Initiative to End Hunger in Africa

Purpose of Initiative: The President’s Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA) is a multi-year effort to help fulfill the Millennium Development Goal of reducing the number of hungry people on the continent in half by 2015. IEHA is taking steps to decrease Africa’s dependence on food aid by almost $2.6 billion by the year 2015, and is helping to lay the foundation for sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction on the continent. The initiative focuses on promoting agricultural growth and building an African-led partnership to cut hunger and poverty. The primary objective of the initiative is to rapidly and sustainably increase agricultural growth and rural incomes in sub-Saharan Africa.

Resources: The Initiative to End Hunger in Africa was formally launched in August 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development with an initial FY 2003 U.S. commitment of $28 million in development assistance resources to supplement USAID investments in African agriculture. United States development assistance for the initiative’s efforts to help African farmers harness science and technology will increase from $30.5 million to $53 million in FY03. We will also increase our investment to unleash the power of markets for Africa’s small farmers by two-thirds, from $25 million to $37 million in FY03. Substantial additional investment will be needed to achieve the initiative’s goals. IEHA envisions African governments, international development agencies, private sector investors, civil society, universities, and a broad range of interest groups that provide support for African development, including USAID, working together to mobilize the necessary resources.

Partners: Governments: Canada (International Development Agency); the European Union; Germany (GTZ); Mali; Mozambique; Uganda; and the United States (USTR, USAID, Department of State and Department of Agriculture). International Organizations: The World Bank. Civil Society: the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA); the Conseil Ouest et Centre Africain pour la Recherche et le Développement Agricoles (CORAF); the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA); the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); Michigan State (MSU); the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR); the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA); and the International Potato Center (CIP); and the global chocolate industry group.

Partnership Efforts to Date: The partnership began in FY 2002 with a quick start program in Ethiopia to improve water management technologies. The partnership also supported an African continent-wide Technology Access Fund, established through the CGIAR, to make new crop technologies available to African farmers growing maize, beans, potatoes, sorghum and dairy livestock. In addition, it created the Technology Applications for Rural Growth and Economic Transformation program to adapt and disseminate technologies that can improve African agriculture. In October 2002, two regional and five country-specific integrated biotechnology systems development programs were launched at the continent-wide meeting (sponsored by USAID, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) held in Nairobi. The meeting involved more than 100 participants from across Africa, as well as from the United States and Europe, in a new partnership to expand the use of biotechnology applications in Africa. IEHA is helping to further this and other biotechnology efforts by linking International Agricultural Research Center’s, and 10 U.S. and African universities and research centers. The goal is to facilitate exchanges and information networks that will help build African capacity for biotechnology development and agricultural growth.

A new Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support Systems was commissioned through a consortium of advanced research and development organizations led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). It will provide core support for IEHA and its partners (African governments, other donors, NGOs, private industry) to monitor and track impacts of IEHA investments, support strategic planning, and facilitate analysis of investment options to tackle hunger and poverty in Africa.

In FY 2003, IEHA partners developed regional (West, East and Southern Africa) and country specific (Mali, Mozambique, and Uganda) multi-year action plans as the foundation for strategically targeted future activities and investments that will affect hunger, poverty reduction and market expansion. This program includes activities such as including better natural resource management practices in Mali, increased capacity building in Mozambique concerning trade policy and technology transfer, and developing different varieties of maize and cassava in Uganda.

Coordinating groups are now underway in each subregion to build linkages across boundaries, and ensure that successes are shared on a wide basis. Six new senior field staff, to be funded by IEHA, are being recruited and placed in the field to assist initiative implementation, and an Agricultural Initiative Knowledge and Information Management System to support multilateral cooperation and planning for agricultural growth in Africa is being set up by IFPRI.

USG Primary Point of Contact: Agency for International Development: Jeff Hill (Telephone: 202-712-5256; E-mail: jehill@usaid.gov)