In recognition of the humanitarian crisis facing Africa as a continent, the 40th executive plenary session of the African Union, meeting Feb. 2-3, has declared 2022 as the “Year of Nutrition.” In conjunction with the African Development Bank’s Facility for African Food Security and Nutrition and the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, the AU program intends to put a spotlight on hunger alleviation, under the theme “Building Resilience in Nutrition on the African Continent: Accelerate the Human Capital, Social and Economic Development.” As reported by MENA FM, AfDBank President Akinwumi Adesina said the bank “will mobilize $1 billion to support the delivery of climate-resilient technologies to 40 million farmers and produce 100 million metric tons of food to feed 200 million people,” and that, “this will reduce the number of people facing hunger in Africa by 80%.”
As a September 2021 background report by the AU indicates, the crisis is real, and the challenge is daunting. Quoting figures from a 2019 internal study—even before the devastation of the COVID pandemic—the report explained that 58.7 million (39%) of the world’s 150.8 million stunted children under the age of 5 live in Africa, and that only seven AU member states have stunting rates below 19%. Only 15 member states have child wasting prevalence below 5%. “Malnutrition is not only one of the worst killers of children under 5 years of age,” the report says, “but prevents children and adolescents from reaching their full potential, and traps entire populations in vulnerability.”