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Characteristics and Determinants of Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Environment and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: Managing an Emerging Crisis

Abstract

This chapter discusses the persistence of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. Although pervasive poverty and low agricultural productivity are important factors in understanding food insecurity in the region, broader global processes are examined. It is argued therefore that, while poverty undermines individual and household access to sufficient food through market purchase, land inequalities, corruption, structural adjustment programs, civil conflict, HIV/AIDS and the role of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture are decisive. The chapter reveals that control over key policy decisions in the agriculture sector is increasingly taken from national states. Achieving food security in sub-Saharan Africa requires policies and actions that are integrated with efforts to reduce poverty, enhance livelihoods and incomes, and increase agricultural output while also paying attention to underlying structural factors that bear on agriculture in the region.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is important to note, however, that the prevalence of undernourishment (proportion of undernourished people in the region) declined from 35 to 32% during this period. This decline is attributed to the region's population rising more quickly than the number of undernourished people.

  2. 2.

    Food miles is a conceptual framework for accounting for the distance food has travelled from land to mouth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, The University of Western Ontario, Social Science Centre, London, ON, Canada N6A 5C2

    Paul Mkandawire & Nathaniel D. Aguda

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  1. Paul Mkandawire
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  2. Nathaniel D. Aguda
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Correspondence to Paul Mkandawire .

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    Mkandawire, P., Aguda, N.D. (2009). Characteristics and Determinants of Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Luginaah, I.N., Yanful, E.K. (eds) Environment and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: Managing an Emerging Crisis. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9382-1_1

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