A General Picture: Food & Water in Africa

 

Hello and welcome to my blog!

Here I will be exploring and unravelling two of the most universally fundamental elements of development: Water and Food. Over the last couple of years, I have developed a keen interest in human ecology as I seek to understand how our social systems not only interact with our ecosystem, but also how these interactions are so environmentally destructive. Over the upcoming weeks, I will be blogging in detail about the increasing impact water insecurity is having on food supplies in Africa from a human ecological perspective.

The African picture

In her book “Governing the Commons”, Eleanor Ostrom recognises water as a required natural global resource that goes beyond national jurisdictions, as water is the basis for all life on Earth. Even though it is a basic need, it is unsustainably exploited and unequally distributed across societies. Africa is often referred to as the “mother continent” because of its vast terrestrial space rich in physical and social landscapes, but it is astonishing to see how disproportionately affected by food and water shortages it is. 

According to the WHO - UNICEF (2017), Africa has the lowest proportions of national populations with access to safe water, which ultimately results in having the lowest per capita rates of food production (Funk and Brown 2009). However, it is important to note that these insecurities have not gone unnoticed and throughout the years, there have been multiple interventions to address this issue. A notable intervention was the 2014 Malabo Declaration on "Accelerated Agricultural growth and Transformation for Shared prosperity and Improved livelihoods", where the African Union declared its will to end hunger in Africa by 2025. This declaration was significant as it was the first attempt of unifying African nations to reveal and tackle a shared issue of hunger, ultimately paving the way for international communities to get involved and shape development agendas and goals.  

 

Figure 1: United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

 In 2015, the UN introduced 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that all countries should follow and aim to complete by 2030. When evaluating these sustainable development goals, it is evident that water security is vital. Its intimate relationship with food production means that SDG's one, two, three, five, six and eleven are all goals that require water and food security in order to be achieved.   

The bigger picture

Although over the last decade there has been massive support for Africa both regionally and internationally to tackle these issues, abolishment of hunger in Africa still seems ever so far away. Having read Binyavanga Wainaina's hard-hitting article about "How to Write About Africa", it really made me reflect on the way Western scholars represent and write about this vastly diverse continent. The western saviour complex serves as an ideological function to undermine the damage the west has done to keep the African continent underdeveloped and exploited. Therefore, throughout my blogs I aim to break these Western conceptualizations of Africa being a continent waiting to be saved. Hence, why I will be acknowledging the works of numerous African scholars, who have a greater knowledge and positionality when tackling regional issues of water and food insecurity.

Ultimately, relieving hunger in Africa may appear simple, however maximising and maintaining sustainable agricultural productivity is a very complex process, as many differing factors have to be considered. Therefore, in the forthcoming weeks I will be exploring and analysing issues such as urbanisation, environmental change, irrigation, population growth and virtual water, as they can all help to alleviate water and food insecurities.