6

Addressing Population, Environmental, and Agricultural Linkages

he World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainable development as the ability to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations, which depends on proper management of the linked population, environmental, and developmental factors. In the African context, the interrelationships among population growth rates, the state of the environment, and agricultural productivity are at the root of the sustainability issue.
total population is under 15 years old. The problem of a rapidly growing, young population has been compounded by swift depletion of forests, fuel supplies, and soil quality. The negative correlation that exists between high population growth rates on the one hand, and productive land and food per capita on the other, is vividly demonstrated by African data. The population growth rate, which far exceeds that of per capita food production in most countries, has led to rapid deterioration of the environment and undermined productivity. More than three-quarters of sub-Saharan African countries produce less food per capita than they did in the 1980s. These issues were highlighted at a number of international forums: the UN Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), 1992; the Third African Population Conference (Dakar/ Ngor), 1992; the International Conference on Popu33

Overview
Because of inadequate application of science and technology to lowering population growth rates, increasing and diversifying the balance among population growth, environmental and natural resources, and food security is delicate. In the long run, greater application of science and technology is critical to enhancing and diversifying the production of goods and services, overcoming environmental constraints, enhancing the sustainability of development, and improving the quality of life in Africa. In the past three decades, the majority of African countries have had high population growth rates that have not been matched by adequate food availability in per capita terms. Africas population is currently growing at an average annual rate of 2.8 per cent. More than 50 per cent of the

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lation and Development (ICPD), 1994; the World Food Summit, 1995; and Habitat II, 1996. The central message from these forums is that public policy should come to grips with the mutually reinforcing forces of high population growth, environmental degradation, low agricultural productivity, poor economic growth, and povertythe key elements in defining a sustainable development strategy. In the Dakar/Ngor Declaration (DND), African governments set quantitative demographic targets to be reached by the year 2000 and by the end of the first decade of the new millennium, including goals for reducing annual population growth and mortality rates and increasing life expectancy. These goals, which were reaffirmed by the ICPD in its programme of action (ICPDPA), are monitored by ECA in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The Challenge
Between 1986 and 1997, while Africas population grew by more than 35 per cent, food production per capita declined by about 8 per cent, and agricultural land per capita decreased by about 25 per cent. Reversal of these trends constitutes a survival challenge. Sustaining development in Africa requires (i) harmonization of population growth with the level of food production; (ii) endurable increases in agricultural productivity; (iii) better stewardship of the environment; (iv) better and more equitable use of water; and (v) utilization of science and technology as the foundation for productivity increases diversification of employment and income opportunities; and (vi) enhancement of the competitiveness of the economy. Attaining slower and stable rates of population growth largely depends on policy actions and programmes based on proper understanding of the factors underlying the transition from high to low population growth rates, from low productivity to high productivity agriculture, and from environmental degradation to better stewardship of the environment. African States need to understand better the elements of these transitions in order to mainstream and integrate population, environmental, and agricultural concerns into national development plans and poverty-alleviation

Sustainable development requires that population, environment, and food security concerns are seen as interdependent.

frameworks. Because of the complexity of the social, cultural, economic, technological, and political factors involved in the design and successful implementation of a sustainable development strategy, Africas development partners have a key role in assisting countries to meet this challenge.

The ECA Response

The population, environment, agriculture, and food security nexus is a new dimension of ECA programmes, which was born from the restructuring of the Commission and the refocusing of its programmes in 1996. Through intensive consultations with development partners and eminent African policy makers and technical specialists, a programme was identified based on the Commissions regional comparative advantage, including its convening power, which is enshrined in the intergovernmental machinery of the Commission. The Intergovernmental Committee on Sustainable Development is part of that machinery. It serves as a forum of experts that provides advice to ECA and ensures the focus and relevance of the Commissions programme to Member States needs in the interlinked areas of food security, population, and environment. The programmes

