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Without a massive coordinated response from the international community, the rapidly growing food and nutrition crisis in the Sahelian countries of West Africa is likely to turn into a full blown famine. In recent weeks Oxfam, Tear Fund, and other international organizations have issued communiqués estimating that 12 million people face food insecurity, including six […]
In the Sahelian countries of West Africa, thinking about “food crisis” is framed by the concept of a ‘relief to rehabilitation to development’ continuum. This concept places ‘crisis’ at one end, and ‘normality’ at the other. Although it is changing, this paradigm still dominates the actions of many actors in the Sahel. ‘Crisis’ is still […]
Images of famine in Somalia have drawn the world’s attention to the wider issue of food security in Africa. Unfortunately, the concept of “crisis” is still strongly associated with short, acute disasters such as drought and conflict. The unpalatable reality is that a largely silent, on-going, structural food crisis exists in many parts of Africa. […]
In the Sahel, the number of people suffering from chronic food insecurity, high levels of poverty and vulnerability due to drought is increasing. Food crises in the Sahelian region of West Africa can no longer be treated as limited events, caused by occasional hazards like a drought. Food and nutrition insecurity have become long-term, chronic […]
Steve Brescia, Groundswell’s International Coordinator, recently returned from a three-week trip to Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali. He visited our programs there and met with key local partners and many West African farmers. This slide show captures some of what he learned.
Dear Friends, It’s not just our vegetables that are growing this summer… Groundswell is too! Two Central American NGOs, Vecinos Honduras and FUNDENOR (Guatemala), have both begun the process of becoming partners, and the Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development (CIKOD), in Ghana, has submitted a partnership application. All three organizations share Groundswell’s commitment […]
This is the seventh post in an eight-part series about how we can transform the roles of non-governmental organizations like Groundswell to make food sovereignty a reality. Read the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth posts. Taking advantage of new opportunities: health, urban-rural linkages, and climate change “In rural Burkina,” says Fatou Batta, “we […]
This is the fourth post in an eight-part series about how we can transform the roles of non-governmental organizations like Groundswell to make food sovereignty a reality. Read the first, second and third posts. Expanding territory for agroecology Bern Guri says that in Ghana, “isolated examples of small scale farmer agro-ecological production exist, but the […]
Rural communities in developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America have pursued their local processes of development and survived, indeed often thrived, since time immemorial. They achieved this without the advice of outside experts and without depending on major flows of external inputs. Rural people acquired sophisticated indigenous knowledge and created vibrant cultures. Over […]
