highest alert level, meaning they have populations facing starvation either now or in the near future. “Hotspots of very high concern” are the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Pakistan, the Sahel region, Sudan and Syria, as they have a large number of people facing critically acute food insecurity, coupled with worsening trands that are expected to further intensify life-threating conditions in the coming months. “Hotspots of high concern” include
Guatemala, Honduras, Madagascar, Malawi, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, in which acute food insecurity is likely to deepen further. Sanitation – the forgotten little brother “Sanitation has always been given the separate treatment,” said Shyama V. Ramani, UNU-MERIT Professorial Fellow and Founder-Director of the Friend In Need India Trust, an NGO that deals with sanitation issues. SDG 6 may nominally be about water, but the sanitation component is just as
Sanitation has always been given the separate treatment.
SMALLHOLDER AGRICULTURE CLUSTER PROJECT
Shyama V. Ramani, UNU-MERIT Professorial Fellow
Zimbabwe, a landlocked country in Southern Africa, is one of the hunger hotspots of high concern. Persistent economic challenges, high food and fuel prices, and the impact of localized dry conditions on 2022 crop production are expected to worsen acute food insecurity conditions. During the peak lean season from January to March 2023, an estimated 3.8 million people are projected to face acute food insecurity – a deterioration of 29.8 percent from last year. With the value of the national currency in freefall combined with soaring global inflation, this figure is likely to rise even further. To help improve food security in the country, the OPEC Fund has approved a US$15 million
the small-scale farming sector and increase farmers’ participation in market-oriented and climate-smart value chains. “In Zimbabwe, nearly 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture as a source of livelihood. In order to support food security, there is an urgent need for coordinated global partnerships among international development financiers,” says Bah Aly Bah, OPEC Fund Country Manager for Eastern and Southern Africa. “The country has some 1.3 million smallholder farmers and around 18,000 medium to large scale farmers. However, agricultural productivity remains low and malnutrition is a major problem. Through the financing of the SACP the OPEC Fund has significantly contributed to improving the productivity and sustainability of smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe,” highlights Bah. The project will target urban and rural agricultural production and food-trading corridors in 5 provinces and benefit 78,000 small- scale farmers. Fifty percent of the beneficiaries will be women and at least 30 percent will be youth.
important, as it relates to other SDGs such as health and the conservation of ecosystems. One of the many issues of eliminating open defecation, one of the SDG 6 targets, is not so much building a toilet, but maintaining it too. Additionally, not all toilets are created equal. “Many governments are now admitting that pit latrines are dangerous and not a solution,” Ramani added. Though pit latrines do take a step away from open defecation, flooding and seepage into groundwater can lead to far worse problems. According to the UN SDG progress report, most of Africa and West, Central and South Asia are acutely impacted by poor sanitation services and have shown little progress towards developing safe sanitation systems. “I don’t think it’s on track at all,” she said of realizing SDG 6’s target of universal access to safely managed sanitation services, adding that 2040, not 2030, might be a more realistic target. The gender angle Global gender inequalities remain pervasive. Women are more likely than men to experience food insecurity, and
loan in support of the Smallholder Agriculture Cluster Project (SACP) under its Food Security Action Plan. Co-financed with the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the private sector, the
program will help transform
Bah Aly Bah, OPEC Fund, Country Manager for Eastern and Southern Africa
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