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Initiative
to End Hunger in Africa
The Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA) is a multi-year
effort designed to help fulfill the Millennium Development
Goal of reducing the number of hungry people in Africa in
half by 2015. The initiative focuses on promoting agricultural
growth and building an African-led partnership to cut hunger
and poverty by investing in a smallholder-oriented agricultural
growth strategy.
USAID’s commitment to implementing the IEHA rests on
the recognition that while hunger in Africa is one of the
most significant development challenges facing the world today,
clear political and technical options exist to reduce it. The initiative
also recognizes that success requires sustained investments
in agriculture-based strategies, programs, and policies, in
conjunction with improvements in health, education, infrastructure,
environment, and public policy management.
The Hunger Challenge
The problem of hunger in Africa is widespread and getting
worse. It is estimated that one in three people on the continent
are currently undernourished and that a third of all the world’s
undernourished people reside in sub-Saharan Africa. Widespread
poverty compounds Africa’s hunger problem. Low per capita
agricultural income is directly linked to high rates of poverty
and hunger in Africa, forming a vicious, recurring cycle that
leads to a low-growth trap. In short, poverty limits people’s
ability to purchase food, while malnutrition and poor health
limit their ability to earn income, leading to still deeper
poverty.
An Agricultural Action Plan
Given these constraints, the primary objective of the IEHA
is to increase agricultural growth
and rural incomes in sub-Saharan Africa rapidly and sustainably . To grow out of poverty,
smallholder farmers and agricultural firms need to generate
profits and income from their products and services. Elements
of the IEHA action plan to tackle the problem of hunger in
Africa include:
- Create momentum on a multi-country
level to induce and encourage agricultural growth;
- Support the efforts of countries and leaders committed
to agricultural growth as a critical development pathway;
- Identify and target options and opportunities to accelerate
smallholder-based agricultural growth, leading to more efficient
and profitable use of resources;
- Forge effective linkages with other sectors and initiatives--including
education, health, macroeconomic reform and infrastructure
improvement--to achieve common economic and social development
objectives; and
- Build alliances and a broad-based political and financial
commitment among public and private development partners—both
in Africa and internationally—to cut hunger in half
by 2015.
Partners
The initiative calls for an extensive partnership
that includes African leaders, African governments, regional
organizations, multilateral development institutions, the
private sector, universities, and other non-governmental organizations
to work and invest in support of a smallholder-oriented, agricultural
growth strategy.
A Framework to Guide USAID Agricultural Growth Investments
in Africa
Evidence from Africa and throughout the world demonstrates
that few regions can emerge from poverty without sustainable
agricultural growth. Innovations that increase agricultural
productivity and more competitive markets are essential ingredients
of smallholder agricultural growth. Both offer numerous
opportunities for high-impact USAID investments. Country and
regional action plans for IEHA are structured around six themes
for maximum impact:
- Scientific and technological applications that harness
the power of new technology (e.g., information technology
and biotechnology) in order to raise the productivity of
food and export products and increase the stability and
volume of supplies.
- Agricultural trade and market systems that add value to
products and processes, deliver high-quality safe products,
reduce costs for consumers, and create a climate and infrastructure
that attract private and foreign investment to African agricultural
businesses.
- Community and producer-based organizations that contribute
to agricultural growth by providing a wide variety of business,
training, and leadership development services and by giving
a political voice to the economic interests of farmers who
are normally too poor and too scattered to be heard.
- Development of human capital and institutions that shape
and lead agricultural policy and research, as well as provide
agricultural education. Infrastructure development in transportation,
energy, water/sanitation, and telecommunications is also
increasingly urgent.
- Integration of vulnerable groups and countries in transition
into sustainable development processes that: (1) help the
chronically poor and hungry in rural Africa find viable
paths out of poverty by accumulating assets; (2) reduce
the vulnerability of poor people to weather-, market-, and
conflict-induced shocks; and (3) enhance the capacity of
countries to manage shocks that have regional and national
impacts.
- Environmental management that contributes to agricultural
and rural sector growth through conservation and production
of environmental goods and services that generate public
and private economic benefits.
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