“Ireland and Malawi: Working Together to Achieve Food Security” Address by President Higgins
Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR,) Malawi, 12th November 2014
Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr. George Chaponda,
Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Dr. Emmanuel Fabiano,
Chairperson of the University Council, Prof. Zachary Kasomekera,
Vice Chancellor, Professor George Kanyama-Phiri,
Honourable Ministers,
Members of the Diplomatic Community,
Representatives from Partner Organisations, Scholars,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
It gives me particular pleasure to join you here at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. May I thank Vice Chancellor, Professor George Kanyama-Phiri, and the entire academic community for the invitation to deliver this address.
At the outset, allow me also to offer my congratulations to the University and the people of Malawi on your first 50 years as an independent country; on 20 years of multi-party democracy; and on the occasion of your first tri-partite elections in May of this year. I offer my congratulations to you, then, on behalf of the Irish people as firm friends and partners in meeting the great challenges before us.
Malawi is a vital partner for Ireland in our development cooperation programme. We are determined to maintain that partnership in the years ahead as we work towards developing agriculture and natural resource systems to provide the food nutrition and energy requirements for our present, and equally important, future generations.
As we approach the 2015 deadline for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals there is, of course, some positive news and some reasons to be optimistic as we examine the substantial progress that has been made at a global level on many of the targets.
We have halved the number of people living in extreme poverty in the world, while the target of also halving the number of global citizens suffering from hunger now appears to be within reach. Access to education has improved dramatically and major progress is being made in the fight against tuberculosis, and malaria.
But progress has been uneven, revealing stark inequalities both between and within countries and continues to be undermined by conflicts across the globe. Meanwhile the disastrous and distressing Ebola outbreak in West Africa threatens to reverse many of the hard earned gains that have been made in recent times.
As the deadline for reaching the Millennium Development Goals approaches, we enter a crucial period as we learn from what has been achieved and from the obstacles to development that remain. Ireland has the great honour of our Permanent Representative to the United Nations being appointed to co-facilitate, along with Kenya, the negotiations which will lead to the agreement of new global development goals in September 2015. In doing so, let me assure you that Ireland will work to ensure that Africa, and those African states facing the greatest development challenges, will have a central role in the process. We are committed to the building of a credible framework which can, we are hopeful, end extreme poverty and hunger in a generation by focusing on those facing the greatest needs.
Mahatma Gandhi once observed that the earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs but not for every man’s greed and those words still resound with great veracity in today’s world where more than one billion people remain undernourished, over two billion suffer from nutritional deficiencies, and almost six million children die every year from malnutrition or related diseases.
Globally one person in eight suffers from chronic hunger despite the fact that there is more than enough food produced to feed the world’s population. That the source of this hunger is not a lack of food, but of an endemic poverty created by injustice and inequality remains one of the greatest global challenges we face in the 21st century and indeed represents one of the greatest ethical failures of the current systems of global governance.
I wish to focus today on this central question of food security and the associated issues of land, poverty and gender in addressing how, working together, we have reason to be hopeful that we will resolve the questions of hunger and food security in the coming years. Before I address the substantive issues which we face in meeting the challenge of food security, however, I feel it is important to explain why this is so important to the Irish people.
The terrible vulnerability of hunger is something that reaches deep into our Irish psyche as our national history remains shadowed by the dark chapter that was the Irish Famine or the Great Hunger – An Gorta Mór – in our native language. During a few short years in the 1840s, one million people died from starvation and disease, and a million more were forced to leave our shores forever in search of a better future.
It was a famine originating from crop failure and sustained by a great failure of governance and humanity; a failure driven by a doctrinaire adherence to a flawed ideology which placed efficiency and economic gain ahead of compassion and empathy. Famine was decreed, by some authorities, perhaps, to be part of a divine plan to control growing populations. Much needed food continued to be exported while Irish people starved; and the removal of millions of tenant families led to the freeing up of estates for an investment in more profitable crops.
Issues of hunger and land ownership have had a deep resonance for the Irish ever since. This experience has echoed through the generations and has shaped the values and principles of the Irish people, motivating Ireland’s programme of overseas aid, Irish Aid, to focus on the poorest and most vulnerable. And this experience explains why hunger and nutrition are at the core of Ireland’s overseas aid programme today. We do this, not simply because we remember, but because we cannot forget.
Turning then to the challenge before us today, I believe that food security is the greatest challenge facing humanity at the start of the 21st century; but I also believe that for the first time we have reason to be hopeful that solutions can be found.