Curt Carnemark/World Bank

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focus was recently fine-tuned and endorsed by a high-level expert advisory group meeting on agriculture and environment (see box 6). Broadly, ECA helps Member States to promote food security and sustainable development by a set of activities centred on three related sub-thematic tasks: Planning and implementing activities to raise policy makers awareness of the urgency of food, population, and environmental concerns (the nexus issues) in development planning, while offering Member States feasible solutions drawn from best practices within Africa and around the world; Encouraging member countries to develop and take full advantage of their abilities to foster and utilize science and technology in addressing the nexus issues; and Providing policy analysis support and dissemination services through workshops, training seminars, information exchange, and technical advisory services to enhance understanding and management of the complex interactions between agricultural productivity, population, environment, technology, and food security.

ECA delivers its services through studies, advocacy, and advisory services. ECA has conducted a number of studies on food security and sustainable development issues, including the recently published Report on the Coordination and Harmonization of Food and Agriculture Policies, Strategies and Production in North Africa, presented at a meeting of the intergovernmental committee of experts of the North African Subregional Development Centre (SRDC) in April 1997. Other studies and activities are ongoing or are planned in five areas. Completed pieces and outlines of ongoing or planned activities will be presented to the session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Sustainable Development, which will take place in the first quarter of 1999. The five areas are as follows. Promoting the Transition to Slower Population Growth. Understanding the factors that underlie transitions from high population growth to low growth rates, which may differ from society to society, and which may differ at different points in the transition process, enables governments to better target policies and programmes to reduce and stabilize population growth and to monitor progress towards that goalin line with the

Box 6. High-Level Expert Advisory Group Meeting on Agriculture and Environment

An Expert Group Meeting attended by senior policy makers and experts in the fields of population, agriculture, and the environment was held November 30December 2, 1998, to further assist ECA in defining priorities and modalities for addressing issues of poor agricultural performance, environmental degradation, and Africas slow development. The meeting reviewed ECAs issues paper on the subject, the current work programme, and its plans for 20002001. It also discussed how the integration of the nexus issues in development planning can be made more politically attractive, and how ECA and its partners can better facilitate government work on these issues. Among its recommendations, the meeting called on ECA to focus on two areas: policy analysis support, and dissemination of relevant information on nexus issues. With respect to policy analysis support, it was recommended that ECA focus on translating generic policies into Africa-specific and country-customized policies so that ECA becomes the focal point on the key policy issues in the region. In this regard, ECA needs to undertake a critical analysis of the key interlinkages, and collect and collate Africa-specific information and data. To effectively play its analytical role, ECA needs to build capacity, partnerships, and networks, and develop appropriate tools for making policy choices. The divisions Population, Environment, Development, and Agriculture (PEDA) Model was accepted by the meeting as a good starting tool for better understanding the interrelationships between population, agriculture, and the environment. It is capable of adequately demonstrating the impact of different policy options in relation to the goal of ensuring food security through alleviating poverty in the region. An Advisory Board to ECA on population, agriculture, and environment issues and programme activities was created from among the experts who attended the meeting.

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stipulations of the DND and ICPD. ECA activities, in partnership with UNFPA, are particularly designed to monitor, evaluate, and report on the implementation of DND and ICPD-PA targets; to strengthen information, education, communication (IEC); and to support policy analysis and advocacy for more effective interventions (see box 7). Previous birth-control interventions in Africa did not prove very effective in reducing population growth rates in many countries. This was largely because reproductive choices are made in a complex framework that involves other key factors. The new orientation of ECAs analytical work

in the arena of population is to focus on the relationships among womens responsibilities for producing wage goods or earning income for the household, womens reproductive health, and their exercise of reproductive rights and choices. Understanding these relationships is essential to moving from traditional population-focused family planning interventions to more comprehensive sets of instruments, in line with the broader range of factors that influence womens reproductive choices. The more holistic treatment of womens productive and reproductive choices is key to advancing the DND and ICPD objectives. ECA, in

