Activists & academics call for food system transformation to end hunger
On World Food Day (16 October), academics and activists will debate and share insights on the impact of the food system on ensuring the right to food and ending hunger.
It’s absurd that food insecurity co-exists alongside food waste
It is estimated that in South Africa around 10 million of the 31 million tons of food produced in the country go to waste every year. This total waste is generated at various points along the food system, including on farms, in the retail sector, and even in homes.
Food loss occurs at various points along the food production and distribution chain, with consumers accounting for only 5% of that waste
People are hungry: Remove bureaucratic red tape limiting access to food
People are hungry, it’s time for the South African government to remove the bureaucratic red tape limiting access to food. The Southern Africa Food Lab notes with concern indications in the media and from first hand reports, that government is acting to limit civil society initiatives for food security and food relief.
It’s time to remove all red tape in order to feed the hungry
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The Southern Africa Food Lab notes with concern indications in the media and from first hand reports that government is acting to limit civil society initiatives for food security and food relief.
It’s time to remove all red tape in order to feed the hungry. Government’s science-based responses to the pandemic, and the vital contributions of civil society initiatives to addressing hunger must be recognised and celebrated.
The lockdown, which was imposed on 27 March 2020, while necessary in slowing the spread of the virus, has had numerous consequences, the most serious of which has been growing hunger. With many industries shut down and people already living on the breadline, there are neither wages nor savings to fall back upon. In addition, the closing of schools has meant that some 9 million children stopped receiving a daily meal through the school feeding scheme. Recent research conducted by Ask Afrika estimates that 1 in 3 adults in South Africa now go to bed hungry. The downturn in economic activities and capacity means that the need will continue to outstrip relief even as we shift to Level 3 restrictions.
One of the great positives to have resulted from this crisis has been the response of civil society organising independently and almost instantaneously to feed people. In addition to existing feeding schemes and soup kitchens ramping up, countless initiatives have started up across the country to feed the nation’s hungriest. Such initiatives have complemented the central role of government.
It is therefore unfortunate that government has responded with counterproductive attempts to exert control over these civil society initiatives. This impulse to control civil society responses ignores the magnitude, complexity, and human costs of the hunger crisis, as well as the inherent constraints that the government faces in responding.
As the Southern Africa Food Lab, we believe that both the science-based response of government to the pandemic and the vital contributions of civil society initiatives to addressing hunger must be recognised and celebrated.
We further believe that the only reasonable way forward if we are to avoid widespread starvation requires that government and other large organisations recognise the complementarity between their efforts and those of emergent networks and initiatives. While such networks must be diligent in abiding by strict standards of health and safety, government officials must commit to helping rather than hindering such work given that the collective goal is the same: that of ensuring the safety of our nation both from COVID-19 and hunger.
What has been demonstrated by the COVID-19 crises is that the nationally controlled and governed food system is flawed. We need far more integrated and local scale responses to food and nutrition security. The pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of existing governance processes and structures to progressively realise the right to food, and the attainment of food and nutrition security. We do not need a Ministry of Food, but for people that are part of local food systems to play a more proactive role in food questions. And for the structures of the state to enable these to work for everyone. This approach, which integrates the experience at a local level, will strengthen policy processes and avoid legal challenges such as the recent judgement allowing soup kitchens and NGOs to continue to operate. Civil society and non-state actors may also need to engage in different ways of working in intersectoral forums, which may well require strategies for ‘stretch’ collaborations if they are to yield valuable new solutions.
These forums are part of the necessary efforts to coordinate deep and wide engagement through a multi-sectoral response with a clear goal in mind. A major reason for vulnerabilities in our provisioning systems is the lack of collaboration and cooperation between different actors within government, the market, and civil society. It’s time to activate the long discussed intersectoral approach to the food system. Among other things, we need to integrate nutrition more explicitly in our development discourse, including government policies in trade, investment, health, social development and agriculture, amongst others. Non-state actors’ critical role in the current relief response shows again that they must be involved in such co-ordination efforts towards a more just and inclusive food system.
Collaboration rather than control is essential if we are to effectively combat this crisis.
This statement was published by the Southern African Food Lab, a collaborating partner at the Centre of Excellence in Food Security.
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The Southern Africa Food Lab notes with concern indications in the media and from first hand reports that government is acting to limit civil society initiatives for food security and food relief.
It’s time to remove all red tape in order to feed the hungry. Government’s science-based responses to the pandemic, and the vital contributions of civil society initiatives to addressing hunger must be recognised and celebrated.
The lockdown, which was imposed on 27 March 2020, while necessary in slowing the spread of the virus, has had numerous consequences, the most serious of which has been growing hunger. With many industries shut down and people already living on the breadline, there are neither wages nor savings to fall back upon. In addition, the closing of schools has meant that some 9 million children stopped receiving a daily meal through the school feeding scheme. Recent research conducted by Ask Afrika estimates that 1 in 3 adults in South Africa now go to bed hungry. The downturn in economic activities and capacity means that the need will continue to outstrip relief even as we shift to Level 3 restrictions.