The progress which Malawi has made in prioritising nutrition has been recognised internationally. In 2013, at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in London, hosted by the UK and Brazilian governments, a number of important financial and policy commitments were made towards improved nutrition. One of these commitments was that a Global Nutrition Report would be compiled and the Government of Malawi and UK are leading the Stakeholder Group compiling this important Report which will be launched at the International Conference on Nutrition in Rome later this month.
I also congratulate the Government of Malawi on its performance in the annual hunger and nutrition commitment index. Run by the Institute of Development Studies, and supported by Irish Aid, this index ranks 45 governments on their political commitment to reduce hunger and under-nutrition. Malawi lies third on the index with only Guatemala and Peru ahead in terms of their political commitment to address hunger issues.
I believe that this level of commitment, with the right policy choices and support, can translate into equally impressive progress in reducing malnutrition in the coming years, and I wish to share with you today Ireland’s perspective on these issues.
The 2008 report of the Irish Hunger Task Force has shaped Irish foreign and development cooperation policy in recent years. That report produced three major recommendations. Firstly, that smallholder African agriculture should receive more support and resources, and special recognition be given to the role of women who are mainly the smallholder farmers. Secondly, that much greater emphasis and support should be given to nutrition, particularly early childhood nutrition. Thirdly, that Ireland should seek to play a leadership at international level on the issue of hunger and improving nutrition.
The report and its recommendations – especially the first two recommendations – were addressed to the broad international community, and I am glad to say they struck a chord and were influential in changing policy. The third recommendation, about Ireland becoming a leading voice in the fight against hunger, was obviously addressed to the Irish Government. The then Government accepted the report in its entirety and its successor, the current Government, has continued this policy.
I am glad to be able to tell you that Malawi played a part in helping shape the conclusions of this influential Hunger Task Force report. The Hunger Task Force came to Malawi in February 2008. It visited the countryside, discussed with government officials, civil society and farmers, and drew conclusions which were reflected in the final report. So my country’s political leaders and policy makers are in your debt. Our understanding of the issue of hunger is directly influenced by your experience in Malawi, and I believe that this approach – focusing on vulnerable small-holder farmers in the first instance, centring national policies on nutrition, and combining action at the international level – can provide the basis for a successful strategy.
Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting the community of Saopampeni in Salima District. It is one of 1,000 communities in the 11 most vulnerable Districts which benefit from the partnership between Malawi, Norway, UK and Ireland to roll out the “Enhancing Community Resilience Programme”. Working with NGOs the communities identified their critical vulnerabilities and designed interventions to address these. Interventions include crop diversification, village savings and loan clubs, community seed banks, livestock “pass on” schemes, energy efficient stoves, and micro irrigation amongst others.
I was greatly impressed by the community’s sense of ownership; how they used the limited resources available and how they drew on their own local knowledge to achieve such a change in their daily livelihoods. I understand that much of this knowledge and skills have originated from the University here and I commend LUANAR for its vision and support.
I also wish to commend the Malawian Government’s efforts to provide a social safety net for the poorest households in the country, through the Malawi National Social Cash Transfer Programme. Providing social cash transfers to the most vulnerable people in society is one of the more effective ways of tackling long term hunger and empowering communities with the resilience necessary to withstand external shocks including natural disasters. The Irish government is happy to partner with Malawi in supporting this work and are particularly pleased to learn that last month, for the first time, some 8,500 of the poorest households in Balaka district received their cash transfers[1].
In particular, by linking humanitarian action such as social cash transfer programmes with longer term development programmes such as public works, village savings and loans and other resilience building programmes, real progress can be made in freeing the poorest people out of the poverty cycle. If we are to prevent the tragedies of the past, then measures such as these which focus on the resilience of the most vulnerable are key – and I believe we have reason to be confident that we are making progress.
Some years earlier, Malawi made another important contribution to shaping policy on nutrition. From 2002 onwards, Concern Worldwide, one of Ireland’s leading NGOs, in partnership with Valid International, and supported by Irish Aid, conducted field tests in Malawi on a new approach to dealing with acute malnutrition. This new approach meant tackling the problem of acute malnutrition using community resources rather than the then more established therapeutic health centre approach which involved the malnourished child staying in the centre, along with the mother.
Significantly, an anthropological study conducted by the University of Malawi on the cultural and social factors affecting malnutrition influenced the design of the research and the final recommendations. Over a three year period, and drawing on the evidence from field trials in Ethiopia and South Sudan, this community based approach was shown to give much better results in terms of reducing mortality and greater coverage of the affected population.
