africa Summit

Thursday marked the close of the first-ever U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, held in Washington D.C.  More than 40 heads of state from African nations met with President Obama, members of Congress, senior officials and executives of several major corporations to discuss African development, food security, trade and business at the “Investing in the Next Generation” themed Summit.  While the administration has been criticized for giving Africa-U.S. relations a low priority in the past, the three-day summit was meant to strengthen ties between growing economies in Africa and the United States.  Major topics of discussion during closed-door sessions included electrification, agriculture, climate change and food security in Africa.     

A common theme at the summit was the crucial importance of climate change resilience to global food security.  It is estimated that global population will reach 9 billion by 2050, with more than half of this growth occurring in Africa. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke about the threat that climate change poses to food security and development in the face of a growing population, stating that “the growing impacts of climate change are going to put extraordinary stress on our ability to be able to produce the amount of food that we need to feed.”  Despite significant strides in lowering global poverty rates as part of the UN Development Goals, 850 million people still go to bed hungry, and 1.1 billion people –  more than the total population of North and South America, live on $1.25 or less a day. At the Summit, a bevy of agriculture and food initiatives and partnerships were announced, all within USAID’s goal of bringing 50 million people out of poverty within Sub-Saharan Africa in the next 10 years.  The agricultural initiatives and goals announced at the summit include:

• The United States will sign the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, a multinational working group of governments, non-governmental organizations, producers, and the private sector to sustainably increase agricultural productivity while buffering the agricultural sector from climate change impacts while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The Alliance will be formally announced at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit in September.
• The creation of the Global Resilience Partnership, a $100 million joint USAID and Rockefeller Foundation program that will address climate change and resiliency.
• The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (a USAID Feed the Future initiative) released its annual report, which includes information on more than $8 billion in private investments to agriculture in Africa.
• The Feed the Future initiative announced plans to train 1,300 scientists, farmers and nutrition specialists in Africa in order to increase climate resiliency, food security and nutrition.  
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative announced new partners and $1 billion in export credits that are aimed at increasing trade between Africa and the United States.  GODAN is an open database of agriculture and nutritional data to support sustainable development policies. 

The goals and partnerships announced at the Summit echo agreements brokered earlier this summer at meetings of the African Union.  As part of the Malabo Declaration, signed in July, member states have committed to spending 10 percent of their budgets on agricultural development, working towards increasing agricultural productivity, and lowering post-harvest loss – a significant cause of food insecurity in many African nations.  National Security Advisor Susan Rice commented that food security is a precursor to economic development, stating, “Our focus on agricultural development stems from the African Union’s commitment to make food security a continent-wide priority.  It’s not enough to react to crises—the latest drought or famine.  We must break the cycle of hunger and poverty.” Making economic development, education, and food security global priorities will increase global security.  As Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution famously stated, “You can’t build a peaceful world on an empty stomach.”

For more information see:

Fact Sheet: US African Cooperation on Food Security, the White House

US-Africa Leaders Summit, the White House

USAID Announcements at the Africa Leaders Summit for August 4, Feed the Future

Remarks by National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice "Africa and America: Partners in a Shared Future", Feed the Future

Ending Extreme Poverty with a New Model of Development, USAID