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Food security in Southern Africa: Causes and responses from across the region
18 March 2003, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria
A meeting hosted by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network in collaboration with CARE International and the French Institute of South Africa
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[Background and purpose]
[Programme]
[Participants]
[Papers]
[Related papers]
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Food security in Southern Africa: Causes and responses from across the region
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1. Background
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The severe food shortages and hunger that have recently struck countries in the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) region, particularly in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland
and Mozambique, have been described by the World Food Programme as the ‘worst food crisis in a
decade’. The region has suffered from a lethal mix of food shortages, lack of access to basic social services
and an alarmingly high prevalence of HIV/AIDS all contributing to the growing numbers of vulnerable
people in rural and urban Southern Africa. According to several reports from missions undertaken in the
SADC region in 2002 by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the
United Nations, fourteen million people were living on the brink of starvation and faced serious shortages
until the region’s main harvest in April 2003.
The Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) recognized the current food crisis facing the
region as a vital area for intervention within their mandate to stimulate debate on key issues and promote
effective communications2. SARPN together with its partners in this endeavour, CARE International and
the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), co-hosted a workshop entitled “Food Security in Southern
Africa: Causes and Responses from across the Region” and co-ordinated the attendance of a wide range of
practitioners involved in food security issues from across SADC. The participants were drawn from
government departments, research organisations, international and national non-governmental
organisations, and donors. A regional overview and a series of country papers, including several undertaken
by CARE in an analytical exercise to better understand the underlying causes of the crisis, were
commissioned to be presented at the meeting on the 18th of March 2003.
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Footnote:
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In keeping with the goals of SARPN, the workshop was designed to facilitate the sharing of perspectives on food security
issues in several Southern African countries and to generate debate about appropriate responses to the crisis in the region.
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