Africa must dramatically accelerate the transformation of its food systems if it is to meet global food-system targets by 2030, according to the 2026 Food Systems Countdown Report.

The report says African countries face some of the world’s steepest challenges across food security, nutrition, agricultural sustainability, livelihoods, governance and resilience.

Produced by the Food Systems Countdown Initiative with partners including the FAO, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University and GAIN, the assessment examines 50 key indicators across food systems.

Africa Needs Faster Progress on Food Security

The report highlights the scale of change required across the continent.

To achieve universal access to safe water by 2030, Africa would need to increase access by an average of 31.5% annually.

The report also estimates that food insecurity would need to decline by 68.5% every year, while undernourishment would need to fall by 62.5% annually to meet relevant global targets.

Healthy Diets Remain Unaffordable

The affordability of healthy diets is another major challenge.

African countries are, on average, 58.7 percentage points away from the global benchmark, under which no more than 2% of the population should be unable to afford a healthy diet.

High food costs, poverty and weak food-system infrastructure continue to limit access to nutritious food.

Climate and Agriculture Add Pressure

Africa’s food systems are also facing growing pressure from climate change and environmental degradation.

The report identifies food affordability, food insecurity, food-system emissions and government effectiveness as priority areas requiring faster action.

It stresses that these challenges cannot be addressed separately because agriculture, nutrition, climate, livelihoods and food prices are closely connected.

Africa Needs Coordinated Food System Reform

Despite the challenges, the report points to areas of progress and says some countries are already meeting or approaching global targets across several indicators.

The findings underline the need for governments to coordinate policies across agriculture, health, climate, water and social protection.

For Africa, accelerating food-system transformation will be critical to improving food security, reducing poverty and building more resilient agricultural economies before 2030.