Issue
South Africa faces severe food insecurity worsened by climate change impacts on crops and livestock. While national resilience efforts exist, the needs of small-scale farmers, food traders, fishers, and other marginalised groups remain overlooked.
Project partners
How we are helping
This project supports a shift to a regenerative food system by funding farmers and building a shared agenda shaped by frontline food workers’ experiences to guide national advocacy priorities.
About the project
In response to increasing levels of food insecurity, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change, the South African Climate Commission developed a National Just Transition Framework in 2022 to guide the country towards a low carbon, climate-resilient economy and society. However, the urgent need for climate adaptation and the creation of a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient food system has not received adequate attention in public policy or discourse. As a result, the voices and needs of small-scale farmers, informal food traders, fishers, and other marginalised groups remain overlooked.
Project partner, Institute for Economic Justice, will work with Eastern Cape Agricultural Research Project to elevate the importance of a just transition in South Africa’s food system, with a focus on equitable livelihoods, environmental integrity and improved nutrition.
This will be achieved by:
- conducting participatory workshops with target groups to co-develop a draft framework of principles and indicators for a socially and ecologically regenerative food system
- producing a policy brief outlining key interventions and policy alternatives to support a just transition in the food system
- conducting participatory workshops to co-create a training toolkit and delivering training sessions to empower target groups to actively engage in policy processes
- developing three policy proposals in consultation with target groups, including women’s organisations
- convening two policy roundtables with relevant policy makers to present evidence, discuss recommendations and build support for policy changes
- drafting three formal policy submissions, incorporating inputs from workshops, consultations, and roundtables and presenting them alongside 10 representatives from target groups during consultation meetings with government.
As a result of this project, it is hoped that farmers in the regenerative agriculture space receive adequate funding as part of a shift towards a climate-resilient, sustainable and equitable food system in South Africa.
Project Partners
The vision of the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) reflects the kind of society it seeks to help build: one shaped through the collective efforts of thousands of organisations and individuals. The IEJ is committed to advancing economic justice by producing rigorous, accessible research and policy alternatives. Through collaboration, it seeks to empower progressive social forces to drive systemic change, both from the ground up and through institutional channels, in South Africa and across the continent.
ECARP’s core strategy is rooted in rural democratisation, with a strong focus on social mobilisation through the formation and strengthening of local movements emerging on farms and in geographical areas in the Eastern Cape. Fundamental to this is building rural voice in the Cacadu and Amathole districts in the Eastern Cape, through bottom-up democratic structures that take a lead in transforming working and living conditions and power relations. ECARP is committed to strengthening dialogue and strategies around social and economic protection mechanisms, transformation and emancipation in the agrarian political economy.
We support people's participation in democracy and development by providing grants, platforms, and expertise.