One of the great positives to have resulted from this crisis has been the response of civil society organising independently and almost instantaneously to feed people. In addition to existing feeding schemes and soup kitchens ramping up, countless initiatives have started up across the country to feed the nation’s hungriest. Such initiatives have complemented the central role of government.
It is therefore unfortunate that government has responded with counterproductive attempts to exert control over these civil society initiatives. This impulse to control civil society responses ignores the magnitude, complexity, and human costs of the hunger crisis, as well as the inherent constraints that the government faces in responding.
As the Southern Africa Food Lab, we believe that both the science-based response of government to the pandemic and the vital contributions of civil society initiatives to addressing hunger must be recognised and celebrated.
We further believe that the only reasonable way forward if we are to avoid widespread starvation requires that government and other large organisations recognise the complementarity between their efforts and those of emergent networks and initiatives. While such networks must be diligent in abiding by strict standards of health and safety, government officials must commit to helping rather than hindering such work given that the collective goal is the same: that of ensuring the safety of our nation both from COVID-19 and hunger.
What has been demonstrated by the COVID-19 crises is that the nationally controlled and governed food system is flawed. We need far more integrated and local scale responses to food and nutrition security. The pandemic has exposed the inadequacy of existing governance processes and structures to progressively realise the right to food, and the attainment of food and nutrition security. We do not need a Ministry of Food, but for people that are part of local food systems to play a more proactive role in food questions. And for the structures of the state to enable these to work for everyone. This approach, which integrates the experience at a local level, will strengthen policy processes and avoid legal challenges such as the recent judgement allowing soup kitchens and NGOs to continue to operate. Civil society and non-state actors may also need to engage in different ways of working in intersectoral forums, which may well require strategies for ‘stretch’ collaborations if they are to yield valuable new solutions.
These forums are part of the necessary efforts to coordinate deep and wide engagement through a multi-sectoral response with a clear goal in mind. A major reason for vulnerabilities in our provisioning systems is the lack of collaboration and cooperation between different actors within government, the market, and civil society. It’s time to activate the long discussed intersectoral approach to the food system. Among other things, we need to integrate nutrition more explicitly in our development discourse, including government policies in trade, investment, health, social development and agriculture, amongst others. Non-state actors’ critical role in the current relief response shows again that they must be involved in such co-ordination efforts towards a more just and inclusive food system.
Collaboration rather than control is essential if we are to effectively combat this crisis.
This statement was published by the Southern African Food Lab, a collaborating partner at the Centre of Excellence in Food Security.
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South Africa’s social welfare net in need of reinforcement
A long and hard conversation about a basic income grant, or BIG, is looming for South Africa. expanding social grants – and possibly introducing a BIG – may well be within government’s financial reach
Expanding social grants – and possibly introducing a BIG – may well be within government’s financial reach
Make COVID-19 emergency relief measures permanent, social protection experts urge
Social protection experts have called on the South African government to make the COVID-19 emergency relief measures permanent from October, especially the one that allows citizens aged 18 to 59 to access state assistance for the first time ever.
If you don’t have a job, you don’t have social security. The uptake of the COVID-19 grant had proved the depth of the need.
The post-COVID future for South Africa’s women remains unclear
It has become apparent that women around the world are, as a ripple effect from persistent systemic inequities, being disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated economic slowdown.
But now the disease appears to be on the wane in many places, including South Africa. That raises questions as to how those inequalities are going to be addressed in the post-COVID world. Not just to buffer women (and children) against the next crisis, but also to improve their everyday situations.
The spread of the coronavirus appears to be on the wane in many places, including South Africa. How will the inequalities exposed by the pandemic be addressed in the post-COVID world?
SA has been leaving too many behind before and during COVID-19
Gender gaps have increased as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. This has implications not just for women, but for their households and for their children.
Lockdown journey to investigate the potential of marama as a food crop
As large parts of Africa struggle with food insecurity and hunger, the search is on for crops that could provide an answer to these problems.
While the rest of the country was under hard lockdown, researchers at the Centre of Excellence in Food Security at UWC, undertook an exhaustive and exhausting trip in Limpopo in July 2020, in search of the marama seeds
Times have been perilous for farm women and waste pickers
The Centre of Excellence in Food Security is hosting a series of 2020 Women’s Month Webinars over August, the first of which, held on 13 August 2020, focused on the precarious livelihoods of farm women and waste pickers.
A mother in tears because she has a loaf of bread to eat but not enough money to send to her children in another town or city, or even country. Stories like this one, as recounted by waste picker Eva Mokoena, typified what was happening around the country amid the COVID-19 lockdown.
WANTED: Programme Manager (COVID-19 response) Pilot Programme
Programme manager wanted for a pilot programme that will see a consortium of partners unite to deliver a COVID-19 response programme, focussed on food security and community engagement. The pilot will implement a two-pronged approach; a digital food voucher distribution intervention through informal food traders coupled with the Champion Model, a community engagement methodology.