Africa can end hunger completely by 2025, according to Jose Graniano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Graniano da Silva bases his prediction on the great progress that has been made in Africa since the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000.

Since then, eleven countries in Africa have reduced the number of hungry people within their borders by 50%, and several others are on track to do the same by the end of 2015. With the strong momentum that is behind African efforts to combat malnutrition, Graniano da Silva believes that complete elimination of hunger is attainable in the continent by the year 2025.

The Director-General states that the biggest obstacle to eliminating hunger in Africa is accessibility to food. Africa has the second-highest level of economic growth in the world and a multitude of resources throughout the continent, yet 17 of the 20 countries in the world “suffering from prolonged food shortages” are in Africa and “one in four Africans still suffer from chronic hunger.”

The key to reducing hunger, according to Graniano da Silva, is not necessarily by just increasing food production, but rather by making food more available throughout the continent. Increased access to food can be achieved by increasing access to land for growing food and reducing food price volatility.

Other factors that will help contribute to the eradication of hunger in Africa are increasing national budgets on agriculture and providing women with enhanced access to land and credit. Nearly “70% of Africa’s agriculture workforce is female,” making women’s rights and involvement in development essential to reducing hunger.

Jose Graniano da Silva is a former president of Brazil who headed the nation’s Fome Zero program, which successfully lifted 28 million Brazilians out of poverty. The Director-General hopes that similar strategies to the ones that he helped implement in Brazil will help lift millions of Africans out of poverty in the next decade.

– Jordan Kline

Sources: The Guardian, Inter Press Service