to credit, low use of agricultural inputs, lack of market information and dominance of
antiquated technologies are some more factors impeding the production capability of
smallholder farmers both for food crops and industrial crops (Fan and Brzeska 2016;
Kuivanen et al. 2016). Increasing agricultural productivity would require massive
investments in irrigation and other inputs, but most countries in the region, have
limited capacity to do so (Xie et al. 2014).
Other challenges for ending hunger and food insecurity in SSA include unexpected and severe food price fluctuations, conflicts, political instability, post-harvest
losses and food waste. For instance, the price of staple food items increased four
times between 2008 and 2010 in Eastern Africa (UNECA 2015b). Furthermore, a
substantial amount of food is lost mainly during harvesting (and secondarily during
consumption), due to the predominant use of traditional technologies to harvest,
prepare and store food (Parfitt et al. 2010) (Sect. 1.2.12). Even though the exact
amount and quality of the wasted food are not known in most SSA countries due to
the lack of reliable information and data (Sheahan and Barrett 2017), this likely
discourages the potential investments in technologies that could minimize potential
food losses (Deloitte 2015).
Finally, there is a lack of political will and a (sometimes) intentional use of hunger
as an instrument of punishment in some parts of the region. For example, some
dictatorships and rebel groups use hunger and mass starvation as a weapon during
conflicts to quell potential political dissent. This strongly implies that ensuring peace
and security would be a necessary pre-condition for achieving food security in many
parts of the region, but this could prove to be very challenging considering the very
diverse national, political and tribal tensions (Sects. 1.2.16 and 1.2.17).
1.2.3 SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
Despite some promising public health improvements during the MDGs process
(UN 2015), SSA still has the highest rate of child mortality for infants and under
5 year olds in the world (WHO 2018a). Only a handful of countries rank below the
global average for these indicators (SDG Centre for Africa 2019; UNECA 2017).
This low performance is partly because of the very low starting base for most SSA
countries (Ndikumana and Pickbourn 2017; Lange and Klasen 2017) (Fig. 1.6), but
also of the low proportion of births attended by skilled personnel (UNECA 2017).
Many countries have had good progress in eradicating preventable childhood illnesses such as polio and measles, through increased immunization coverage
(Nakakana et al. 2015), and reduced the incidence of major epidemics such as
HIV/AIDS (from 3.87 new infections per 1000 uninfected people in 2000, to 1.48
in 2015) (UNECA 2017; WHO 2018a). However, in absolute terms, most
HIV/AIDS patients and more than 90% of the estimated 300–500 million malaria
globally, occur in SSA (WHO 2017). At the same time, despite the lack of comprehensive statistics, the prevalence of previously uncommon non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes is rapidly rising among the young
12
D. Juju et al.
antiquated technologies are some more factors impeding the production capability of
smallholder farmers both for food crops and industrial crops (Fan and Brzeska 2016;
Kuivanen et al. 2016). Increasing agricultural productivity would require massive
investments in irrigation and other inputs, but most countries in the region, have
limited capacity to do so (Xie et al. 2014).
Other challenges for ending hunger and food insecurity in SSA include unexpected and severe food price fluctuations, conflicts, political instability, post-harvest
losses and food waste. For instance, the price of staple food items increased four
times between 2008 and 2010 in Eastern Africa (UNECA 2015b). Furthermore, a
substantial amount of food is lost mainly during harvesting (and secondarily during
consumption), due to the predominant use of traditional technologies to harvest,
prepare and store food (Parfitt et al. 2010) (Sect. 1.2.12). Even though the exact
amount and quality of the wasted food are not known in most SSA countries due to
the lack of reliable information and data (Sheahan and Barrett 2017), this likely
discourages the potential investments in technologies that could minimize potential
food losses (Deloitte 2015).
Finally, there is a lack of political will and a (sometimes) intentional use of hunger
as an instrument of punishment in some parts of the region. For example, some
dictatorships and rebel groups use hunger and mass starvation as a weapon during
conflicts to quell potential political dissent. This strongly implies that ensuring peace
and security would be a necessary pre-condition for achieving food security in many
parts of the region, but this could prove to be very challenging considering the very
diverse national, political and tribal tensions (Sects. 1.2.16 and 1.2.17).
1.2.3 SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
Despite some promising public health improvements during the MDGs process
(UN 2015), SSA still has the highest rate of child mortality for infants and under
5 year olds in the world (WHO 2018a). Only a handful of countries rank below the
global average for these indicators (SDG Centre for Africa 2019; UNECA 2017).
This low performance is partly because of the very low starting base for most SSA
countries (Ndikumana and Pickbourn 2017; Lange and Klasen 2017) (Fig. 1.6), but
also of the low proportion of births attended by skilled personnel (UNECA 2017).
Many countries have had good progress in eradicating preventable childhood illnesses such as polio and measles, through increased immunization coverage
(Nakakana et al. 2015), and reduced the incidence of major epidemics such as
HIV/AIDS (from 3.87 new infections per 1000 uninfected people in 2000, to 1.48
in 2015) (UNECA 2017; WHO 2018a). However, in absolute terms, most
HIV/AIDS patients and more than 90% of the estimated 300–500 million malaria
globally, occur in SSA (WHO 2017). At the same time, despite the lack of comprehensive statistics, the prevalence of previously uncommon non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes is rapidly rising among the young
12
D. Juju et al.