As crises multiply and the devastating standoff in Ukraine drags on, their global effects are strongly felt in the Sahel and West Africa, a region where more than 38 million people face acute food insecurity. The effects of the war threaten to plunge another 7 to 10 million other people in the region into food insecurity.
In reaction to the crisis, the World Bank is deploying short- and long-term reactions for food and nutrition security, risk reduction, and food systems.
These moves are part of the institution’s global reaction to the existing food security crisis, with up to $30 billion in existing and new projects in spaces spanning agriculture, nutrition, social protection, water and irrigation. This investment will come with efforts to inspire food and fertilizer production, food systems, facilitate greater trade, and help vulnerable families and producers.
Very high prices
The surprise waves of war are expected to have complex and lasting effects on the world. Global costs are expected to remain at traditionally high levels until the end of 2024, and the war is turning patterns of industry and production into tactics that will worsen food. lack of confidence and inflation. These tremors come after two years of disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, dealing a severe blow to a global food formula that was already fragile and suffering from extreme weather events.
“Today, with skyrocketing inflation, unfortunately, many other people in Africa are suffering from commodities like food,” said Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Vice President for West and Central Africa.
Markets in the Sahel and West and Central Africa are experiencing sharp increases in the value of oil, rice, wheat and other commodities in the foreign market, with poorer families disproportionately spending more on food than richer ones. The value of wheat, a staple food for many families, is up 60 percent in early June 2022 compared to January 2021, according to World Bank data.
The value of fertilizers, which are also for productive agriculture, has increased since the war and is now almost 3 times higher than a year ago. The domino effect is expected to reduce food production in the coming years, as sky-high prices force many farmers to use less fertilizer.
Addressing root causes
The World Bank is mobilizing to provide emergency responses in the Sahel and West Africa to help countries threatened by a lack of food confidence respond more quickly. It is also working with humanitarian partners to monitor regional food confidence and expand food security preparedness plans.
The challenge of improving the region’s food and nutrition security also demands long-term responses. And, as many of the fundamental reasons and consequences of lack of trust in food challenge national boundaries, regional approaches to the resilience of food systems are being adopted. in West and Central African countries.
The $716 million Food System Resilience Program (PRSP) is one such approach. It aims to gain advantages for more than 4 million people in West Africa through expanding agricultural productivity through climate-smart agriculture, selling intra-regional price chains, and strengthening regional capacities for agricultural threat management.
The Great Green Wall
As food systems in the Sahel and West Africa face exceptional stress, there is also a developing call for more climate-smart investments in countries where communities face the worsening effects of climate change, shock and unprecedented environmental degradation.
The Africa-led Great Green Wall is a major regional initiative that promises climate-smart responses for the region’s economies and ecosystems. By 2030, it aims to repair some one hundred million hectares of degraded land and create 10 million jobs in rural areas. , supporting people’s ability to respond to and adapt to climate risks. The World Bank committed to invest $5600 million between 2020 and 2025 in 11 participating countries. More than 60 projects focus on improving livelihoods on the Great Green Wall through systems restoration and access to weather-resistant infrastructure.
tangible results
“Before, I used chemical fertilizers every year and only consumed 20 or 30 bags,” says Nama Boureima, a farmer in Sapouy, Burkina Faso, one of many to profit from biodigesters installed in the country.
By adding water and cow manure to biodigesters, farmers can generate renewable biogas for cooking and biological fertilizers for their fields. fuel.
“Now I don’t worry about the fertilizer challenge anymore,” says Boureima.
His farm illustrates some of the radical adjustments being made under the Great Green Wall. Some 270,000 hectares of land have been brought under sustainable control in Burkina Faso; more than 2,500 microprojects have been financed; 1. 5 million people saw their financial benefits from forest products increase; and 10 million tons of CO2 were reduced or avoided.
Around 12. 5 million people have benefited from the US$900 million allocation for Erosion and Watersheds in Nigeria (NEWMAP), which has strengthened the country’s capacity to combat erosion, herbal hazards and disasters, while creating 20,000 direct jobs and 32,000 indirect jobs through sovereign green bonds. a first for Africa.
In Niger, additional yields of up to 58% have been achieved through agrosilvopastoral communities through climate-smart strategies.
Green Future
As demanding global food safety situations increase, harnessing these ambitious, climate-smart investments is seen as key to making the region’s economy more resilient, achieving inclusive expansion, and addressing food insecurity.
“When those elements come together, not only do you create the economy, but you also create jobs. This allows young Africans to stay in Africa and make a living from their paintings while in Africa,” says Diagana of the World Bank.
© Press 2022
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