The visit comes amid growing concern that more than 20 percent of the continent’s 1.2 billion people are already hungry, while two-thirds of the population is at risk of food insecurity.
Jill Biden’s visit focuses on women’s empowerment, children’s issues, and food insecurity that has afflicted parts of the continent, and follows promises made by the United States to African leaders during the joint summit between the two sides, late last year.
Biden said Tuesday that the purpose of his wife Jill’s travel to Africa is to help bring the world’s attention to this critical issue. According to the spokeswoman for the US National Security Council, Becky Farmer, the first lady of America will discuss with officials and women’s organizations in Kenya the worst food crisis in the countries of the Horn of Africa in decades.
Food insecurity
Specialists believe that the expansion of the phenomenon of food insecurity in Africa is due to four reasons summarized in the failure of government policies, rapid population growth, and logistical constraints resulting from the Covid 19 pandemic, the Russian war in Ukraine, in addition to climate changes and the accompanying droughts and floods that struck large parts of the east. West of the continent.
Although Africa owns more than 60 percent of the arable land in the world, the decline in production during the recent period has increased fears of hunger in most parts of the continent.
The shifts in climate change and the accompanying floods and droughts led to a significant shortage of food in most countries of the “brown continent.” The population increase also negatively affects the ability of governments to provide food commodities, especially in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Niger and Mali, which collectively constitute home to about 80 percent of food. of the most food insecure people in the world.
Women’s Empowerment
Jill Biden is looking with a number of women’s leaders in Africa for the support that the United States can provide in the field of developing and empowering women, given that they constitute a productive segment that directly contributes to solving the food security dilemma.
In this context, Ruth Onyang, a former member of the Parliament of Kenya and an activist in the field of food security and the empowerment of African women, confirms that women in Africa address many pressing issues, especially education and food security, as they constitute more than 55 percent of workers in the two sectors.
She stresses the impossibility of addressing the great challenges afflicting the continent of Africa without empowering women and paying attention to their education and training. Onyang told Sky News Arabia that investing in women means investing in the future of the continent, given the great social and economic role they play.
She explains, “If Africa wants to get rid of the problem of food insecurity, it must invest in the development of women, given that they constitute the most contributor to agricultural, animal and food production in most African countries.”
Shocking facts
● Most countries in East Africa are currently experiencing the largest drought since 1980. The wave covered more than 90 percent of Somalia, large parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan in eastern Africa, in addition to Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Mauritania in western Africa.
● Agricultural production is declining in many African countries due to deficiencies in financing policies and lack of interest in introducing modern technologies, which has made the productivity of an acre in Africa less than 40 percent on average compared to productivity per acre in Europe or the Americas.
● Food imports of African countries are affected by the high import costs and the significant decline in the values of local currencies in Africa. The United Nations expects food costs to rise by about 22 percent if logistical constraints linked to the Russian war in Ukraine persist. The currencies of about 20 African countries have lost between 3 and 15 percent of their value over the past three months.
A severe food crisis
● 20 percent of Africa’s population, more than 270 million, suffer from hunger.
● 5.8 billion dollars a year, African countries import wheat from Russia and Ukraine, and 90 percent of Africa’s trade with Russia, amounting to about 4 billion dollars, goes to cover wheat imports, which also accounts for 50 percent of the continent’s trade with Ukraine, which amounts to 4.5 billion dollars.
● 1.2 billion people, the population of Africa by the end of 2022, with an annual growth of 3 percent, which means an increase in the same rate in the demand for food.
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