South Africa’s agro-food system is undergoing rapid, corporate driven restructuring with implications for food security being both direct (via impacts on the nature and availability of foods) and indirect (via the implications for livelihoods, employment and economic activity). This programme explores the most urgent and important of these changes with a view to make information on these dynamics accessible to stakeholders and policy makers.  The programme also aims to understand the institutional arrangements required for improved food security and food systems governance and how food and nutrition security can contribute to broader development priorities. 

The objectives of this research programme are to: strengthen a collaborative governance approach for food security at the local, provincial and national levels through policy dialogue, public debate, the development of communities of practice and the co-production of knowledge; support the adoption a rights-based approach to the debate on access to food for schools leavers and students in tertiary institutions as this is congruent to homes from which students in these institutions originate; and use a food systems approach to contribute to the dialogue on what form of food system best meets the triple burden of malnutrition for poor people in Southern African cities.