Enhancing Food Security in Sub‐Saharan Africa Through Productive Capacities: The Mediating Roles of Institutions, Energy Access, and Natural Resource Rents

Despite sustained international commitments to end hunger, food insecurity remains extremely high in sub‐Saharan Africa. Current political debates increasingly emphasize productive capacities as the foundation of sustainable food systems, but empirical evidence on how these capacities translate into improved food security—and through which channels—remains limited. This study analyzes the impact of productive capacities on food security in Sub‐Saharan Africa, focusing on transmission mechanisms such as institutional quality through regulatory quality, access to energy, and total income from natural resources. Using principal component analysis (PCA), we constructed a food security index across four dimensions (availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability). Our study encompasses 42 countries in sub‐Saharan Africa and spans the period from 2000 to 2022. To capture both dynamic effects and indirect transmission mechanisms, we employ robust econometric approaches, including the Driscoll–Kraay estimators, the system GMM method, and the PVAR model. The results indicate that the development of productive capacities significantly improves food security levels in sub‐Saharan Africa. However, this effect is largely indirect. Institutional quality—particularly regulatory efficiency—and access to electricity appear as the main transmission channels through which productive capacities translate into improvements in food security outcomes. Conversely, natural resource rents play a limited and sometimes counterproductive mediating role, thus confirming the resource curse hypothesis. The results highlight that strengthening productive capacities alone is insufficient to ensure food security, unless supported by effective institutions and reliable access to energy, as well as a reduction in excessive dependence on resource‐related rents. Political efforts should therefore prioritize integrated strategies that combine economic diversification, institutional reforms, and energy infrastructure development. Such an approach is essential for achieving sustainable and resilient food security in sub‐Saharan Africa.