When global leaders gather in South Africa for the G+20 meeting, the world will be watching for solutions. This might be a good opportunity to draw the attention of the most powerful leaders in the world to the plight of the food system in Africa.
From where I stand, as part of a social movment working alongside farmers, pastoralists, Indigenous communities, women, and youth across the continent, one thing is clear: the agenda must change. It must be rooted in honesty, courage, and an understanding of the lived realities of African people. Above all, it must place food systems transformation and debt justice at the centre of global decision-making.
For too long, food, climate, and debt have been treated as separate issues by global institutions. In Africa, they are intertwined. You cannot talk about hunger without talking about debt. You cannot discuss climate resilience while ignoring the structural traps that keep African nations dependent on food imports, fertiliser cartels, and the dictates of international financial institutions. And you cannot claim global leadership while the countries most affected by these crises remain excluded from the spaces where decisions about their futures are made.
The G+20 meeting in South Africa offers a rare moment for reflection and change, if leaders are willing to listen.
Across Africa, more than 282 million people are hungry. Not because the continent cannot feed itself, but because the global food system prioritises markets over people. Africa imports nearly $50 billion worth of food annually, much of it food we can grow. This dependency was engineered through structural adjustment policies, land liberalisation, and Green Revolution programmes that sidelined small-scale farmers, weakened territorial markets, and eroded Indigenous seed systems.
For me, food systems transformation is not about simply increasing yields or adopting more technological fixes. It is about reclaiming sovereignty, recovering our seeds, our soils, our markets, and our power. It is about supporting the small-scale farmers who already produce most of Africa’s food. It is about protecting biodiversity and investing in territorial markets that keep food close to home and allow communities to thrive. This is what agroecology offers: a pathway shaped by justice, rooted in African realities, and grounded in ecological wisdom.
But none of this is possible while Africa is being suffocated by debt.
Today, more than half of African countries are in or approaching debt distress. Debt repayments now exceed spending on health, education, and climate adaptation combined. This crisis is not accidental. It is the result of predatory lending, unfair credit ratings, currency volatility, and a climate catastrophe financed by high-interest loans. Under this system, African governments spend more servicing debt than supporting the farmers who feed their nations.
If the G+20 is serious about building stability, fostering development, or addressing climate justice, it must put debt cancellation, fair restructuring mechanisms, and an end to austerity at its core. Without debt justice, there can be no food system transformation, no resilience, and no real progress.
Through AFSA’s work across the continent, I have witnessed extraordinary ingenuity. I have seen farmers regenerate soils without chemicals, pastoralists restore degraded lands, Indigenous communities conserve seeds that carry centuries of memory, and women lead food sovereignty movements with unwavering determination. These are the solutions the world should be learning from. But they require political space, public investment, and freedom from crushing debt burdens.
African civil society has been consistent:
- Invest in agroecology, not industrial models.
- Protect farmer-managed seed systems, not corporate seed laws.
- Strengthen territorial markets, not import dependency.
- Ensure climate finance comes as grants, not more debt.
- Reject false solutions, GMOs, fertiliser lock-ins, digital enclosures, and carbon markets that deepen inequality.
South Africa, as host, carries a special responsibility. It must ensure that the G+20 agenda reflects African priorities, not donor preferences or corporate pressures. It must champion the structural changes required to address global inequality and climate vulnerability.
As the G+20 meets on African soil, I call on leaders to:
- Place food systems transformation at the centre of their discussions.
- Deliver meaningful debt relief and reform a financial system that punishes the poor.
- Support agroecology and food sovereignty, the most resilient path for the continent.
- Ensure African civil society and frontline communities shape the policies that affect their lives.
Africa is not short on solutions. What we need is justice—financial, ecological, and political. We need a global architecture that allows us to build the food systems our people deserve.
The world is watching the G+20. The question remains: Will it finally listen to Africa?
Million Belay is General Coordinator, Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)
