Food safety in Southern Africa: rethinking World Health worries

The briefing examines the intersection of food safety, health security, and agricultural production in Southern Africa, arguing that unsafe food and food insecurity exacerbate the burden on health systems already strained by infectious diseases. It highlights risks from globalisation, such as antimicrobial resistance and longer food chains, and calls on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to increase agricultural capacity and reduce dependence on food exports and aid to ensure long-term socioeconomic development.

• Food safety issues in developing Southern African nations are closely tied to food insecurity, where impoverished populations rely on food parcels and unsafe, spoiled, or bacteria-ridden food due to insufficient agricultural yields.
• The prevalence of foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases, which kill approximately 2 million people annually—primarily women and children—creates a cycle of disease and malnutrition that hinders socioeconomic development, trade, and tourism.
• Globalisation has introduced new food contamination risks, including longer food chains, technological changes, and the overuse of antibiotics, which has led to the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
• Health systems in Southern Africa are under extreme pressure because they must manage food-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) alongside high levels of HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, despite donor funding being heavily skewed (90%) toward communicable and infectious diseases.
• The Southern African Development Community (SADC) should use its Multi-Country Agricultural Productivity Programme (MAPP) to increase regional agricultural capacity and technological development to decrease reliance on food aid and exports.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2015). Food safety in Southern Africa: rethinking World Health worries. https://saiia.org.za/research/food-safety-in-southern-africa-rethinking-world-health-worries/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. Food safety in Southern Africa: rethinking World Health worries. 2015. https://saiia.org.za/research/food-safety-in-southern-africa-rethinking-world-health-worries/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=Food safety in Southern Africa: rethinking World Health worries |date=1 June 2015 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/food-safety-in-southern-africa-rethinking-world-health-worries/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2015food, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{Food safety in Southern Africa: rethinking World Health worries}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2015}, month = jun, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/food-safety-in-southern-africa-rethinking-world-health-worries/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }