Statement at the Southern Africa Beating Famine Conference; Lilongwe, Malawi; April 14, 2015

1. Statement at the Southern Africa Beating Famine Conference; Lilongwe, Malawi; April 14, 2015
Fostering Sustainability and Resilience for Food Security in Sub Saharan Africa
Mohamed I Bakarr, PhD
Global Environment Facility
On behalf of the GEF management, let me first thank all the partners,and especially the co-hosts World
Vision and World Agroforestry Center, that pulled together this important conference. It is this kind of
collaborative engagement we need in order to strengthen a movement for natural resource management in
Africa; one that places at the heart of African agriculture, the importance of sustainability and resilience
for the soil, water,biodiversity and all of nature’s services that underpin productivity. This is what we
need to ensure that the pervasive threat of food insecurity and famines becomes a thing of the past.
As I am sure we are all aware,the planet's population is headed for 9 billion in the next three decades,
with up to 2 billion projected for Sub-Saharan Africa alone, where hunger is already pervasive and 24
percent of people are undernourished. This subcontinent also has the world’s lowest crop yields, with
cerealyields one-half of the world average. In addition, soil quality is poor throughout much of the
region, depleted of organic matter and nutrients. So let’s face it, feeding this burgeoning population is
going to be a challenge.
Sub Saharan Africa is now a major focus of global attention for addressing food security. It is also fast
becoming a target for food production globally. Current efforts to improve African agriculture are
overwhelmingly focused on intensification with high fertilizer inputs and high yielding varieties. But as
countries embrace intensification and modernization of agriculture, it is important to draw lessons from
the Asian Green Revolution with respect to environmental consequences – both good and bad.
Intensification through high-yielding varieties, chemical fertilizers, and irrigation can result in
considerable increases in yields, but in many cases the environmental costs may overwhelm the benefits;
and in Sub Saharan Africa, costs of water scarcity,soil erosion, loss of genetic resources will be
exacerbated by climate change.
So, while short-term productivity results are expected from intensification, the sustainability of
agriculture especially for the millions of smallholder farmers that dominate the sector,is likely to be
compromised. That is, unless we do the things necessary to keep the water flowing and the soil healthy,
and to maintain indigenous and adaptive crop varieties and livestock breeds on which millions of
smallholder farmers depend for their survival. And we know that degradation of the continent’s fragile
ecologies and biodiversity will also have severe consequences for the global environment.
It is against this backdrop of challenges and opportunities outlined that the GEF is proposing an
Integrated Approach Pilot program on “Fostering Sustainability and Resilience for Food Security in Sub
Saharan Africa.” The program is intended to strengthen the management of natural capital and ecosystem
services in the ongoing transformation of African agriculture. This approach will bridge the gap between
traditional practices of smallholder farmers and intensified systems that seek higher yields, leading to
intensification that is both sustainable and resilient.

2. The GEF as financial mechanism of global environmental conventions is well placed to help countries
safeguard valuable ecosystem services that underpin sustainability and resilience of agricultural systems
in the continent’s most vulnerable regions. The proposed program will engage a diversity of actors and
partners at national and regional level, to promote policy and investment options for scaling up
interventions, and innovative tools for monitoring and assessment of ecosystem services.
This approach is in line with the commitment of countries to the Comprehensive African Agricultural
Development Program of the Africa Union, and will be reinforced through a high-level partnership
framework that involves development agencies,scientific institutions, the private sector, foundations, and
grassroots organizations.
The focus of the program is on the dryland regions where food insecurity is exacerbated by effects of
climate change – the Sahel, Eastern Africa and the Horn, and the Southern Africa mixed-maize system.
Countries in these regions are well placed to harness options for soil and water conservation, increasing
food diversity on farmlands, and for integrated management of crops and livestock.
Through a series of consultations over the last 8 months organized jointly with IFAD, UNEP and several
GEF Agencies, we have secured full commitment of 12 countries (including Malawi and Swaziland from
this region) to design and implement this innovative program. GEF financing will be driven by priorities
of the countries, and it will be deployed in the context of planned or existing initiatives designed to
address challenges of smallholder agriculture. As a result, we can expect millions of smallholder farmers
to enhance and benefit from valuable ecosystem services that will keep their farms productive in the long-
term.
Once approved and fully designed, a grant of just over US$120 million from the GEF is envisaged to
generate as much as US$1 billion in co-financing from the participating countries and partners. The
portfolio of investments will play an important role in advancing our collective aspirations for an African
that embraces the management of natural capital and ecosystem services for sustainability and resilience.
Let me close by once again thanking you all on behalf of the GEF Secretariat and wish us all a very
fruitful and productive conference.