Project Summary
Across Africa, a combination of environmental and climatic changes, agricultural innovations, market regulation and external shocks to supply chains are creating new opportunities and challenges for food systems.
In this context, food system transformation is central to national and regional strategies for improving human, animal and environmental health, as well as achieving broader positive social and economic change.
FoSTA Health research is organised around four key transformation agendas that are associated with a complex combination of costs and benefits:
- Transformation within and out of maize. This includes the development and upscaling of innovative methods for improving soil health and agricultural practices in maize production systems, as well as efforts to diversify away from maize to improve climate resilience and human and animal nutrition.
- Transformation in land and water use. This includes the growth of large land acquisitions, the expansion of agricultural land, and increasing investments in irrigation infrastructure and inputs in order to improve total productivity and excess production for export markets.
- Transformation in markets. This includes transitions from production for, and engagement, in domestic and local level supply of food, towards producing high value commodities for export markets, and the associated changes in supply chains and regulations that come with this.
- And finally, transformation in diets. In particular, we are exploring the diversification of both rural and urban diets away from the overreliance on cereals, and towards an increased consumption of animal- and plant-based proteins, and processed foods.
FoSTA-Health aims to improve our understandings of how these transformations are being brought about and how they are being differently experienced across dynamic and interconnected food systems. These food system interconnections are being simulated within a novel integrated and participatory modelling framework to explore the implications of food system changes into the future against a backdrop of changing climates.
By collaborating with a diverse range of stakeholders in exploring pathways of food system transformation into the future, the project aims to generate new insights and evidence that can inform policy and practice at multiple levels.
Focus Countries
Malawi
South Africa
Tanzania
Zambia
Project Objective
Food Systems Transformation in Southern Africa for One Health (FoSTA-Health) will develop ambitious and inclusive visions of, and action plans for food systems transformation for achieving positive One Health outcomes in southern Africa. The project is centered around four key transformation agendas: (1) transformations within and out of maize; (2) transformations of land use and irrigation; (3) transformations from domestic to export markets; and (4) diet diversification. In relation to each, we will work with cross-system stakeholder groups (from government, industry, farmers, non-governmental organisations, and rural communities) and draw on evidence from case study contexts in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia to build an understanding of the complex system dynamics that link food systems transformation to diverse animal, environmental and human health outcomes. A set of representative transformation pathways (RTPs) describing alternative plausible transformation futures, will be outlined, and novel integrated modelling tools used to collaboratively evaluate the potential these offer for delivering positive One Health outcomes. This will be combined with a mapping and analysis of leverage points of food system transformation at local/landscape, national and regional government, and supply chain scales. Action plans will be developed and capacities built for supporting action around leverage points at each of these scales. Across FoSTA-Health particular attention will be paid to equity and justice in the visioning, governing and outcomes of transformative change. Critical reflection on participation and power dynamics within the focal contexts of the project, and within the project itself, will be the basis for making recommendations and advocating for the equitable and inclusive governance of food systems transformation.
FANRPAN Role
- Ensuring that research findings on maize diversification, land and water use, market transitions, and dietary shifts are translated into actionable policies that prioritize climate resilience, nutrition security, and economic inclusivity.
- Supporting the generation, synthesis, and dissemination of policy-relevant evidence to inform national and regional frameworks on food security, climate adaptation, and sustainable agriculture.
- Equipping policymakers and national implementing partners with the necessary tools and knowledge to integrate research insights into policy planning, ensuring that food system transformation strategies are responsive to emerging challenges and opportunities.
- Promoting harmonized approaches to food system transformation across Africa by facilitating knowledge-sharing platforms that connect governments, research institutions, and development partners.
Project Partners
- University of Leeds;
- CzechGlobe – Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences;
- Kulima Integrated Development Solutions;
- Malawi Institute of Science and Technology;
- Southern African Business Development Forum;
- University of Zambia;
- Sokoine University of Agriculture;
- University of Pretoria;
- University of Nairobi;
- CARE Austria;
Care International UK;