African Food Systems Transformation Collective Inception Meetings - 8 August 2023
Agriculture in Africa is arguably the most important sector, given its contribution to food security, as well as its being the continent’s principal source of income and livelihoods as well as the main source of employment for more than half of Africa’s population – the majority of them being women.
The aim of this work is to support the establishment of an African Food Systems Transformation
Collective that will help to inform philanthropic investments in sustainable food system
transformation in Africa, support localised research and the building of networks.
To do this, its necessary to bring together a multi-disciplinary collective of African food system experts to identify key areas for intervention and fill key research gaps.
Given the extent of the food security challenges facing Africa as well as the impact that climate change is and will continue to have on agricultural production, systemic shifts are needed to meet the food needs of our growing population. This will require looking beyond simply reforming food systems to actually transforming them. The pooling of philanthropic resources can provide a catalyitic role to food systems actors by intervening where public and private investment practices fall short.