Highlighting the importance of holistic thinking and collective action in solving hunger in East Africa – Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya, Sudan and Somalia
Uganda is often described as Africa’s breadbasket, but it still faces a multipronged challenge in eradicating hunger. Floods earlier this year followed a prolonged drought. Global supply disruptions sparked by the pandemic – and later the war in far-off Ukraine – sent prices soaring for imported foods at home.
But in Uganda’s western Masindi district, a group of smallholder farmers is winning a key battle in the bigger food security war – sharply cutting crop losses thanks to training in better storage and post-harvest handling techniques, supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners.
Their experience – and WFP’s broader work in East Africa – offers one example of the importance of holistic thinking and collective action highlighted this week (July 24-26), when some 2,000 participants, including leaders from roughly 160 countries, meet for a UN Food Systems “Stock-taking” summit in Rome.
Traditional humanitarian assistance “cannot keep pace” with today’s soaring and complex hunger demands without simultaneously addressing their root causes, says WFP East Africa Senior Advisor Sibi Lawson-Marriott. She specializes in food systems and the closely entwined issues of climate action, resilience building and women’s empowerment.
“We need a new approach,” Lawson-Marriott adds, at a time when hunger is fueled by a mix of factors, including conflict, biodiversity loss, supply shocks and the growing climate crisis. “Otherwise, we’re not going to be able to fulfill our mandate of zero hunger. And the world badly needs us to do that.”
Systems action
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