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Abstract:
The sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region has experienced substantial population growth over the past decades,
accompanied by severe hunger and environmental degradation. Underperforming governance is a major
driver of unsustainable agricultural production and land use in SSA. The impacts of governance performance
on food security and the environment in SSA require better understanding by considering socioeconomic
and biophysical dynamics. Using an agro-economic dynamic optimization model, we investigate the impacts
of governance performance on land use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and food security in the SSA
region by 2050. Our findings indicate that strong governance could lead to less deforestation, thus reducing GHG emissions in the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sector. Strong governance could also improve food security, with higher agricultural productivity, lower food prices and food expenditure share, as well as higher self-sufficiency. These findings highlight that those efforts should extend beyond
specific agricultural and environmental measures and promote integrated governance to achieve long-term synergies between food and environmental security in SSA.
