Experts warn Germany not to repeat colonial nutrition mistakes in Africa

As Germany’s new coalition government takes shape, a new report urges the country to support African-led food systems that advance nutrition justice, climate resilience, and food sovereignty.

Nutrition Insight speaks to the report authors from German Watch and Power Shift Africa, who call for dismantling colonial-era trade structures and investing in agroecology and local food systems. 

The experts worry that Germany’s new development in African food systems will risk repeating past mistakes if it continues to rely on exports and donor models instead of boosting African-led dietary diversity and climate-conscious approaches.

Early this year, the nation’s Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) released an updated strategy based on cooperation with Africa to reduce dependency and grow mutual benefits.

Nutrition justice: From aid to sovereignty

Lina Adil, policy advisor of Climate Change Adaptation and Loss & Damage at German Watch Africa, explains Germany’s Africa Strategy shift amid the US Agency for International Development (USAID) cutting global aid.

Experts warn Germany’s development aid risks repeating colonial patterns unless it empowers African-led food systems.“Germany has an opportunity — and a responsibility — to avoid repeating the extractive, top-down models that prioritized productivity over justice. A promising shift in the BMEL’s Africa Strategy is its move from a concept for Africa to a concept with Africa, recognizing the need for mutual learning, African leadership, and context-specific solutions.”

“The emphasis on multi-stakeholder participation and African-defined priorities signals an important break from donor-driven approaches of the past,” she adds.

Kerstin Opfer, policy advisor of Energy Policy and Civil Society Africa at German Watch, states: “But participation alone isn’t enough.”

She warns that efforts risk becoming symbolic without safeguards. For instance, smallholder farmers, especially women, join the table but have less power than corporate and donor stakeholders.

Confronting colonial practices

Adil urges Germany to empower marginalized voices, invest in capacity building, create accountability mechanisms, and support local food producers to promote nutrition justice. 

True nutrition justice requires shifting from donor-driven models to agroecology, land rights, and local investment.“If Germany wants to genuinely promote nutrition justice, it must go beyond consultation to empower historically marginalized voices. That means investing in capacity-building, creating accountability mechanisms, and ensuring that local food producers shape decisions — not just react to them,” she says.

“Critically, Germany must also confront the structural legacies of colonialism and global trade rules that reshaped African agriculture around export crops, weakened local food systems, and entrenched dependencies. Supporting agroecology, land rights, and local food markets is essential.”

Opfer adds that Germany risks perpetuating historical dynamics that undermine nutrition outcomes if there is no shift.

“Nutrition justice can’t be achieved through aid alone — it requires dismantling systemic inequalities and shifting from a donor-recipient dynamic to one of true cooperation and co-creation.”

“It also requires actively listening to African movements that demand not only better access to food but also the power to shape their food systems — in other words, food sovereignty as a precondition for realizing the Right to Food and for building up resilient food systems, i.e., independent of unjust market conditions but also of recurring external market shocks (due to wars and crises),” she explains.

Nutrition security in practice

Power Shift Africa tells us what nutrition security requires in practice and who’s willing to fund systems that prioritize local, diverse diets over donor-driven supply chains.

Nutrition security means access to diverse, culturally rooted diets — not just calories — backed by African funding priorities.“Nutrition security means more than securing enough food — it’s about guaranteeing access to diverse, culturally appropriate, and locally grown foods that sustain health, well-being, and dignity,” explains Amy Giliam Thorp, the environmental organization’s programs manager and Adaptation lead.

“The report underscores that despite Africa’s growing food insecurity, industrial agriculture models — dependent on imported inputs, export crops, and donor-driven supply chains — have failed to nourish people or protect ecosystems.”

Power Shift Africa’s Adaptation project officer, Fredrick Otieno, underlines key points: “To achieve real nutrition security, donors must shift away from top-down, yield-focused approaches and invest in agroecology and food sovereignty, territorial markets, and community food systems that promote biodiversity and local food cultures. This includes supporting traditional crops, women farmers, and informal food traders, who are often excluded from formal value chains but essential to food and nutrition security, particularly household diets.”

“True transformation cannot be achieved through continued reliance on external financing alone. Instead, locally relevant and nutritious food systems require national and local investment models,” he highlights.

The experts draw attention to new strategies like Community Supported Agriculture, which could close funding gaps by enhancing producer-consumer solidarity and community ownership. They add that it is equally crucial to put current African-led commitments into action — like the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme’s goal of governments giving agriculture at least 10% of national budgets. 

Thorp adds: “Meeting these targets must be a priority, as they lay the foundation for food systems that are resilient, sovereign, and supportive of local communities.” 

“Once strong domestic structures and financing models are in place, foreign partners and investors will need to align their funding with African-led priorities, rather than shaping them. While Germany’s interest in promoting progressive financing aligned with African priorities, relying only on external finance remains risky — especially as priorities may shift with changes in foreign governments.”

According to Otieno and Thorp, establishing alliances that support and reinforce domestic priorities and funding models is the key to a more long-term solution. “This means supporting African-led investments, not replacing them, to ensure long-term resilience, nutrition justice, and food sovereignty.”