When it comes to food security and resilience in the era of foreign aid cuts, the African continent is realizing that help will have to come from within in the form of regional cooperation.

That’ll require much more regional cooperation, according to Agnes Kalibata, the former president of AGRA, and Hailemariam Desalegn, the former prime minister of Ethiopia. In an opinion piece for Devex, they lay out what resilient food systems would require — not just more cooperation, but faster industrialization and reliable, affordable energy.

“African countries need to work together to move faster,” they write, pointing to conversations at the recent Africa CEO Forum and the Nuclear Energy Innovation Summit for Africa — both held in Kigali, Rwanda, last month — as signs the continent is already moving in the right direction.

African food systems in need of regional cooperation face two primary pressure points: rising agricultural input costs — particularly fertilizer and fuel — and foreign exchange rate fluctuations. Disruptions in global trade or logistics can slash export earnings, making it difficult for countries to pay for fertilizer, fuel, seed, agrochemicals, machinery parts, and even food imports. “This quickly moves food resilience from a production story to a balance-of-payments story,” they write. African nations spend at least $50 billion each year on imported food. And the continent’s trade deficit has widened over the past decades as it’s become increasingly dependent on basic agricultural imports.

But regional cooperation can serve as both a shock absorber and competitive engine — and right now, Africa isn’t doing enough of it. By pooling demand, coordinating procurement, and harmonizing standards, they write, African nations can reduce their costs and boost their bargaining power. Meanwhile, such cooperation would keep food and imports moving within the continent when global markets fail — as they have time and time again in the past six years.

I asked Kalibata for some examples of regional cooperation that are working, and she pointed me to two. The ECOWAS Rice Observatory is trying to make West Africa self-sufficient in rice production by 2035 by coordinating national policy as well as private and public investment. Last week, an investment roundtable garnered $1.54 billion in commitments to transform the region’s rice sector. The second example she gave me was the COMESA Seed Trade Harmonization program, which regulates how seeds are traded across eastern and southern Africa and has opened up the region’s seed markets.

Read the full article about food security in African countries by Tania Karas at Devex.