Debt Distress and the Right to Food in Africa
Co-organized by IFPRI and Welthungerhilfe (WHH)
October 2, 2024


More than half of low-income countries are at risk of debt distress or have already defaulted. The debt crisis, while exacerbated by recent crises, has been looming for several years. According to the United Nations, 3.3 billion people now live in countries that spend more on interest repayments than on education or health, and in sub-Saharan Africa, governments are spending 53 percent of revenue on debt servicing.

What do these debt trends mean for efforts to address food insecurity and uphold citizens’ right to food? Twenty years after the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Right to Food (RtF) by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, many countries that adopted RtF in their constitutions still face high levels of food and nutrition insecurity. Although the Guidelines incorporate clear guidance on pursuing debt relief to allow for the progressive realization of the RtF, debt repayments and austerity measures, combined with insufficient local revenue mobilization, force governments to re-prioritize scarce resources and undermine investments in food system transformation.

In the run-up to the International Development Association (IDA) Replenishment Forum in October 2024 and the release of the African Union’s post-Malabo agenda in early 2025, this policy seminar brings together speakers from international and African organizations to examine the impacts of the debt crisis on realizing the RtF in Africa and consider solutions to protect and progressively realize those rights.

Opening Remarks
Danielle Resnick, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI (Presentation)

Panel Discussion
Michael Windfuhr, Deputy Director, German Institute for Human Rights; Member of Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Presentation)
Diana Gichengo, Executive Director, The Institute for Social Accountability, Kenya; Member of African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD)
Geeta Sethi, Global Lead for Food Systems, The World Bank Group
Jennifer Clapp, University Professor & Canada Research Chair, IPES-Food and University of Waterloo, Canada (Presentation)
Nick Jacobs, Consulting Director, IPES-Food (Presentation)

Closing Remarks
Michael Gabriel, Director of Strategic Partnerships, US and Canada, Welthungerhilfe (WHH)

Moderator
Charlotte Hebebrand, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, IFPRI

Links:

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Debt Distress and the Right to Food in Africa

Introductory Remarks by Geraldo B. Martha Jr., Coordinator, Embrapa, Labex-USA
 
Successful agricultural transformations around the world provide critical lessons and offer insights into opportunities for other countries seeking to take this step forward.

 
At this special event, we will learn about Brazil’s agricultural transformation from Embrapa’s President, Maurício Lopes. IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan will share insights from Asian countries, ERS Administrator Mary Bohman will review the experience of the United States, and Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance President Marcos Jank will discuss the role of the food industry in agricultural transformation.

IFPRI Special Event:  Transforming Agriculture - 5/15/2018 - GMartha

Speaker: Marcos Sawaya Jank, President, Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance and IFPRI Board member
 
Successful agricultural transformations around the world provide critical lessons and offer insights into opportunities for other countries seeking to take this step forward.
 
At this special event, we will learn about Brazil’s agricultural transformation from Embrapa’s President, Maurício Lopes. IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan will share insights from Asian countries, ERS Administrator Mary Bohman will review the experience of the United States, and Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance President Marcos Jank will discuss the role of the food industry in agricultural transformation.

IFPRI Special Event:  Transforming Agriculture - 5/15/2018  - M.Jank

What happens when a child is malnourished? Can such a child ever “catch up” later in life? Why does urbanization and obesity seem to go hand in hand—and what does this mean for food production? We’ll explore big picture food system questions today on the Leading Voices in Food with our guest Dr. Shenggen Fan.

The Leading Voices in Food

Shenggen Fan on Hunger, Climate Change and the Hope of Innovation

Speaker: William A. Masters, Professor, Tufts University

Interventions and innovation can lower the price of individual foods, but healthy eating depends on access to a mix of foods from diverse sources. How has the overall cost of meeting dietary needs changed over time worldwide, and in Africa and South Asia specifically? What determines the cost of a healthy diet? And how does affordability affect dietary intake and health status in different locales?

To answer these questions, Changing Access to Nutritious Diets in Africa and South Asia (CANDASA) (https://sites.tufts.edu/candasa) has been using new food price indexes that account for food substitutions to meet nutritional needs to evaluate food systems all over the world, including in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, and Tanzania.

This seminar will present the outcomes of CANDASA’s work to date, with a panel discussion featuring field researchers from each country to discuss the local and global implications of their results.

Research by Tufts and IFPRI on this topic is supported by UKAid and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

IFPRI Policy Seminar:  What is the Cost of a Healthy Diet? - 5/29/2019 - WMasters

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. Established in 1975, IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 50 countries. It is a research center of CGIAR, a worldwide partnership engaged in agricultural research for development.

Debt Distress and the Right to Food in Africa

International Food Policy Research Institute

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