At a Glance

 

Feature Reflection

Millions Face Starvation as EA Grapples with Spiralling Inflation Rates

Zacharia Chiliswa

The Eastern Africa region (Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and Tanzania) is prone to perennial droughts that lead to cute food shortage. A quick look on food situation in the region reveals disquieting realities; recent reports by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) indicate that the region is a high food insecure zone.

The sharp deteriorating livelihood of millions of people—the poor and landless need to have an option to these glaring realities. The political realities in some countries in the region dim hopes of having a comprehensive approach to being food secure. With record of over 14 million people in dire need of food according to World Food Program (WFP), its high time governments rethought their approach in handling regional food issues.

Some of the challenges being cited are; recurrent droughts, floods, inflation of basic needs, high energy cost, political tensions (post polls violence in Kenya), conflicts (Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia) and general reduced food production. The \high inflation on basic commodities and energy being experienced in the region has prompted Tanzania and Uganda to impose restrictions on movement of food. Where food is available, governments in developing countries are grappling with soaring food prices.

The situation poses new challenges to governments and humanitarian organisations in the region as they try to respond to the crisis. The poor urban, landless and rural household are most hard hit. With cutting poverty, a huge population cannot access food. It is at this point the raging debate on Genetically Engineered food enters the picture with policy makers underlining how it could be the key to unravelling the perennial food shortage in developing world; a position that needs to be scrutinised

 Over the years the situation has been more less the same; reports describing the region facing cute food shortage, starvation, and in some case deaths resulting from hunger. The gross national calorie intake in many African countries remains below the standard nutritional requirements and it evident that there is a rapid decline in relation to the developing regions of the world. As expected the main diet is still derived from cereals and tuber.

 As respective governments in these countries grapple with the dragging efforts to national policies on bio-safety regulation, attaining food security is still a mirage. A quick preview of the region’s attempt, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia has ratified the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (the protocol is an international agreement on biosafety, a supplement to the Convention on Biological Diversity) while Tanzania has accession to it.

The Biosafety Protocol makes clear that products from new technologies must be based on the precautionary principle and allow developing nations to balance public health against economic benefits. However, it is important to note that ratification remains a futile exercise if the articles are not domesticated into municipal law, which is the case in Kenya.

Attempts underway to draft policy regulation on GMOs are yet to capture pertinent issues. For instance, failure to safeguard farmers’ and consumer rights exposes them to huge risks. A case in point is a recent importation of contaminated seeds from South Africa to Kenya. In light with these realities countries needs to have effective policy to deal with imports of a genetically modified product and perhaps ban if they feel there is not enough scientific evidence the product is safe and requires exporters to label their shipments.

The attempts to formulate national regulatory bodies it appears is not in sync with the Protocol’s aims of ensuring adequate level of protection in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of 'living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology' that may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health, and specifically focusing on trans-boundary movements (Article 1 of the Protocol, SCBD 2000).

Networks of NGOs and other civil society groups have been involved in lobbying policy makers to consult widely before regulatory measures are put in place. Myriad of issues ranging from social-ethical, patent rights, economic implication, cultural values and liability in case of damage have not been adequately dealt with. Given the fact that before attaining food security, the region still relies on food aid, how to deal with the catch-22 situation of controlled use of GMO imports is paramount.

Attempts in Kenya draft a national policy, critics say does not adequately capture the concerns, to protect the environment, human health and biodiversity from the risks posed by GMOs and its related activities. They further state that the attempt is to merely put in place a system for approval of applications for imports, export, placing on the market and release into the environment of GMOs.

The efforts to put in place regulatory measures need to capture the regional outlook and trends in managing food security. As the region moves towards the formation of a political federation, that spirit needs to be captured in the development and management of bio-technology and safe use in dealing with food crisis. There is need to have a common front in addressing the food sufficiency agenda; to be able to provide an option to the marginally poor and landless.

It is no secret that GMOs are at the heart of new global conflict, without harmonized food policies in dealing with the social-economical impact of the technology either in direct or indirect risks posed to the environment, human health and ethical values, the situation of food insecurity in region cannot be dealt with effectively. Governments in the region have failed to put in place food policies that attract long-term investments in food production despite agriculture sector being the back born.

 

 

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