Poverty and food security in Eastern Africa : enhancing poverty reduction and growth prospects in East Africa

Abstract

Practically all countries in Eastern Africa suffer from food insecurity and many people live in abject poverty: below a dollar a day. In which case, achieving the Millennium Development Goal, of reducing by half the proportion of people suffering from hunger by 2015, will be very difficult. Hunger and malnutrition prevent the poor from escaping from poverty by diminishing their ability to learn, work and take care of themselves and their family members. Poverty is would therefore be perfect conditions for the setting in of the vicious circle where generation after generation remain poor, unhealthy and uneducated, thus entrenching the twin scourges of hunger and poverty.