African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 19: Land Tenure, Land Reform and Agroecological Transition

Land is a crucial resource for agriculture and food systems in Africa and plays a key role in addressing challenges such as habitat loss, biodiversity decline and greenhouse gas emissions. However, inadequate or inappropriate land tenure systems often limit access to land, leading to conflicts, discouraging agricultural investment and preventing the sector from reaching its full potential. Sub-Saharan Africa is highly diverse and both its unique characteristics and commonalities must be carefully considered when shaping policies on land, tenure systems and the future of agriculture.

Agroecology, which emphasises sustainable farming practices that prioritise biodiversity, social equity and economic resilience, offers a pathway for enhancing food systems and sustainable livelihoods, particularly for rural communities. Secure land tenure is crucial for promoting agroecological transitions, as it encourages farmers to use sustainable practices that enhance biodiversity and climate resilience. However, the application of agroecological principles faces challenges owing to entrenched power dynamics and neoliberal development policies in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The interplay of land tenure regimes and reform significantly impacts agricultural productivity, food security and economic development. Many African countries continue to be confronted by the legacy of patterns of colonial land dispossession and land tenure regimes, necessitating reforms that secure land for sustainable food production. The present policy brief explores the relationship between land tenure systems, land reforms and agroecological transitions, offering strategic recommendations that align land governance with agroecological principles.

The intersection of land tenure and agroecology is also highlighted in the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) 13 principles of agroecology, particularly regarding responsible land governance. These principles emphasise participation and fairness, which are crucial for addressing historical injustices in land distribution, particularly in regions affected by colonial legacies. Women, often marginalised in traditional land systems, are central to successful agroecological transitions.

Philanthropic development partners are the precise focus of this text and can play a critical role in supporting land tenure reform and agroecological practices. They have a role in advocating for, and funding, equitable land governance. This is vital for advancing global goals of poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability. To effectively promote transitions to agroecological farming, donor-funding principles and -mechanisms should focus on the following key areas:

  • Long-term commitment;
  • Locally led approaches;
  • Secure land tenure as well as social equity;
  • Capacity-building and knowledge transfer;
  • Integrated funding approaches;
  • Participatory governance; and
  • Market development.

African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 18: Transitions to Sustainable, Resilient and Equitable Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa

Africa faces a triple burden of malnutrition driven by food insecurity, unhealthy diets and systemic inequities. Fisheries are vital for food security and employment, yet marginalised communities – including indigenous fishers – often face exclusion from tenure rights and policy-making. In Nigeria, small-scale fishers struggle with environmental degradation, tenure conflicts and weak governance. Oil pollution in the Niger Delta has devastated communities, while illegal fishing costs the country US$70 million annually. Gender disparities persist, with women fishers restricted to nearshore waters, limiting their economic opportunities. Strengthening tenure rights, enforcing environmental regulations and ensuring participatory governance can address these challenges. In Kenya and Uganda, grassroots efforts promote equitable access to fishery resources. Initiatives such as the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Projects (KCSAP) and the Uganda Climate Smart Agricultural Transformation Project (UCSATP) integrate resilience into fisheries, supporting small-scale producers and local markets. These efforts will enhance food and nutrition security for millions in East Africa. To promote equity in fisheries governance, policies must enhance participation of marginalised groups, including women, in decision-making, promote sustainable practices that balance production with fair distribution and address resource conflicts through better monitoring of illegal fishing and pollution. Africa’s fisheries have the potential to drive economic growth under frameworks like the Blue Economy and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AfCFTA can reduce import dependency – currently at US$6 billion annually – by fostering regional trade and improving market access for small-scale fishers. Investments in infrastructure, digital monitoring and sustainable practices can help redirect billions to local economies while ensuring marginalised communities benefit. Post-harvest losses remain a major challenge, exacerbated by inadequate cold storage and poor handling. Solutions include investing in cold-chain infrastructure, improving processing techniques and providing training to fishers. Integrating indigenous knowledge – such as that in respect of seasonal closures and mangrove replanting – with modern innovations can enhance sustainability and resilience. By combining equityfocused policies with climate-smart technologies, Africa’s fisheries sector can become a powerful engine for food security, economic growth and social inclusion.

African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 17: Agenda for Competition Reform in Africa for Fair Agrifood Systems

This brief addresses the urgent need for competition reforms in African agrifood systems to enhance resilience against climate shocks, reduce food prices, and empower smallholder farmers and small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Key recommendations include strengthening regional cooperation among competition authorities, improving market intelligence, and mobilising international donor support. These reforms are critical to counteract market concentration, anti-competitive practices, and systemic barriers faced by vulnerable groups, particularly women and small-scale producers.

