Africa regional overview of food security and nutrition: addressing the threat from climate variability and extremes for food security and nutrition

Abstract

The 2018 Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition is co-published for the very first time with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. This new collaboration provides opportunities to broaden the technical scope, promote a wider dialogue and visibility of the findings and policy implications, and continue FAO’s efforts to achieve closer collaboration on its flagship publications with the relevant UN agencies. In 2017, FAO reported that the prevalence of hunger was on the rise in Africa, after many years of decline. The latest data, presented in this years’ Regional Overview, confirms that this trend continues, with Central and Western Africa faring the worst. Today, a fifth of Africans are undernourished, representing a staggering 257 million individuals. The worsening trend in Africa is due to difficult global economic and worsening environmental conditions and, in many countries, conflict and climate variability and extremes, sometimes combined. Economic growth slowed in 2016 due to weak commodity prices, in particular for oil and minerals. Food insecurity has worsened in countries affected by conflict, often exacerbated by drought or floods. For example, in Southern and Eastern Africa, many countries suffered from drought.