Keeping food flowing within African food systems by busting policy myths Share on London, 28 January 2021 - I love academic papers that use evidence to try and shift stubborn policy perspectives, especially when those policy perspectives seem to be holding back development and hunger reduction. So, it is no surprise that I like the recent paper by Liverpool-Tasie et al. (2020) on persistent myths that are held about African food supply chains. At the Food System Summit in September, big decisions will be taken, and this report can help to ensure the right ones are made for Africa. First, the paper reminds us what food supply chains are: vertical - from farm input suppliers to farmers all the way to traders, processing, retail and consumers, but also lateral supply chains - logistics, labour and materials. Then we are reminded about the importance of food supply chains in Africa: 90% by weight of the food consumed in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is from domestic food supply chains. And SMEs deliver 85% of the food supply chains, i.e. 77% of all food consumed in sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, purchases of food are 80% of total consumption in sub-Saharan Africa. This latter percentage is very similar to GAIN’s own analyses of World Bank Living Measurement Survey data which I have presented in dozens of venues over the past 4 years.