In 2007, the United Nations formally adopted this approach – named Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) – as the standard recommended practice for dealing with acute malnutrition. It is now applied in over 70 countries. Once again, Malawi is leading the world in developing culturally sensitive and effective nutrition strategies.
Ireland is also working to build the necessary capacity in your Department of Nutrition and HIV and AIDS to roll out the country’s “Nutrition Education and Communication Strategy”. I am delighted to see that, through these efforts, LUANAR has worked with communities in designing materials and programmes to educate mother and child care groups in the poorest communities in the country. LUANAR, using traditional foods, has devised recipes for nutritious diets and the programme is making an important contribution to helping mothers at community level to help and support younger, less experienced and more vulnerable mothers.
Research and practice initiated in Malawi is now being adopted across the world. Another important dimension to understanding the social and cultural context of policy application is that of gender. I was privileged yesterday to meet with four Irish Non Governmental Organisations and a number of inspirational Malawian women with whom they work. As they prepare for their ”16 days of activism against gender violence campaign”, as part of a wider global campaign, I was inspired to hear of these women’s experience in overcoming the myriad challenges in their daily lives, dealing with HIV/AIDS, Gender Based Violence, Climate Change and the day to day challenge of providing the food, water and energy needs to their families.
Last year, a group of impressive women farmers visited Ireland for our international conference on Hunger Nutrition and Climate Justice, and a critical lesson from those women was that we must ensure that the voices and experiences of local communities are heard at the highest levels internationally.
All of these different groups of women once again underlined the centrality of women’s role in national development and the great truth spoken by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter when he states:
“Food security strategies should be judged on their ability to challenge gender roles and to truly empower women. Gender sensitivity is important, but it is not a substitute for empowerment”.
Equal access to services and productive resources must be guaranteed for women who comprise the majority of smallholder farmers in Malawi and we must ensure that policies and programmes are responsive to the realities faced by women and to their needs as carers and breadwinners.
In that regard, let me also congratulate LUANAR on their contribution to equality through the recent launch of your Diploma, Degree and Masters level courses on Gender and Development. Your partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare will help provide the country with the necessary leaders to advance gender issues over the coming decades.
Looking to the future, Ireland is convinced, as I know is Malawi, that research and innovation hold the key to tackling hunger and climate issues. Ireland is proud to have worked closely with the member organisations of the Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research, both here in Malawi and at the global level.
With the Potato Research Centre, for example, we have developed and introduced new and improved varieties of both the Irish Potato and the Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato. We have supported the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics and the Malawi Seed Industry Development Programme, which over the last five years have made significant strides in addressing the need for good quality and a sufficient quantity of seeds, particularly groundnuts.
Working with the World Agro-Forestry Centre we have also implemented a “food security through agro-forestry” programme to promote awareness of the food fuel fibre and fertiliser benefits of trees.
I commend the Malawian government in prioritising the agriculture sector in its budgeting process. With the World Bank led multi-donor trust fund, six donors have brought together much of their support to the agriculture sector. The Irish government is committed to providing very significant assistance annually for four years through this multi donor trust fund.
We know that, in addressing malnutrition, it is important to not only increase food production but to also pay serious attention to what food is being produced. Malawi’s significant and commendable progress in increasing maize production, not least through the successful Fertiliser Subsidy Programme, will not, by itself, address its hunger challenge. I would hope that the multi-donor fund will provide the necessary resources to address the maize focus of the previous decades and to devise a more balanced sector approach that restores Malawi’s former significant diversity of food production.
Investing in the infrastructure, resources and services that might enable small farmers to access local markets and distribution channels is surely important. But it is even more important that affected populations can contribute to the deliberations and decision making processes around the journey from one model of economy, society and culture to another.
Of course, the efforts being made here in Malawi and in other countries facing the challenge of food security must also be seen in the context of the global challenges of climate change and associated issues of population and land.
Climate change, which has triggered a move towards growing fuel rather than food crops, provides a new and profound challenge in the battle against famine and poverty and requires active and responsive policies that ensure that climate related decisions prioritise the needs of the most marginalised and vulnerable.
Like all visitors to Malawi, I have been hugely impressed by the beauty of your country. Your plants, trees and shrubs are very much part of this natural beauty. The beautiful purple jacaranda trees, your majestic baobab trees, your fragrant frangipane trees, your bountiful papaya and mango trees – these are all such an essential element of your amazing environment and central to the global perception of Malawi as the beautiful, “warm heart of Africa.
