-Alfred Ajayi
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 to serve as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. The agenda is sustained by 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by both developed and developing countries in a global partnership.
This is in recognition of the fact that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth, while also tackling climate change and working towards the preservation of the oceans and forests.
The SDGs are a product of decades of tireless work by countries and the UN, including the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. They replaced the Millennium Development Goals, which ended in 2015 with many countries not being able to achieve most of the goals. This birthed the compelling need for a more comprehensive and inclusive framework to address global challenges beyond 2015.
Retrospectively, the MDGs, established in 2000, consisted of eight goals focused primarily on poverty reduction, education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, and global partnership. While progress was made in many areas, the MDGs were limited on many fronts including the narrow focus on developing countries while it didn’t give attention to issues such as inequality, climate change, and sustainable development.
The SDGs are a set of 17 interconnected goals designed to address a wider range of social, economic, and environmental challenges facing the world. They were built upon the achievements and lessons learned from the MDGs while incorporating new priorities such as climate action, peace, justice, and strong institutions. They aim to be more universal, applying to all countries, and emphasize the interconnectedness of development issues.
Sine eradicating extreme poverty and hunger was the first of the eight MDGs, it is therefore expedient to analyze how Nigeria faired as a nation in this regard. While the country made progress in addressing the problem of extreme poverty and hunger, significant challenges persisted, accounting for its abysmal rating by the World Poverty Clock (a tool used to track poverty progress worldwide). Nigeria occupies 46th position in its poverty ranking with 71 million citizens in extreme poverty, according to its 2023 data. Also, the National Bureau of Statistics classifies 133 million people as multi-dimensionally poor.
In terms of food security, Nigeria faced challenges in achieving food security for all its citizens. Despite being an agrarian country, food insecurity remained prevalent, especially in rural areas as factors such as low agricultural productivity, inadequate infrastructure, and climate-related risks undermined the national food security programme.
Disparities between rural and urban areas held sway throughout the implementation period of MDGs with rural populations more affected by poverty and food insecurity. Limited access to basic services such as healthcare, education, clean water, and sanitation exacerbated poverty and hunger. The latter part of MDGs implementation was marred by wide spread conflicts and insecurity especially in the Northeastern part of the country where insurgent groups like Boko Haram, through their reign of terror, worsened the indices. Agricultural activities were ground to a halt with killings, displacement, and loss of livelihoods.
These challenges underscore the importance of sustained efforts and targeted interventions to address the root causes of poverty and hunger in Nigeria. One would have thought that the goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is “Zero Hunger,” targeted at ending hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030, will offer some hope. Sadly, the prevailing reality across the country is heart-breaking when one compares the objectives of the goal 2 and the current happenings in various parts of the country.
The SDG of ending hunger seeks to ensure that everyone, everywhere, has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food all year round. This will eradicate extreme hunger and malnutrition, especially among vulnerable populations such as children and pregnant women. It is targeted at ensuring food security which encompasses not only availability but also accessibility, affordability, and quality of food.
The goal 2 equally recognizes the crucial role of agriculture in achieving food security and nutrition while preserving natural resources and ecosystems. This underscores the need for sustainable agricultural practices which enhance productivity, resilience, and adaptation to climate change, while also minimizing environmental impact.
As lofty as this goal is, there are indications that the country may not meet up again. Despite that it has made progress towards the goal, there are daunting challenges capable of robbing the nation of the benefits of attaining it. while the Federal and by extension some state government are making commendable efforts in terms of agricultural interventions, food security programs as well as initiatives to improve nutrition, issues like poverty, conflict, and climate change continue to impact food access and nutrition outcomes.
Insecurity has grown in spate and frequency engulfing the entire country as no part can be said to be totally free from its dangerous outcomes. This reality has badly impacted food production in various parts of the country including the southern states which were relatively peaceful many years ago. As a result, it is anticipated that food insecurity may result sooner than previously anticipated.
The Federal Government is acknowledged for its agricultural transformation programme geared towards improving agricultural productivity, modernizing farming techniques, and promoting sustainable agriculture practices, while several other strategies are being implemented including the establishment of the National Food Security Council and the formulation of the National Food and Nutrition Policy, meant to address food security challenges and ensure access to nutritious food for all citizens.
