How civil society groups can help resolve food insecurity in SA

The views expressed in our weekly opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of Farmer’s Weekly.

This article is an edited excerpt from Adelle, C and Haywood, A. 2021. ‘Engaging Civil Society Organisations in Food Governance in the Western Cape: Reflections from emergency food relief during COVID’. Food Security SA Working Paper Series. Read the paper at bit.ly/2YXOwFo.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa was experiencing a food crisis, but this was deepened by the lockdown. Low-income households bore the brunt: three million jobs were lost; two out of every five adults reported that their households had lost their main source of income; existing government-funded feeding schemes closed; and social grants from government were slow to be paid