Context and rationale
Food security is currently facing a critical juncture, necessitating fresh reflections and approaches. Despite three decades of steady improvements, the goal of “ending hunger and malnutrition” is one of the few Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that is deteriorating, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where the prevalence of food insecurity is the highest globally and continues to rise (FAO, 2023). The newly available Food Price for Nutrition database reveals that a significant portion of the African population cannot afford sufficient calories, nutrient adequacy, or a healthy diet, leading to severe health issues and further impeding local social and economic development. This crisis is partly due to the continent’s heavy reliance on food imports, with intra-African trade making up a minimal portion of total food imports. Recent challenges such as climate change, pandemics, conflicts, and new geopolitical conditions have exacerbated the situation by affecting global food supply chains, prompting many Sub-Saharan African countries to seek “food sovereignty” by boosting domestic supply and intra-African trade through regional trade agreements like COMESA, SADC, ECOWAS, and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
The potential of AfCFTA and regional agreements to enhance food security and environmental sustainability hinges on the depth of these agreements and their enforcement. While shallow agreements focus on tariff removal, deeper agreements incorporate additional policy issues like nutrition, food safety, and environmental provisions, which are crucial for improving food quality and safety. However, for Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) associated with these agreements to be effective, small-scale and resource-poor African farmers must comply with them, which is challenging due to the “lemons” problem where the quality of food products is not directly observable, affecting market dynamics and limiting incentives for supplying higher-quality products. Despite these challenges, small-scale African farmers have shown they can improve product quality when there is a clear reward for doing so. However, the lack of accessible quality assessment and certification bodies, along with the high costs of certification, remain significant barriers. Addressing these issues requires food system-level transformations coordinated by effective public policies to ensure the emergence and sustainability of quality recognition and certification systems, thereby supporting smallholder farmers and enhancing food security across the continent.
