Ending hunger in Africa needs Africa-led science and governance

Hunger continues to rise across Africa, with over one in five people facing food insecurity, a trend projected to worsen by 2030. Despite a wealth of locally generated research on effective agricultural and nutritional strategies, these solutions often remain on shelves due to weak links between evidence, policy, and implementation. Cross-sectoral coordination falters, and the voices of those most affected, like women managing household food security and smallholder farmers, are marginalized in decision-making.

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Hunger in Africa persists not primarily because of a lack of science, but because the connective tissue between evidence, policy and implementation is weak.

Regional challenges such as climate variability, food price volatility, and disrupted supply chains demand coordinated regional responses. The newly launched Africa Regional Collaborative for Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (ANH-ARC), co-led by universities in Ghana, Ethiopia, and South Africa, seeks to address this. The initiative aims to synthesize existing evidence, commission new Africa-led research, and directly connect these findings to governments and regional bodies.

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The evidence base is rich, often locally generated and frequently ignored.

What distinguishes the ARC is its focus on the "connective tissue" between research and policy as a discipline in itself, requiring dedicated methods and institutional support. Its work aligns with existing African frameworks like the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and the African Continental Free Trade Area, underscoring a commitment to Africa-led solutions for food security.

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What distinguishes the ARC is its insistence that this connective work is itself a discipline, not a communications afterthought to research, but a sustained governance practice that requires its own evidence, methods, capabilities and institutional anchoring.