Malawi’s former president: ‘Africa’s food systems are in danger of failing due to high debt and climate change. A new financial pact can reverse this’
Agriculture is the cornerstone of African communities and economies. Not only is the majority of the continent’s working population employed in the sector, but just under a quarter of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP is generated by the work of its farmers. Yet, climate change is now undermining what progress has been made across the continent in the last few decades–with hunger, malnutrition, and poverty all on the rise.
Amidst these challenges, the significant debt servicing obligations that African countries face mean that investment into our food systems is limited or impossible to fund, with the International Monetary Fund recently warning that sub-Saharan African economies are increasingly facing a “big funding squeeze.”
In my own country of Malawi, for instance, a farm input subsidy program that has been running since 2005, helping smallholder farmers access crucial fertilizers needed to boost production to address hunger challenges, is nonetheless at risk because so much of the national budget is earmarked against debt servicing and disaster response. Government debt, alone, stands at just under 50% of Malawi’s GDP.
This cannot last. Struggling under the weight of rising hunger and malnutritional challenges which were worsened by the impact of COVID-19, rising food, fuel, and fertilizer prices, and deteriorating climate conditions, countries in the Global South risk becoming locked in a cycle of disasters and recovery unless a new financial accord with high-income countries can be struck.
As countries meet at the international conference in Paris on a New Global Financing Pact, we have an opportunity to establish a new financial partnership between high- and low-income countries that addresses these rising challenges.
Global North-South partnerships are already making a difference on the ground in Africa, but more work is clearly needed to unlock funding currently reserved for debt. As just a small taste of what can be achieved with greater international cooperation, for example, my foundation’s pilot integrated agriculture and climate adaptation project in central Malawi has transformed lives and ensured food security for 1,300 farming families, with subsistence farmers increasing their maize harvest roughly eightfold.
Establishing this new partnership means, firstly, recognizing the disproportionately severe impact climate change is already having on many countries in the Global South. Simultaneously, many countries are facing the burdens of servicing high debts, disaster relief, and food security challenges–often all at once.
For example, Cyclone Freddy, which devastated Malawi in March, caused roughly $500 million in economic losses. Nearly 4% of Malawi’s annual GDP was lost in a few days.
In Malawi, this means being unable to pay for recovery from this and other, more frequent and severe disasters, let alone important, transformative agricultural development programs that can help reduce poverty, as well as address high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition which face more than 5 million Malawians–nearly a quarter of the population.
Clearly, as the disproportionate impact of climate change becomes ever greater, African countries need a new financial pact to overcome these challenges and prepare for a more resilient future.
This is also critical to save lives now. The Paris Summit is taking place just a month after FAO and WFP released a new report warning that acute food insecurity is likely to get worse in 18 hunger hotspots. This includes Malawi, where food inflation has led to record prices for some items including maize–the main staple–at 300% above the 2022 levels in the southern region.
To remedy this, creditors should agree on debt cancellation or suspension for low-income countries which are at high risk of backsliding on food security and nutrition levels, providing the legroom in budgets needed to address these pressing humanitarian challenges as they arise.
Likewise, high-income countries must deliver on their commitment of mobilizing $100 billion in climate finance for developing countries, with a significant portion of this carved out for the smallholder farmers who are often most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
Meeting this commitment is clearly a matter of justice. Africa, in particular, accounts for roughly only 3% of the world’s carbon emissions–yet the continent is home to eight of the 10 nations most at risk from climate impacts, adding additional pressures to already significant levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.
In much the same way that many of the solutions to climate change are available to us today, we already know the cost of funding sustainable food systems in Africa–and the reforms being called for at the Paris Summit are crucial to unlocking it.
Across the three African nations of Malawi, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, research shows that this objective could be achieved through an additional $10 billion in funding a year, preventing significant economic losses and heightened hunger and malnutrition challenges as a result of climate change.
As the conflict in Ukraine has laid bare, food security challenges are not confined to Africa alone, as our entire global food system is closely interconnected and only as strong as its constituent parts. Investing in African food systems will have climate and food security benefits, not only for the region but for the world.
Ultimately, before climate change becomes more severe and widespread, we must develop a new accord between high- and low-income countries that unlocks the resources needed to address–and prevent–the pressing challenges that are affecting our people and planet.
H.E. Dr. Joyce Banda is the former president of Malawi.
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