There are also the nutrition interventions focused on improving nutrition outcomes, including micronutrient supplementation, maternal and child nutrition interventions, and promoting breastfeeding practices. Some visible and commendable investments have equally been made in terms of infrastructure as roads, irrigation systems, and storage facilities are being put in place to support agricultural production and food distribution.
The government has implemented several social safety nets programmes to support vulnerable populations, including cash transfer programs and school feeding programs. Various policies have been formulated to promote food security and agricultural development, including land reforms, trade policies, and regulatory measures to support smallholder farmers and food producers.
These efforts, among others, are aimed at addressing the root causes of hunger and malnutrition in Nigeria and moving towards the goal of zero hunger. However, the story is sadly the same as no appreciable progress has been made in terms of putting the nation on the path of achieving zero hunger by 2030.
There is need to identify and patriotically address the missing gaps in all of these great initiatives. The role played by corruption in our collective failure to achieve lofty goals cannot be overemphasized. Therefore, the anti corruption war must be intensified to eliminate all encumbrances to achieving lofty national goals including zero hunger. People undermining effective implementation of policies and programmes of government must be fished out and prosecuted accordingly.
For many people, achieving zero hunger is elusive as long as we fail as a people to address the worsening poverty indices as well as wide-spread hunger and deprivation.
However, hope is not lost as some steps can still be taken to address these hydra-headed challenges and put Nigeria on the path of food security.
Achieving zero hunger and food security needs a multifaceted and multi-stakeholder approach.
First of all, the federal and sub-national governments must re-jig and redesign their security architectures to cater for old and new trends of insecurity across the country. Beyond political affiliations, the federal, state and local governments must synergize to rid the nation of all forms of insecurity which have worsened hunger and starvation across the land. The farmers can only be remobilized back to farm with a sure assurance of watertight security.
Besides, investment in agriculture is a critical incentive capable of boosting agricultural productivity. All the tiers of government must make deliberate massive investments in modern farming techniques, infrastructure, and research. Farmers should be incentivized with grants, low interest loans, subsidized inputs, improved crop/livestock varieties and modern farm equipment.
Smallholder farmers must be particularly supported to produce sufficient food for the nation. Food security will remain an elusive dream as long as smallholder farmers, who constitute up to seventy percent of the entire agriculture workforce, are not given adequate attention by the government. They must be provided with unfettered access to credit, training, information and technology that can enhance their productivity and income.
Another proven strategy for food security is diversification of crops. Farmers in the country must be encouraged to plant different varieties of crops (both short and long duration crops) to increase productivity, improve food security and beat the devastating impacts of climate change on crop yield. With diversified farming system, farmers can prevent total loss and build greater resilience to climate change.
The country equally needs efficient storage system and food distribution networks. The storage facilities will take care of avoidable losses farmers incur as a result of their inability to store their harvested produce for a long time. They are often compelled to sell at give-away prices and at the end they have no profit to justify the drudgery and sufferings they went through during the planting season.
Efficient distribution networks are equally required to ensure that food reaches those in need whether they are in rural or urban settlements. This will in turn become an incentive for farmers to increase their productivity level with the firm assurance that the usual post-harvest losses have been taken care of.
Ending hunger also requires nutrition education, with a particular focus on raising awareness about the importance of a balanced diet and the need to combat malnutrition. Such education will take place at various levels at religious centres, village squares, schools, health facilities etc.
Greater efforts must be geared towards tackling poverty which is the root cause of hunger. Having over 130 million Nigerians who are multi-dimensionally poor is unacceptable and strategies must be evolved by the government supported by the private sector towards reversing the trend. This will be possible when economic opportunities are created for the citizenry leading to improved livelihoods.
Most importantly, there must be a working synergy between the government, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and international organizations. All of them must have to pool resources towards successful implementation of national hunger reduction strategies.
Alfred Ajayi is a journalist, editor, and media trainer, who is passionate about Health, Education, Gender, Agriculture and Climate Change. Email: alfredajayi2019@gmail.com
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