United Nations Radio

Before the global financial downturn, there was the food crisis. For millions of Africans, that crisis continues. The UN Conference on Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, is meeting in Geneva on Tuesday to review policies that could prevent a repeat of last year's food crisis. UN Radio's Derrick Mbatha spoke to Habib Ouane of UNCTAD about how serious the food crisis is on the continent.

OUANE: I would say that more than half of the population is finding it difficult to have three meals per day, and this is quite significant. Second, it is also serious because in terms of purchasing power in the urban centres, the people have been suffering a lot. Inflationary pressures arising from a combination of speculation on the global markets, but also some significant increases in the prices of some commodities like oil and so on: all these have led to a situation of higher prices for food, and this is having a detrimental impact on the ability of families to feed themselves as well as the ability in rural areas to have access to education.

MBATHA: You made mention of speculation as one of the causes of this crisis. Can you clarify that for me?

OUANE: You know, it is very easy: when the stock market has started going down, investors have looked for alternative investment solutions. And they found them in the commodities sector, basically: oil prices have gone to nearly $150 some time ago, and this is the result basically of speculation. The same applies to some basic commodities like rice, like sugar, like cocoa, and so on. And these have been the result of the speculative moves which have been diverted from investment in stock markets into commodities markets in the markets of Chicago and London. And this has led to dramatic price increases and which in turn have led to the situation in which governments in Africa have been obliged to subsidize the prices of these commodities, and this also is leading to some budgetary fiscal deficits in some of these countries in Africa.

MBATHA: Yes. And where is the food crisis in Africa? Is it throughout the continent, or is it in certain regions?

OUANE: It is in many countries which have neglected agriculture, so to speak. In a country like Malawi where they had the right policies for the last 10 years, they are doing rather well. They are even exporting food. But in other countries where agriculture has been neglected, they are not doing well, for example in West Africa and some parts of Central Africa. But also the donor community has neglected agriculture.

MBATHA: Yes. Now tell me, how many people are being affected by this food crisis on the African continent?

OUANE: This, I think, by and large, one can say that it is half of the population of the continent. And this is something which is difficult because there those who are affected directly, those who are affected indirectly, and those who are affected seriously, those who are affected marginally. And this issue put all of these together. It's a significant number.

MBATHA: What can African countries do to tackle this crisis?

OUANE: They have to invest in agriculture. They have to recover the state capacities to intervene in agriculture through investment, through extension services, through research and development, in order to increase productivity, and also to ensure that farmers will enjoy better support in terms of seeds and other inputs like fertilizers.

PRES: Habib Ouane, is Director of the Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes with UNCTAD, the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

Duration: 2'33"