This brief proposes that, in light of limits to existing food system advocacy in Africa, climate change impacts, the imposition of food system industrialisation, and increasingly urbanised populations, greater philanthropic support would be extremely valuable to movement building and campaigning approaches that bring a much wider set of sectors beyond farmers into advocacy for more just and resilient food systems. We further suggest that a just transition framing can provide an important umbrella through which to do so. A deep, just transition approach calls on us to place human rights at the heart of new and emerging food systems. This means dismantling arrangements that incentivise or tolerate poor working conditions, ensuring that women are uplifted, addressing historical structural inequities and making healthy, diverse and appropriate food accessible and affordable.
A deep, just food system transition approach provides new and multiple pathways to advocate for fair, sustainable and resilient food systems in Africa. It calls for organising and connecting dots across sectors and initiatives through practice and advocacy. It also requires advocating across multiple levels of governance, while ensuring that those who are most marginalised are included, acknowledged and have power to contribute to new solutions and arrangements. To do this, we need to strengthen cross-sectoral dialogue, new ways of working, and co-creation of knowledge.
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African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 18: Transitions to Sustainable, Resilient and Equitable Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa
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