African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 16: Accelerating Silvopastoralism Agroecology and the Resolution of Conflict between Herders and Farmers in Africa

Africa is at the forefront of a critical environmental and socio-economic crisis. With 90% of the continent at risk of desertification by mid-century, climate change and resource scarcity are driving food insecurity and escalating violent conflicts between herders and crop farmers. But there is a solution. Silvopastoral Systems (SPS) is a transformative agroecological approach combining trees, forage and livestock to regenerate degraded lands while enhancing livelihoods.

SPS has already shown remarkable success across South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, delivering benefits like carbon sequestration, biodiversity restoration and improved soil health – all while fostering peace by addressing resource-driven conflicts. Projects like Herding for Health and Farmer- Managed Natural Regeneration demonstrate that SPS not only aligns with Sustainable Development Goals like climate action and poverty alleviation but also diversifies income, empowers women and youth, and promotes equitable resource sharing.

Scaling SPS in Africa requires overcoming challenges such as knowledge gaps, insecure land tenure and limited funding. This is where philanthropy can make a game-changing impact. By funding advocacy groups, philanthropies can influence policy reforms that integrate SPS into national agricultural and environmental frameworks, while strengthening community organisations, farmer cooperatives and grassroots initiatives that incorporate indigenous knowledge, gender equity and sustainable land management. Investing in research, training and scalable solutions such as technology and blended finance models can attract private sector participation and create sustainable markets.

Additionally, fostering knowledge-sharing platforms, capacity-building programmes and market-based incentives empowers local communities and pastoralist networks to lead SPS adoption. By replicating proven projects and providing the necessary resources, philanthropy serves as a catalyst for a resilient, inclusive and sustainable future for Africa.

African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 15: Food Retail, Markets and Informality in Africa

The purpose of this brief is to highlight the socio-economic, infrastructural and governance challenges faced by ‘territorial’ food marketers and smallholder farmers in public markets and along busy transit routes in Africa. Examples are mainly from Benin, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. The aim is to pinpoint possible areas of investment that will enhance access to remunerative markets for food that is produced and processed in alignment with agroecological principles.

Key messages

  • Smallholder farmers are known to produce most of the world’s food and provide most of the investments in agriculture (Kay 2016; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 2017), particularly in Africa. However, the markets in which they commonly operate are consciously and/or unconsciously neglected, sidelined and discriminated against in public policy-making (Civil Society Mechanism 2015).
  • In most African countries, farmers, retailers and other marketers operate largely in ‘territorial markets’, with formidable socio-economic, infrastructural, governance, safety, sanitation and other challenges, even though about 70–90% of agricultural products go through these markets (FAO 2015; Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group) 2017, 2022).
  • The healthy and diverse products produced by local farmers, mostly through agroecological processes, contribute significantly to food and nutrition security and food sovereignty in rural, peri-urban and urban areas. Furthermore, the methods of production boost biodiversity, enhance climate resilience, and maintain and restore the health of ecosystems (International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems 2024).
  • Increasing urbanisation in African countries is worsening the challenges already faced and poses further challenges for the valuable services provided by territorial markets to about 50–80% of the population.
  • Philanthropic investments can support research and advocacy. They also deepen the understanding of how territorial markets function so that evidence can be provided to policy-makers to tackle the varied challenges in territorial markets in the different countries.

African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 14: Food Processing, Packaging and Storage

Demand for processed food is expected to account for approximately 75% of the demand for staple foods, due to lifestyle changes and increased human populations leading to increased demand for food in the 21st century (Conway et al. 2019; Badiane et al. 2023). Huge potential therefore exists for small-scale farmers and producers to process indigenous food to meet this demand. However, they experience challenges, which include: struggling to comply with food safety regulations due to limited resources and knowledge; limited access to adequate storage facilities; and poor storage conditions, which can lead to spoilage from microorganisms or other contaminants. Overreliance on traditional methods of storage may not be suitable for modern food safety standards. This is further worsened by limited resources for packaging and labelling, due to financial constraints which limit the processors’ ability to invest in high-quality packaging and labelling materials.

Lack of standardisation, inconsistent packaging and labelling undermine consumer confidence and trust. Recommendations to philanthropies include the need for direct funding for capacity building, technological support, financing research and innovation and local processors. This would realise the potential of indigenous food processing, storage and packaging, embracing circularity, and incorporating technology in these processes. There is also a need to identify local processing technologies that are working well, for them to be improved using modern scientific knowledge for credibility. The development of new markets for local processed food products and lobbying for a regional labelling approach for local processed products are needed. This brief provides a summary of the indigenous/local food products that can be processed, packaged and stored, the challenges faced, and recommendations to philanthropists.

African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 13: Agrochemicals in Food Production and Processing

This brief on agrochemicals in food production and processing is aimed at identifying ways of transitioning African food systems (production and processing) to reduce their reliance on synthetic agrochemicals and promote inputs that protect human health and are environmentally friendly and sustainable. The main finding is that agrochemical use and misuse in African food production and processing are on the rise. The proliferation of these chemicals is largely due to: a) powerful agrochemical corporations prioritising profits over the adoption of environmentally friendly agroecological practices; b) weak regulatory environments in many African countries; c) commercial farmers promoting agrochemical use over agroecological practices; and d) poor awareness and education among farmers and other stakeholders on agrochemical use in food production and processing.

