Beyond feeding: Africa advocates challenge aid and champion food sovereignty

As calls grow to decolonize African food systems, advocates push beyond aid and exports, calling for a change in the narrative to nourishment. Nutrition Insight explores how Germany’s trade and aid policies affect African food systems and why local control and nutrition must come first. 

We continue our conversation with experts from German Watch and Power Shift Africa, who call for a decisive shift — not just in funding but in power — toward African-defined priorities that nourish rather than merely feed, in a newly launched report. 

Lina Adil, policy advisor of Climate Change Adaptation and Loss & Damage at German Watch, explains how the nation’s role in shaping export-oriented agriculture undermines African nutrition despite wanting to support African food systems.

“Africa’s heavy reliance on food imports (around 85%) isn’t accidental; it’s the result of decades of global trade rules and development models — many shaped or supported by European actors, including Germany. Policies dating back to the 1960s encouraged African countries to grow export-oriented ‘complementary’ crops for foreign markets while marginalizing local, nutrient-rich food systems.”

“Germany’s agricultural exports, fertilizer promotion, and trade policies have often reinforced these dependencies. For example, the BMEL [German Ministry of Food and Agriculture] strategy underplays how EU poultry exports undercut local producers, despite clear evidence from countries like Senegal, where import restrictions revitalized domestic industries.”

Early this year, BMEL released an updated Africa strategy based on cooperation to reduce dependency and grow mutual benefits.

Amy Giliam Thorp, programs manager and Adaptation lead at Power Shift Africa.“It [BMEL] also frames fertilizer access mainly as a cost issue, ignoring the deeper structural problems — like reliance on imports, multinational corporate control, and the debt risks tied to input-heavy farming models. Meanwhile, sustainable, agroecological alternatives remain underfunded and underrecognized,” says Kerstin Opfer, policy advisor of Energy Policy and Civil Society Africa at German Watch.

“Germany cannot credibly advocate for African food sovereignty or nutrition security without seriously confronting these historical imbalances and systemic constraints,” she continues. “To its credit, the BMEL’s strategy acknowledges the importance of ‘regional, sustainable food self-sufficiency’ and expresses support for strengthening traditional food systems in cooperation with African partners — an important step in the right direction.” 

From feeding to nourishing: Centering African terms

Amy Giliam Thorp, programs manager and Adaptation lead at Power Shift Africa, explains how narratives of nourishment can be created — on African terms — pointing to the Alliance for Food Sovereignty, which is already doing this across the continent.

“It is championing agroecology, food and seed sovereignty, Indigenous food systems, and community governance — as the foundation of alternative food systems centered on equity and social justice.”

“The report highlights case studies from Ethiopia and Kenya where agroecological practices have led to higher crop yields, restored ecosystems, and improved household incomes, all while building social cohesion and climate resilience,” Thorp says.

Fredrick Otieno, Adaptation project officer at Power Shift Africa, adds that shifting the narrative away from “feeding” means recognizing African farmers, youth, and women’s political agencies and not treating them as passive beneficiaries. “It means rejecting externally imposed models and instead investing in African-owned institutions, territorial markets, and policy spaces where African voices lead.” 

Fredrick Otieno, Adaptation project officer at Power Shift Africa.“It is also about challenging the trade rules, intellectual property regimes, and power structures that undermine food sovereignty. Supporting nourishment on African terms requires confronting the systems that made Africa dependent in the first place,” he highlights.

Rethinking food security beyond calories

Thorp and Otieno tell us about risks in nutrition outcomes when strategies treat food security as a matter of quantity rather than food sovereignty and dietary quality.

“Framing food security as a matter of calories and yields ignores the structural roots of hunger — including inequality, land access, and disempowerment,” says Thorp. “As the report explains, this narrow focus often justifies continued support for export-oriented, input-heavy agriculture that prioritizes global commodity markets over local needs, developing local supply chains, and industrialization.” 

Lina Adil, policy advisor of Climate Change Adaptation and Loss & Damage at German Watch.“This approach increases dependence on chemical fertilizers, hybrid or GMO seeds, and global trade — exposing communities to price shocks, market volatility, and ecological degradation. It also sidelines the role of small-scale farmers and diverse local food systems critical for dietary diversity and resilience.”

According to Otieno, the food sovereignty approach focuses on local control, agroecological production, and farmers’ and communities’ rights to define their food systems. “This shift is essential not just for healthier diets but for building the adaptive capacity and resilience of food systems amid climate change and other global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Germany’s political shift raises concerns

Adil and Opfer believe BMEL’s intention of cooperation is insufficient unless it is paired with concrete action that examines how past and present policies created the same vulnerabilities it seeks to solve.

“Compounding this challenge is the political shift within Germany itself. The BMEL strategy was developed under the previous government — a coalition of Greens, Socialists, and Liberals — with the BMEL led by the Green Party. Many of the strategy’s more progressive elements, such as its focus on agroecology and regional food systems, reflected this political context,” explains Adil.

Kerstin Opfer, policy advisor of Energy Policy and Civil Society Africa at German Watch.“But the new German government — a coalition of conservatives and socialists — is signaling a different course. Its coalition agreement outlines plans for a ‘modern agricultural export strategy.’ This shift raises serious concerns: there is a real risk that the justice-oriented priorities of the previous strategy will be deprioritized and that new policies will double down on export-led, input-heavy models that deepen structural inequalities — especially in the Global South.”

Opfer adds that the political changes make it even more urgent for society to remain vigilant to ensure that proposals do not reinforce inequality patterns or worsen existing ones. 

“What’s needed is a fundamental shift: away from donor-driven export logic and toward African-led, agroecological models that strengthen local value chains, promote dietary diversity, and prioritize farmer autonomy.” 

“Without such a realignment, Germany risks perpetuating the same extractive systems that have long undermined food justice across the continent,” she warns.