Box 7. Partnership with UNFPA in the Follow-up to ICPD-PA and DND

ECA has an active partnership with UNFPA through which activities of common interest developed by ECA in project form are financed by UNFPA and executed by ECA. The partnership activities are particularly designed to monitor, evaluate, and report on the implementation of the DND and ICPD-PA; to strengthen information, education, communication (IEC); and to support policy analysis and advocacy. The Plan of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD-PA), which took place in 1994, and the work of UNFPA and its partners in this field marked a turning point in population policy development as an integral part of overall national development planning by African countries. In a significant number of cases, awareness of the importance of the population and development nexus, especially among central policy makers, and recognition of the complex interrelationships among them, gender, and environment has grown considerably. In each country implementing ICPD-PA recommendations, attempts have been made to forge a national consensus on the policy actions and on the legal and institutional requirements needed to realize set goals. Follow-up is critical. The Third Follow-up Committee (FUC3) on the Implementation of the DND and the ICPD-PA was held at ECA headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2325 September 1998. Representatives of 21 African countries and several regional, subregional, and international organizations attended the meeting. Its objective was to review and assess progress made by ECA Member States towards achieving the goals and targets of the aforementioned population frameworks and to identify key steps in the way forward. To this end, FUC3 considered the Report on African Experience in the Implementation of the DND and the ICPD-PA prepared by ECA in the context of the fiveyearly review and assessment of the implementation of the two frameworks. The report was based mainly on a DND and ICPD-PA-specific country questionnaire that was sent to all African countries, and on information gathered during two field missions in 12 African countries. The Report outlined the main achievements and constraints as well as the best practices derived from country experiences in the course of implementing the ICPD-PA. It also assessed the extent to which Member States have taken into account the ICPD-PA recommendations in the formulation and implementation of their National Population Programmes (NPPs). The Reports findings revealed, among other things, that lack of infrastructure, lack of trained personnel, and a serious resource shortfall remain serious problems in most Member States, even though several have tried to mobilize internal resources Committee discussions focused on reproductive health and reproductive rights, family youths and adolescents, gender equality and equity, empowerment of women, male involvement, the role of NGOs and the private sector in programme implementation, population and development strategy, institutional mechanisms/subregional institutions, advocacy, and IEC strategy. For each area, achievements or best practices and constraints were presented and recommendations for the way forward were formulated.

Figure 7. The PEDA Model

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partnership with UNFPA, monitors and reports on the implementation in Africa of the regional and global population conference recommendations.

what would be the impact of increased rural education on farming of marginal lands; and what impact would raising fertilizer use by, say 3 per cent, have on agricultural production and food Strengthening Analytical and Advocacy Tools security. Requests from Member States to make for Action in Population, Environmental, and the PEDA tools available for application are very Agricultural Development. Conceptually, while encouraging. Ugandas request, which was one of the population-environment-development linkages the first, was answered with a demonstration in may be clear, what the policy outcomes of variDecember 1998. The model prototype will be reous interventions might be in a simultaneous fined and customized first for three countries framework is not so obvious. The objective of the Burkina Faso, Madagascar, and Zambiafollowed ECA programme is to provide easy-to-understand, by another 10 African countries. A users manual operationally useful will be prepared analytical tools to during this phase, Devising an artful response to high population growth rates, accompany a proincluding proceextensive agricultural systems and a fragile environmentissues that active advocacy dures for data colshould be treated as elements of an integrated nexusmight well programme that lection and prepaconstitute the most critical management challenge facing our continent. Managers of Africas development must act with a sense helps policy makers ration of countryof urgency to address these interlinked issues. K.Y. Amoako, from better appreciate specific baseline Challenges for Managers of Africas Development26th Tom Mboya the kinds of develdata sets needed to Annual Lecture before the Kenya Institute of Management, Nairobi, opment problems run PEDA. Training Kenya, 6 November 1996. Africa faces today of trainers (ECA and is likely to face staffincluding in future, depending on the population, environSRDCs and UNFPA Country Support Teams (CSTs), mental, and agricultural policies implemented. which provide on-demand technical expertise to Developing, adapting, and applying the right anaMember Statesand officials of ECA Member lytical and policy advocacy tools in country-specific States) and the dissemination of the Model to other settings, and facilitating learning by policy makMember States will follow. ers from best-policy interventions and management practices elsewhere constitutes part of the Promoting the Application of the System of assistance ECA is providing. Seminars, workshops, Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) and demonstrations of the capability of selected Tools in Africa. Understanding the proper value analytical tools to answer policy questions are the of environmental and natural resources is critical main modalities for service delivery. to the sustainable utilization of non-renewable reThe ECA programme focuses on development sources through proper management, since the and application of a Population, Environment, Devalue of such resources is not appropriately capvelopment, and Agriculture (PEDA) simulation tured by market and price signals. Proper valuamodel, a user-friendly computer model for the tion of, and accounting for use of, environmental analysis of the nexus interactions. It will demonand natural resources are essential to establishing strate the impact of key emerging issues in spefiscal and regulatory modalities for their sustainable cific countries, such as HIV/AIDS, gender use. The ECA programme focuses on the promomainstreaming, trade, and poverty. Applying intion, popularization, and application of the System terdisciplinary scientific analysis and projection, of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accountthe model can shed light on key policy questions, ing (SEEA) in African countries through activities to: such as what would happen to fertility rates if the education of 17-year-old girls was raised by, for Increase professional understanding of SEEA instance, 80 per cent; what would be the impact techniques by African policy makers through of the rise in mortality rates due to HIV/AIDS; training and other capacity-building instruments;

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Generate awareness and political support for SEEA as an environmental and natural resources management tool in Africa; Increase application of SEEA in drawing up national policy and management programmes; and Provide advisory services to Member States. The first seminar towards these objectives was held at ECA in October 1998, with the assistance of several partners. More activities, including those focused at the country-level, are planned (see box 8). Strengthening Africas Capacity in Science and Technology (S&T) for Development. Science and technology provide opportunities to address nexus and related development issues, such as raising agricultural productivity, improving competitiveness and opening up new opportunities for Africa in global markets, and combating droughts, malnutrition, and controllable

diseases. ECAs programme has been developed in consultation with multilateral, bilateral and African institutions and experts (see box 9). Its activities, part of whose funding is provided principally by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, focus on: Building awareness of the critical role of S&T in development and helping Member States consider their S&T development options, to develop the policy and institutional capacities needed to strengthen and use S&T resources for socio-economic developmentparticularly in agriculture; Expanding existing networks and building databases to ease access by network members to S&T information and resources, and to enhance management and the impact of science and technology in Member States; Developing and disseminating best-practice and success cases from which lessons can be learned for faster socioeconomic development;

Box 8. Environmental and Natural Resources Accounting Seminar

The overall objective of the seminar, held 2628 October 1998, was to support the efforts of African governments to identify, capture, and use resource rents for economic development effectively. It introduced the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) and its potential policy uses, and enabled the sharing of experiences of several countries that have experimented with natural resource accounting. Thirty-four high-level participants representing 11 Member States, 4 UN organs (FAO, UNDP UNEP , , UNESCO and UNSD/DESA), 4 institutions (NESDA, OAU, SESRTC and WWF), and 4 ECA/SRDCs (Northern, Eastern, Central and Western Africa) attended the seminar. The seminar gave an opportunity for new partnerships among ECA, WWF, ADANAC Pvt. Ltd. Zimbabwe, UNEP and UNSD/DESA, which provided the , seminar with speakers on the topics on the agenda. The Statistical, Economic, and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries funded participants from three African countries. The seminar raised awareness among participants of the potential contributions that the SEEA as a planning tool can make to Africas economic development, and called for support from African governments and the international community in promoting the application of the SEEA in Africa. It recommended the following activities as follow-up: Generate demand for and promote application of environmental and economic accounting; Build and strengthen capacity for implementing integrated environmental and economic accounting; Conduct focused, practical case studies based on the framework of the UN and SEEA; Develop and consolidate a database for implementing integrated environmental and economic accounting; Apply integrated environmental and economic accounting information to policy making; and Strengthen regional coordination.

