New Paradigm Food & Agriculture Post-2015 Development: Africans Show the Way Time to move on from redefining the problems and concentrate on solutions already seeded on the ground. Prof Roger Leakey Editor’s Note This article describes one of many case studies and solutions to poverty presented recently in UNCTAD’s Trade and Environment Report [1] (see [2] Paradigm Shift Urgently Needed In Agriculture, SiS 60) Redefining problems without solutions In Global Development Goals – Leaving No-one Behind [3], the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom (UNA-UK) presents a collection of articles by eminent people in important positions around the globe. Although this report identifies progress towards some Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it recognizes that success has been uneven. The principle achievement of the MDGs has been “shaping the international discourse and driving the allocation of resources towards key global development goals ... with unprecedented political commitment and a strong consensus for tackling poverty and other development problems.” The report itself, however, makes rather depressing reading as it seems we are not really making huge progress in our efforts to address the big issues facing the world, especially with regard to the gap between rich and poor. Instead of identifying solutions, this booklet redefines the problems and we go from eight Millennium Development Goals to twelve Post-2015 Development Goals. It seems we still haven’t learnt that hunger, malnutrition, poverty and many of the other things on our ‘to-do wish list” are part of a bigger and inter-related complex of issues. Why? Maybe the problem is the size and complexity of all the interacting factors impacting on the lives of people scattered across numerous sectors and strata of society. The ‘development’ agenda is very multi-disciplinary and is partitioned between rural and urban situations. Furthermore, it requires some detailed understanding of biophysical and socio-economic issues best addressed within holistic integrated rural development programmes. Unfortunately, we live in a world where problems and solutions are confined to disconnected silos. How to proceed is also influenced by the very different perspectives of people depending on whether they are looking from industrial or the least developed countries. The poverty trap Many of the problems arising from poverty in urban areas of least developed countries arise from inward migration from the countryside; thus central to making progress across all the development targets is tackling the root causes of land degradation and rural poverty. The biggest issue in the rural tropics is that actual crop yields are well below the yield potential of modern varieties (this difference is called the Yield Gap). The reasons are complex. First, there is the crippling decline of soil fertility and a loss of agroecological functions. This results in land degradation and the loss of biodiversity above- and below-ground. This is exacerbated by persistent high levels of poverty, which deny farmers access to modern technologies, such as fertilizers and other agricultural inputs (see p192 of [1] UNCTAD Trade and Environment Review 2013 - Wake up Before it’s too Late). Consequently we have billions of marginalized people, many of them farming households, trapped in poverty and suffering from malnutrition, hunger and poor health. They also lack access to clean water, medical and other social services, and opportunities for education and employment – indeed all the things highlighted by the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Reversing the downward spiral and closing the Yield Gap Read the rest of this report here i-sis.org.uk/Post_2015_Development_Africans_Show_the_Way.php
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 18:57:29 +0000