Food Insecurity in the Horn of Africa: Challenges and Prospects

The focus on global food security entered global academic discourse following the food conference in 1943 convened at the behest of the president of the United States of America (USA), Franklin Delano Roosevelt ––coinciding with the period of the Second World War period (WWII). The then President of USA mentioned above reiterate the ‘freedom of speech; freedom of worship; freedom from want and freedom from fear’ during this period. These lead to the creation of the United Nations Food and Agricultural organization (FOA). The central focus of the organization in relation to the food conferences that followed was generally to address the objective of freedom of want declared by President Roosevelt in relation to food insecurity. In this thesis, the challenges and prospect of food security is critically examined with respect to the Horn of Africa with particular focus on South-Sudan and Ethiopia. The Horn of Africa is notoriously known for its acute food shortages and hence regarded as the most food insecure part of the world. The region is characterized by a high occurrence of drought and arm conflict (UNFAO, 2017). The theoretical approach followed in this thesis is derived from the securitization theories credited to the Copenhagen School and the Aberystwth School, respectively. These schools of thought constitute a part of the post-modern movement in International Relation scholarship––known as the post-positivist–which became influential in the post-cold war era in the study of securitization. The methodological approach followed is based on critical examination of related empirical literature on the subject matter of food security from various sources. In most studies, food insecurity challenge is linked to extreme weather conditions and natural hazards in the Horn of Africa. In Ethiopia and South-Sudan whereas extreme weather conditions plays significant role, civil war, armed conflicts, structural problems and corruption are the major cause of the food security crisis in both countries. The strengthening of regional security framework to ensure peace and stability in the Horn of Africa––promoting credibility in the national food security institution and embarking on sustainable government policies towards addressing the pervasive corruption and structural problems are recommended as prospects to addressing the challenges of the food insecurity in the selected countries in particular and the Horn of Africa in general.