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Box 9. ECA Science and Technology Network (ESTNET)

At the first meeting of the ad hoc group of experts on science and technology for food security and sustainable development held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 912 February 1998, a network on science and technology (ESTNET) was launched with participants in the meeting as initial members. The objective of the network is to foster communication and information exchange related to science and technology policies and management in Africa. A steering committee was constituted with representatives from five African subregions and two major subregional organizations. The network will be accessible from the ECA Web site and will host databases of best research results, examples of success and best practices in science and technology, useful science and technology documents, reports of conferences and other meetings, bibliographies, policy briefs, and relevant resolutions and protocols. The S&T Web pages will also list potential consultants and potential donors, and current and upcoming events in science and technology in Africa. The network will eventually be used for interactive meetings on topics of interest in science and technology, for providing information and answers on request on science and technology policies, and for providing advice and assistance to Member States.

Strengthening human resources skills for science and technology in areas necessary for effective and urgent impact on socioeconomic development through training and knowledge sharing; Carrying out studies and other preparatory activities aimed at identifying niches of competitive advantage; Facilitating the extension of the science and technology function within ECA and increasing ECAs capacity to serve Member States in the areas described above; and Refocusing science and technology advisory services to African States to emphasize the cross-cutting nature of S&T and to mainstream the S&T function in all country policies and programmes. Improving the Quality and Availability of Information on Population, Environmental, and Agricultural Programmes. The ECA programme, which is a collaborative effort of the Commissions Food Security and Sustainable Development Division (FSSDD) and the Development Information Services Division (DISD), focuses on supporting data and information needed for the integrated approach to policy analysis of nexus issues. This includes the promotion of innovative population and environmental data assembly and dissemination systems and the strengthening of

information infrastructures. Designing systems and technical assistance to generate environmental data and other information for implementing the tasks described in this chapter are part of the core programmes of DISDin collaboration with the relevant divisions. In support of the ICPD and DND tasks, the African Network of Population Information Processing and Disseminating Centers will be created. National, subregional, and regional centres of population information and services will be strengthened to discharge the additional functions necessitated by the ICPD/DND activities. The centres would ensure timely dissemination of population information and best practices throughout the region. The network will periodically produce and disseminate two main publications. The Population and Development in Africa: DND/ICPD Follow-up News will be the main vehicle through which ECA will monitor trends and policies in population and development issues in Africaas required by DND and ICPD-PA. The Network News will serve as the main link between the national, subregional, and regional institutions participating in the African Network of Population Information Processing and Disseminating Centres. A regional freestanding institutional centre and electronic database with full virtual capabilities will be developed with support from partners as a source of data and information on food security

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and sustainable development activities and programmes in Africa. The ongoing Greater Horn of Africa Initiative (GHAI) Inventory of Food Se-

curity Activities, which was started by USAID and transferred to ECA, will serve the nucleus and springboard for this longer-term task (see box 10).

Box 10. Inventory of Food Security Activities in the Greater Horn of Africa Region (GHAI)
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is supporting an activity in FSSDD designed to provide development institutions and interested individuals with access to information on existing projects, activities, and analyses related to food security in the countries of the Greater Horn of Africa. The activity maintains an interactive electronic tool comprising: A database on food security projects and activities in the Greater Horn countries Published analyses on food security Country-specific indicators on food security Maps of each of the 10 GHA countries Help on how to use the tool The inventory will serve as a useful tool for African institutions and development administrators, NGOs, and multilateral institutions for enhancing their awareness of food security activities in the GHA. This will help minimize wasteful duplication of work and encourage cooperation and collaboration. The Division will update the information in the inventory by gathering and entering available new information on activities, indicators, and analyses pertaining to food security in the GHA and other African countries. The information will then be disseminated to interested individuals and institutions in the GHA and elsewhere either directly, on demand, or through the Internet. Support for this phase of the activity is also expected from USDA.