By: Nghiinomenwa Erastus
To enable the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, particularly zero hunger and climate action, the Environment Investment Fund has partnered up with the World Food Programme.
The two announced their partnership in a statement released this week
The two organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding as collaboration for the management of programmes under the Sustainable Development Goals: 2 (Zero hunger), 13 (Climate Action) and 17 (Partnerships).
The partners envision providing capacity strengthening to the Namibian government in the journey towards Zero hunger by 2030.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is mandated to ensure vulnerable populations in Namibia strengthen the evidence for food systems.
WFP country director George Fedha explained that to accelerate the journey towards zero hunger and the food and nutrition security agenda, WFP has identified key entry points through three key strategic pillars.
The first strategic pillar is rural transformation, secondly, establishing sustainable food systems and human capital development as key focus areas and support to the government.
In addition to these pillars, he added that cross-cutting areas of digital transformation, women and youth empowerment and job creation have also been prioritised.
THE COUNTRY’S FOOD STATUS
According to the WFP, currently, most households’ diets are associated with high levels of nutrient deficiency.
This is evident in the high levels of stunting at 24% and wasting and 6% among children 0-54 months.
A lack of diversification characterises the country in terms of food production. Local food production is dominated mainly by staples such as maise, millet, sorghum, and very limited other nutrient-dense crops.
Namibia has a high dependence on food imports, where the country imports 60% plus of the total needs in the country.
Given that on average in Namibia, 70% plus of Namibians rely on market access for food, the WFP assessment revealed.
Food production is also impacted by climate change.
This is very evident for Namibia, where for the past 10-15 years, the country has continued to experience drought and floods, which have led to a significant reduction in food production.
This consequently fuels the dependence on food imports.
The WFP and EIF highlighted that smallholder farmers are more vulnerable to climate shocks. This vulnerability results from 100% dependence on rainfed agriculture.
“This has been evident during times when the country has experienced drought, where the average yield per hectare cultivated has significantly dropped for those in the communal agriculture sector leading to a drop in the local food production,” the two bodies wrote.
Another challenge noted is limited access to markets for smallholder farmers.
The WFP explained that limited access had impacted the commercialisation process of smallholder farmers whose product has a minimal market and cannot compete on an equal footing with the commercial farmers.
“This has disincentivised farmers and in turn discouraged increased production,” the WFP wrote.
The same findings have also been highlighted by the country’s agricultural lender, Agribank- saying that upcoming producers (youth and women) struggle to get off-takers for their outputs.
EIF, chief executive officer Benedict Libanda, explained that to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, it is paramount that industries and individuals harness their knowledge of materials and financial resources.
To ensure the safety and Prosperity of people and natural environments in our country.
For this reason, the EIF is ready to partner with entities such as WFP as a demonstration of commitment in championing SDGs.
“We need to work together to find solutions that are sustainable and durable and that recognise our interdependence as institutions,” stated Libandaa. Email: erastus@thevillager.com.na