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Man in millet fieldInitiative 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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