Sustainable Food Management and Food Security in Kenya- Assessing Kenya’s Performance in the Achievement of Millennium Development Goal 1(1996-2015)

Abstract

Food security has been an important part of global discourse concerning development and poverty reduction. Despite the fact that there is enough food produced to feed the entire population, 1 billion people still go to bed hungry. The amount of food produced in the world continues to rise rapidly and throughout the whole human history, the quantity of food produced has not been larger. Hence, the concept of food security shifted from focusing on food availability to accessibility. This study‟s main objective is to evaluate sustainable food management and food security in Kenya by Millennium Development Goal‟s achievement between 1996 to 2015. More specifically the study will aim; to establish the influence of national food security policies on sustainable food management and food security in Kenya, to determine the influence of global liberal trade system on sustainable food management and food security in Kenya and to ascertain the influence of climate change in sustainable food management and food security in Kenya. The study has been underpinned on Neoliberalism Theory. For the purposes of this study, the appropriate research design utilized was descriptive. Only the secondary sources was used throughout the research. Collected data consisted of research articles and books with the focus on the topic in question, reports conducted by the international organizations, such as FAO, WFP, IFAD International Monetary Fund‟s International Financial Statistics, the Central Banks of Africa, the World Bank, UNDP, Ministry of Agriculture, KNBS as well as national policy plans drafted by the Kenyan government. The qualitative data collected from the secondary sources was analyzed thematically using conceptual content analysis. Once the data was collected, it was checked for completeness ready for analysis. The data was analysed in common themes and reported according to the study objectives. The study shows that even though foreign food aid is meant to provide the food supplies only if any food emergencies appear, to compensate for the domestic production shortfalls, it became constant and is considered by the majority of the Kenyan population as ever-lasting. Food security policies implemented by the Kenyan government throughout the analysis were found to be ineffective. Lastly, climate change impacts were analyzed on the food security in Kenya. The study findings show that over the past 40 years, per capita world food production has grown by 25%, and global food prices have fallen by 40% in real terms. Good governance supported by good metrics needs to direct the transformation process. Planning for success requires an implementation plan that provides a roadmap to realize strategic goals. While the high level SDGs for the post 2015 era will galvanize the global community to work towards shared development goals, country by country as well as local implementation plans will be required to achieve the targets. National and local governments need to take the lead in developing and implementing their own sustainable development strategies and action plans at different levels, based on the proposed principles and the four dimensions of sustainable development. Action planning needs to be goal oriented and systematic. National and local governments should apply structured assessment and business planning methodologies to analyze how various solutions could contribute to meeting one or more specific targets, and what the cost of different options is.