As Africa enters a critical decade, with the clock ticking on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, the multiple threats to the continent’s food, land and water systems are undermining efforts to reduce hunger, malnutrition and poverty.
The challenges Africa faces are increasingly connected to the rest of the world. History tells us that increased food insecurity can start and prolong wars, spark revolution and reverse economic development, all of which is made more likely by the impact of the pandemic, climate change and civil strife. Africa urgently needs a path forward that meets major threats to food, land and water systems with commensurate science, technology and innovation.
Read the full op-ed published by CNBC Africa, and co-authored by Claudia Sadoff, Executive Management Team Convener and Managing Director, Research Delivery and Impact, CGIAR, and Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).
Header photo by J. M. Walcott/IWMI.