Hunger in Africa has persisted majorly because food systems have developed unevenly and often without strong, coordinated policy guidance. Over time, population growth, climate instability, conflict, and economic shocks have placed increasing pressure on already fragile agricultural systems.
Africa remains a region in the world where the number of undernourished people continues to rise, making hunger both a humanitarian issue and a policy failure that demands structural solutions.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) operates at the centre of this challenge. FAO’s role is frequently misunderstood as food distribution or emergency feeding. In reality, its core mandate in Africa is to help governments design, strengthen, and implement agricultural and food policies that prevent hunger before it occurs.
In this article, we will discuss what the FAO’s policy update has achieved and why partnerships are more important across Africa.
FAO’s approach to hunger in Africa is grounded in prevention. Rather than waiting for food shortages to escalate into emergencies, FAO works with governments to strengthen the systems that determine how food is produced, distributed, priced, and accessed. These systems are shaped primarily by policy. When agricultural policies are weak, fragmented, or outdated, farmers struggle to produce efficiently, markets fail to function, and households lose access to affordable food.
By 2026, FAO’s work will increasingly emphasis food systems thinking. This means looking beyond farming alone and addressing how agriculture connects with climate policy, trade regulations, nutrition standards, land governance, and social protection systems. Hunger, from FAO’s perspective, is the outcome of multiple policy choices interacting over time, not a single failure of production.
One of FAO’s most influential contributions in Africa is its support for continent-wide agricultural policy coordination under the leadership of the African Union. Africa comprises 55 countries, each with its own agricultural priorities and political realities. Without a shared framework, these differences often lead to fragmented policies that weaken regional food markets and undermine collective food security.
FAO provides technical support to African Union institutions responsible for agricultural development, particularly in shaping long-term continental strategies that guide national action. The post-Malabo agricultural framework for 2026–2035 reflects this collaboration. It sets out a shared vision for increasing agricultural productivity, improving nutrition, strengthening resilience to climate shocks, and expanding intra-African food trade.
The value of this coordination lies in consistency. When countries align their agricultural policies around common goals, they can share data, manage transboundary risks such as drought and pests, and trade food more efficiently within the continent.
At the national level, FAO works directly with governments to improve the quality of agricultural and food policies. Many African countries still rely on policies that were designed decades ago, long before climate change, rapid urbanisation, or global market volatility became dominant forces. These outdated frameworks often fail to support smallholder farmers, overlook nutrition outcomes, or ignore environmental sustainability.
FAO assists governments in reviewing and reforming these policies, so they reflect current realities. This process involves integrating climate adaptation into agricultural planning, ensuring that food and nutrition objectives are clearly defined. It also aligns agricultural strategies with broader economic and social development plans. Effective national policy reform has a direct impact on hunger.
When farmers have clear land rights, access to quality inputs, and stable market regulations, food production becomes more reliable. When food safety standards are enforced and nutrition is prioritised, households gain better access to safe and nutritious diets. FAO’s policy work seeks to create these enabling conditions.
A recurring challenge in Africa is the gap between policy commitments and legal enforcement. Agricultural strategies may exist on paper, but without supportive legislation, they may lack funding, continuity, and accountability. FAO recognised this and has expanded its engagement with legislative bodies across the continent.
By working with national parliaments and the Pan-African Parliament, FAO helps lawmakers understand the link between agriculture, nutrition, and national development. This legislative dimension is essential for long-term impact. Laws give agricultural and food policies durability beyond political cycles. When food security commitments are embedded in legislation, they are harder to abandon during changes in government or periods of economic stress. FAO’s work with legislators therefore, helps transform agriculture from a discretionary sector into a protected national priority.
FAO’s experience across Africa has shown that hunger cannot be solved by isolated interventions or by a single institution acting alone. Food insecurity results from interconnected failures across agriculture, health, trade, climate, finance, and governance. Because these systems intersect, FAO’s 2026 strategy places partnerships at the centre of its approach, not as supporting tools, but as essential instruments for achieving scale and sustainability.
At the continental level, FAO works closely with African Union institutions, such as the African Union Development Agency–NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), the African Union Commission (AUC), and the African Parliament (PAP) to ensure that national agricultural policies align with shared regional goals. This coordination strengthens collective action and reduces policy fragmentation. It enables countries to respond more effectively to transboundary challenges such as climate shocks, pest outbreaks, and food price volatility.
FAO also partners with other United Nations agencies such as UNICEF and WHO to address the broader determinants of hunger. Agriculture alone cannot eliminate malnutrition if health systems are weak, education systems fail to promote nutrition awareness, or climate policies undermine food production. By linking agriculture with health, education, and climate action, FAO helps governments adopt integrated policies that reflect the true complexity of food systems and human development.
Scaling impact requires financing, and this is where partnerships with development banks and international donors become critical. Some of these development banks are the World Bank Group (IBRD/IDA/IFC), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), European Investment Bank (EIB). FAO supports governments in translating policy priorities into investment-ready programmes that can attract funding at scale. These partnerships help move agricultural development beyond pilot projects and ensure that successful policy ideas are backed by the financial resources useful for farmers and consumers.
The private sector also plays a vital role in transforming food systems. FAO engages with agribusinesses, input suppliers, processors, and market actors to strengthen agricultural value chains and improve producers’ market access. When policies are aligned with private-sector participation, farmers are connected to markets, post-harvest losses are reduced, and food becomes more accessible and affordable for consumers.
Equally important are FAO’s partnerships with civil society organisations and farmer associations, such as West African Farmers’ Organisation (ROPPA), Pan African Farmers Organisation (PAFO), and the African Civil Society Network for Nutrition (ACSON). These actors ensure that policies reflect local realities and that vulnerable groups are not excluded from decision-making. By amplifying farmer voices and community perspectives, FAO helps governments design inclusive policies that work at the grassroots level, where hunger is most deeply felt.
FAO’s battle against hunger in Africa is fundamentally a policy-driven effort. By working at continental, national, and local levels, FAO helps African countries address the structural causes of hunger rather than its symptoms.
