The Effect of Global Food Security Commitments in Reducing Food Insecurity in Africa: A Case study of Zimbabwe

This work evaluated the effect of global food security commitments in reducing food insecurity in Africa, with a focus on food insecurity situation in Zimbabwe. It was carried out to explore how effective Millennium Development Goal 1 and Sustainable Development Goal 2 have been in influencing the current food security situation in Zimbabwe. The study sample is Zimbabwe which is representative of dire food security situation especially in Sub-Sahara and Southern Africa, the colonial influence on institutions and legislation affecting agricultural production and climate change impact on livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Zimbabwe has also enjoyed 20 years of extensive support from the United Nations and its agencies in pursuit of achieving the set targets of food security development goals. The study design took on a qualitative research design method through which there was a collection and analysis of secondary data. This study has used Dependency and Post Development theories in elaborating why there has been persistent food insecurity, particularly in Africa. The study affirms that as much as there are successes by United Nations and Zimbabwe policy, legislations and programs in recovering livelihoods of a segment of the population, the achievement of food security remains elusive 20 years since the implementation of MDG 1 and current MDG 2. This report attributes this failure to a myriad of challenges that include poorly developed or implemented policies, underfunding of the agricultural sector, and poor ownership of targets especially by governments and their ministries, dependency on international support that comes with expectations, lack off contextualized policies for economic and agricultural development and the continued destructive effect of climate change on agricultural livelihoods. The impact of food aid dependency, gender inequality and HIV/AID on food security are also discussed. The study concludes food security is a going concern that requires long-term durable solution developed by African for Zimbabwe and Africa.