Ending Hunger in Africa

Abstract

The African food crisis of 1983-85 galvanized political commitment both among African governments and in industrialized states to alleviate the chronic problem of hunger in Africa. One result is the 13th General Assembly Special Session on the economic crisis of Africa in May-June, 1986. This step, following considerable preparation, paralleled steps by African states to allocate greater resources to agriculture and food production and by the World Bank and other donors to help increase their assistance targeted toward the relief of hunger and the establishment of food security. After years of lip service about priorities to agriculture or the pursuit of agriculture development through investments that were biased toward both large-scale and production-oriented projects, African governments, in preparing for the 1986 Special Session of the UN that focused on Africa’s economic crisis, exhibited genuine shifts in their policies toward agriculture.