To transition African food production and processing systems away from the burgeoning use of agrochemicals towards the increased use of environmentally friendly and agroecological inputs, this brief puts forward six recommendations:

  • Strengthen agrochemical governance through inclusive multi-stakeholder participation and transparency across the entire food production and processing value chain, and across scales from local to national to international.
  • Coordinate, mobilise and support investments into agroecological food production and processing systems and practices.
  • Raise awareness of the deleterious effects of agrochemicals in food production and processing, and empower farmers on alternative production (e.g. bio-inputs such as biochar) and processing systems.
  • Use finance-related levers that include tax relief and credit lines to reorient capital towards agroecological practices aimed at reducing the increases in synthetic agrochemicals in the food production and processing systems.
  • Ensure that philanthropic and related organisations supporting agrochemical corporations insist on safer and ecologically friendly agrochemicals, including putting mechanisms in place to counter the rapid spread of these harmful agrochemicals in African food production and processing. Such mechanisms could include collaborating with government agencies to strengthen regulatory environments and technical capacities in agroecology, promote climate-resilient indigenous seeds and cultivars, support targeted education and awareness programmes and promote market access for agroecologically and organically produced as well as other environmentally safe processed food.
  • Encourage philanthropic organisations to work closely with civil society organisations and grassroots movements, researchers and other roleplayers that are demanding safer and ecologically friendly agricultural practices. This would imply an adoption of a holistic and value-chain-wide approach to combating the use and expansion of agrochemicals in food production and processing. Such an approach would necessarily include banning the importation of highly hazardous chemicals and equipping farmers with the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. Taking actions as well as working collaboratively across levels of society and among diverse actors and stakeholders is urgent.

African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 12: Just Food System Transitions

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.

African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 11: Urban Food Governance at the Subnational Scale

Africa’s rapid urbanisation, particularly in smaller cities, strains local governments’ capacity to address challenges such as infrastructure, service delivery, poverty, hunger and climate change (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 2018). With limited authority and resources, these governments struggle to provide essential services including food security, which is critical for health and economic stability (Smit 2016; Battersby & Watson 2019). As a result, African cities lack effective policy frameworks to manage urban food systems.

This brief examines urban food governance at the subnational level. Drawing on literature, case studies and interviews, it advocates for agroecology-driven, multi-level governance for sustainable food systems.

The FAO and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives–Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) outline pathways for urban food system transformation, including developing integrated food policies, enhancing public food procurement, investing in infrastructure, fostering territorial linkages, creating inclusive finance systems, supporting data management, promoting urban agriculture, integrating food in urban planning, leading climate action and reducing food waste and loss (FAO & ICLEI 2021; ICLEI 2023). Key levers for transition include multistakeholder dialogues, fostering knowledge exchange, ensuring inclusivity, linking dialogue to action and institutionalisation.

Key recommendations for philanthropic investment into urban food systems are:

  • Investing in cities already pursuing food system transitions: By funding multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) that include national actors, operationalising food councils and supporting policy development and implementation. Philanthropists can fund research and advocacy for urban food policies that integrate agroecology, climate resilience and social equity.
  • Building the capacity of local governance actors: To set their own priorities and improve on food policy integration and budgeting. This can include enabling data-driven decision-making and knowledge-sharing to enhance policy design.
  • Supporting the scaling up of successful initiatives and their replication: In other cities, particularly intermediate cites.
  • Strengthening civil society participation in food governance: By supporting neighbourhood-level structures and mechanisms that enable public engagement and investing in accessible technologies to enhance societal engagement.
  • Building practitioner communities: To foster knowledge exchange and the sharing of best practice between networks and city governance actors.
  • Investing in climate resilience initiatives: Such as circular and green economy initiatives, sustainable land use planning, regenerative urban food production and biodiversity conservation.

African Food Systems Transformation Collective Brief Series 10: Urban Food Environments

The purpose of this brief is to take stock of the variety of urban food environment initiatives underway across Africa and compile these into an actionable menu of investment opportunities. The brief outlines the rationale for increased investment focus into urban food environments to guide strategic operational discussions on how and where investment can have the greatest catalytic impact.

Key messages

The messages highlighted in the brief are:

  • Given Africa’s rapid urban growth trajectory, cities must act now to establish the policies, infrastructure and cultural frameworks necessary to create healthy food environments and prevent long-term path dependencies in urban food systems
  • Clear pathways exist for investing in diverse actions for food environments
  • The impact of these diverse actions could be leveraged through support for overarching coordination
  • There is a current funding gap of US$100 million that could be deployed into existing initiatives over the next five years.
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