Civil Society Blames World Bank, IMF and WTO

Philip Ngunjiri (The East African)--The food crisis being experienced in Africa is due to the failure of three decades of market deregulation by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation’s agricultural sector development model, a group of international NGOs have stated.

The group said that the policies of the Washington Consensus had weakened the smallholder agricultural systems, resulting in the food crisis now being witnessed in many African countries, including Kenya, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Mauritania, some of which have witnessed violent riots.

Africa’s share of global exports declined from 50 per cent in the 1960s to 20 per cent in the 1980s. On the other hand, African governments spent an average of $18.7 billion to import foods nearly eight years ago, while food aid dependent states received $3.8 million as food aid.

According to the NGOs, the continent’s spending on cereal imports is expected to rise by more than half this year.

Angela Wauye, ActionAid Kenya’s food rights co-ordinator, said African governments, advised by international financial institutions and donors, have dismantled public support to agriculture and neglected small farmers, particularly women farmers, who feed their people. The current food crisis in Africa, she added is a signal that most African countries cannot continue to rely on importation of food, mostly grains, to meet national food requirements.

The NGOs, including ActionAid, the Global Call to Action against Poverty, Oxfam and the Kenya Food Security Policy Advocacy Network were at the 25th Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) regional conference for Africa in Nairobi, last week.

The NGOs called for an urgent, immediate and innovative long term strategy that is largely informed by local experience and policy direction, which should be embedded in draft policies aimed at alleviating the situation, which the group predicts will continue for the next two years.

To effectively address the current crisis, food security mandates ought to be the responsibility of all various ministries or institutions. Similarly, policy measures should be mainstreamed in all government ministries and departments with a view to enhancing a cohesive approach to dealing with the problem.

The group also proposed the transformation and subsidisation of smallholder agriculture by removing nuisance taxes and cess on all agricultural products produced locally. Malawi is a living testimony - it has moved from being over-dependent on food aid to a net-food producing and exporting country.

The governments should trash the IMF’s structural adjustment programmes and subsidise farm inputs needed by small-scale farmers such as fertilisers, seeds, animal vaccines, artificial insemination and other animal clinical services.

The governments should support investments in initiatives that ensure availability of cereals and seeds for both consumption and as planting materials at local level. Blanket and unchecked liberalisation of seed and other inputs market has not improved timely access to quality seeds or fertilisers by small-scale farmers.

In addition, 15 African civil society organisations (CSOs) attending the meeting have demanded that trade must serve the development of agriculture and livelihoods of poor people rather than the interests of multinationals. African governments, they noted, must prioritise inter and intra-Africa trade in agriculture rather than negotiate unfair bilateral trade agreements such as the Economic Partnership Agreements.

The CSOs recommended that an effective agricultural special safeguard mechanism for African countries to overcome the current food crisis be applied and that countries fulfil the commitment of allocating a minimum of 10 per cent of their national budget to agriculture development, while the WTO must be excluded from agriculture and left to deal with other issues.

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