Reducing and reversing the loss of this natural environment must be a high priority and I am aware that the Government of Malawi is setting a target to roll out 2 million fuel efficient stoves by 2020. Ireland is proud to work with the Ministry of Energy to support the work of the national cook-stove taskforce in meeting this target.
By harnessing simple and affordable technologies, such as energy efficient stoves and solar lighting, by planning for and delivering millions of tons of bio-mass through sustainable tree and forestry management and by harnessing carbon finance for poor communities, real energy solutions can be provided for the 80% of the population who are unlikely to be able to immediately access the national electricity grid.
In Ireland, we recognise that all nations have a role and responsibility in both adapting to and mitigating against future climate change. As a member of the European Union we are firmly committed to significantly reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions and to supporting countries such as Malawi, who are on the frontline, in adapting to the growing impacts of climate change.
For our own part, Ireland is striving to become a world leader in carbon efficient agriculture and food production. Our agriculture policy has a strong focus on ensuring that the agriculture model we promote and support addresses the key environment and climate challenges we face globally and meets the strictest safety and quality criteria. We have carried out over 57,000 carbon footprint assessments on our farms and food industries, striving to ensure that the policies adopted and the investments made will ensure sustainable increased production. By the end of 2016 all of our food and drink producers will have joined the Origin Green movement.
We also carry this commitment to our engagement at the multilateral level and at the recent United Nations General Assembly, Ireland expressed its intention to join the new Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture. This alliance brings together governments, farmers, scientists, businesses, and civil society, as well as regional unions and international organisations. The alliance aims to improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices, food systems and social policies so that they better take account of climate change and the efficient use of natural resources.
Linked to the issue of climate change and the pressure this can place on land use, we must also consider the most appropriate ways to maximise land production while respecting the position of small landholders. If one is to develop a commercial sector that is sustainable, that moves on from sufficiency, and is responsive to cultural and intuitive wisdom, then more is needed in addition or, more accurately, as alternative to, the expansion of large plantations.
In many parts of Africa unequal distribution and access to land remains a structural form of inequality. In other areas, the phenomenon of ‘land grabbing’ whereby large swathes of the countryside that are considered “idle” are being sold or transferred through long-term leases to (usually foreign) investors is a major source of concern. According to Professor Ruth Hall, from the University of Cape Town, some 56 to 227 million hectares have changed hands globally over the last 5 to 10 years, with African land making up 60 to 70% of those large land deals.
There is no question that the demographic challenge, in particular the need to provide for growing demand in the continent’s mushrooming cities, calls for pro-active policy responses. It can also be asserted with some substance that the industrial, or commercial, model of agriculture may in some areas offer attractive productivity gains.
However, one might rightfully interrogate the rationale underpinning those massive transfers of land, organised in the name of the ‘modernisation’ of African agriculture and the need to achieve more ‘efficient food production.’ Are these objectives to be pursued at the expense of the food security of the local farming population?
Before concluding today I want to pay tribute once again to the academic staff and students of LUANAR with which Ireland has been fortunate to enjoy a growing and very beneficial relationship.
LUANAR, with your agriculture, natural resource and nutrition focus is uniquely positioned to input and inform a prosperous and sustainable Malawi. The students here today are amongst the brightest and best in Malawi. You and your families have made great sacrifices to enable you to study here in LUANAR. You can and must build the vital link between research and the experiences of your people.
I would encourage you to emphasise the importance of intellectual curiosity and intellectual courage to challenge the perceived wisdom and orthodoxies. I would go further and say that that it is essential that you, the leaders of tomorrow, identify the failed models of the past, and imagine exciting new possibilities for your future.
As we look back on the history of the relationship between Ireland and Malawi over the last century, and as we consider our present partnership, I very much look forward to a renewed Irish, European, and international partnership with Malawi; one that by 2030 will eliminate extreme poverty; leave a cleaner and greener planet for posterity; and spare no effort in placing human rights at the centre of our collective efforts to promote peace and security everywhere and for everyone.
Finally I would like to extend my very sincere thanks to Professor George Kanyama Phiri, Vice Chancellor; his team of staff; and the students, for hosting me here at LUANAR today. I thank you all most sincerely for your warm welcome and attention and I look forward to our discussions.
[1] Note the actual amount is 2,700 kwach per month (approximately €5.20)