African Security Review, Vol 12 No 1

EDITORIAL FOOD SECURITY AND HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCIES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA The end of the Cold War in 1989 opened of the state even to the extent of severely the way for a resumption of a more open circumscribing human rights usually debate on security issues, freed from the regarded as sacrosanct in a democracy. In shackles of ideologically expressed bloc effect the official security agenda had moved formation. In some respects the years that back to a position not unlike that prevailing followed saw the re-emergence of the during the Cold War. human rights debate that had characterised Other analysts, from a non-government the years immediately following the end of perspective, drew different conclusions, and World War II, and the foundation of the sought to use the events to draw attention to UN. Not least among those urging a the glaring inequities of a global order broadening and deepening of the concept of moving apparently inexorably towards the security has been the current UN secretary- marginalisation of the majority of people, general, Kofi Annan, who has time and again especially in the South. For these analysts drawn attention to the importance of the events of 11 September served as a making people rather than states the reminder of the need to focus increasingly essential reference point in any discussion of on human rather than national security, security. ‘Human security’ has become a which so easily transforms itself into state, buzz-phrase in the public arena, with all the and eventually elite, security. threats that this implies for becoming For Africa, there is every danger that, in virtually meaningless. Only by locating their official policy positions, the rich threats to human security in particular countries of the North will continue to contexts and events can we really bring our concentrate on state security to the virtual critical faculties to bear upon the dilemmas exclusion of human security—a concept to which it draws attention. with which they are less comfortable since it The dichotomy between extreme would demand that they address certain conceptions of human security and their systemic sources of global inequity. Yet an traditional state-centred counterparts was emphasis on people-centred security as an highlighted by global reactions to the tragic adjunct to that of state security is essential if events of 11 September 2001. While this peace and development are to be secured by response was almost unanimous in its Africa’s masses. In what we are assured is a condemnation of the attacks, the globalising world, security is indivisible, and identification of the most efficacious long- cannot be reduced to the operations of term counter-measures differed quite police and other security agencies. Stability starkly. and security are by no means synonymous, For some, the war against global terror for security cannot be equated with the would involve strengthening the apparatus maintenance of an inequitable status quo 2 African Security Review 12(1) • 2003 except by the cynical beneficiaries of this ‘natural hazards’, conflict, structural poverty, arrangement. political crises, and the relatively new Many more people are currently exposed scourge of HIV/AIDS, all in the context of to non-traditional threats to their security the global market for food. than to death either directly or indirectly as The second article, by Julia Stewart, a a consequence of armed conflict. Famine, consultant to the UN World Food HIV/AIDS, disease, and other manifestations Programme based in South Africa, was of maldevelopment all constitute endemic commissioned to provide a rare insight into threats to the livelihoods and lives of the practical difficulties and operational Africans. Of course, some of these non- complexities of providing emergency food military threats do contribute or lead to assistance to millions of people in the armed conflict. They also complicate the Southern African region. Of particular construction of some kind of post-conflict interest are the observations about the reconstitution of society. differences in Southern Africa’s own ability It is in recognition of the significance of to respond to this crisis in comparison with non-traditional threats to the well-being of that of 1992–93. Once again the variable of millions of Africans that we have dedicated a HIV/AIDS and the pandemic’s capacity to section of the African Security Review to the undermine social mechanisms of economic issue of food security and humanitarian support are thrown sharply into focus. assistance. The coverage possible here is by The third article, by Ailsa Holloway of no means exhaustive, and merely seeks to the University of Cape Town, serves as a highlight certain key issues, but should salutary warning against complacency and provoke thought on an essential aspect of the triumphalism of those who expect the human security. alleviation of human misery to be easily In the first feature article Jenny Clover attainable. Though there is a great deal of addresses the paradox of growing global rhetoric about the possibility of achieving food insecurity despite massive increases in sustainable development in the foreseeable overall production. Nowhere is this situation future, the reality is far bleaker. In addition, more apparent than in Africa, where famine there has grown a tendency to rely almost currently threatens the lives or livelihoods of exclusively on external assistance to mitigate many millions of people. Though recurring disasters once they have occurred, instead of climatic extremes account partly for the building into domestic policy processes the situation, the relationship between food anticipation of periodic and systemic threats availability and food security is by no means to food security. as straightforward as it seems at first glance, It is to be hoped that the publication of and these threats to human security will these articles will promote the discussion of continue to recur until a broader view food and human security, particularly in prevails that integrates the issues of food those circles more accustomed to availability, access and affordability. The participating in the traditional security article also covers the linkages between debate. FEATURE FOOD SECURITY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA JENNY CLOVER The right to food is one of those most consistently mentioned in international human rights documents, but it is the one most frequently violated in recent times. Targets set by the World Food Summit in 1996 for the reduction of hunger have largely failed, despite food production having grown faster than world population. Global, national and human security issues are increasingly converging, and in some regions overlapping. Some 840 million people worldwide are malnourished, the highest percentage of these being in Africa. The magnitude of the problem in Africa has now reached unprecedented crisis levels—some 38 million people face “an urgent and imminent threat to their peace, security and stability”. The reasons why action plans to address food security have continued to fall short can be attributed to faulty analysis and faulty actions. What is needed is an understanding that goes beyond conventional, orthodox wisdom to work more strategically in developing and implementing effective, international, national and regional policies. Availability, access and affordability are all elements of food security, complex issues that encompass a wide range of interrelated economic, social and political factors, internal and external, which challenge Africa’s ability to address food security. Ultimately hunger is a political creation which must be ended by political means. Introduction consumption in the 48 Least Developed Countries declined, while for developing No human right has been so frequently and countries as a whole it improved. spectacularly violated in recent times as the Worldwide the trends are alarming as right to food,1 despite the fact that it is one progress in reducing hunger in the of the most consistently enshrined rights in developing world has slowed to a crawl and international human rights law, as in most regions the number of constantly reaffirmed by governments. undernourished people is actually growing, Concerns generated by the food crisis of the despite the fact that world food production mid-1970s led to world leaders accepting for has grown faster than world population in the first time the common responsibility of the past three decades. The latest estimates the international community to abolish indicate that some 840 million people were hunger and malnutrition. Nevertheless, undernourished in 1998–2000—11 million between 1980 and 1998 per capita food in the industrialised countries, 30 million in JENNY CLOVER is a researcher at the ISS. 6 African Security Review 12(1) • 2003 countries in transition, and 799 million in 30 years. Chronic food insecurity now the developing world.2 affects some 28% of the population—that is, The 1996 World Food Summit (WFS) set nearly 200 million people who are suffering a target of a reduction in the number of from malnutrition. Acute food insecurity in hungry people by at least 20 million every 2003 is affecting 38 million people in Africa year between 2000 and 2015. While some who are facing the outright risk of famine, regions made impressive progress over the with 24,000 dying from hunger daily. two decades preceding 2000, demonstrating Famines are the most visible and extreme that hunger is not an intractable problem,3 manifestation of acute food insecurity. Of the latest figures on numbers of the 39 countries worldwide that faced food undernourished worldwide reveal that since emergencies at the beginning of 2003, 25 the 1996 WFS, the average annual decrease are found in Africa. has been only 2.5 million, far below the level The African continent is now the required to reach the WFS goal of halving continent receiving most food aid, with the number of undernourished people by some 30 million people requiring emergency 2015.

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