Abstract

Food sovereignty is a major concern, especially with the recent development of global food crises. Despite increasing relevance in recent years, several aspects remain under-explored. The concept itself is unclear due to the complexity of its meaning and the diversity of visions it can incorporate. There is a need to review the definition and develop a set of carefully selected indicators to describe food sovereignty in all its dimensions and enable the design of appropriate responses based on reliable information. Our analysis aims to understand how relevant and discretionary the choice of indicators can be to inform and monitor the development of food sovereignty in Africa. We will primarily use data published over the past decade by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Bank to identify indicators that provide information on the six dimensions of food sovereignty. We will dig deeper into the relationship between the different indicators and we will analyze the main associations and discrepancies at the level of a sample of 16 African countries, chosen mainly because of the availability of data.