Diverse actor perspectives on African urban food systems: lessons from participatory food system modeling in Worcester, South Africa

Jacqueline T.M. Davis, Peter H. Verburg, Julian D. May

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Successful management of complex food systems inherently requires societal engagement. A major barrier is the misalignment between high-level generalized scientific representations of the urban food system and the varying practical perspectives of the actors embedded within it. To bridge this gap, participatory approaches can help in collecting and structuring knowledge from food system actors in a way that is understood by people with a diversity of experiences. Here, we showcase an approach to collect and synthesize diverse actor perspectives on the functioning of the urban food system in Worcester, a secondary city in South Africa. Together with six different groups of actors (N = 18) we built conceptual models of the urban food system and synthesized them into a full conceptual urban food system model. Our results show large differences in actor perspectives of the food system, including several (informal) subsystems that are often ignored in formal scientific food system models. Differences between actors in representation and in deemed importance of food system components can inform joint learning about the urban food system and enhance collaboration in finding food system solutions.

Original languageEnglish
Article number26
Number of pages15
JournalEcology and Society
Volume28
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project was funded by LEAP-Agri (long-term EU-Africa research and innovation partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture), co-financed by the European Union’s EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under the ERA-Net-Cofund, and administered by NWOWOTRO (W09.03.106) and NRF (UID118889b). Special thanks go to the stakeholders who participated in this research and to facilitators in the Breede Valley Municipality, the Worcester Ward Committees, and the South African Local Government Association. This work was completed under the South African DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security.

Funding Information:
This project was funded by LEAP-Agri (long-term EU-Africa research and innovation partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture), co-financed by the European Union’s EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under the ERA-Net-Cofund, and administered by NWO-WOTRO (W09.03.106) and NRF (UID118889b). Special thanks go to the stakeholders who participated in this research and to facilitators in the Breede Valley Municipality, the Worcester Ward Committees, and the South African Local Government Association. This work was completed under the South African DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Resilience Alliance. All rights reserved.

Funding

This project was funded by LEAP-Agri (long-term EU-Africa research and innovation partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture), co-financed by the European Union’s EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under the ERA-Net-Cofund, and administered by NWOWOTRO (W09.03.106) and NRF (UID118889b). Special thanks go to the stakeholders who participated in this research and to facilitators in the Breede Valley Municipality, the Worcester Ward Committees, and the South African Local Government Association. This work was completed under the South African DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security. This project was funded by LEAP-Agri (long-term EU-Africa research and innovation partnership on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture), co-financed by the European Union’s EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under the ERA-Net-Cofund, and administered by NWO-WOTRO (W09.03.106) and NRF (UID118889b). Special thanks go to the stakeholders who participated in this research and to facilitators in the Breede Valley Municipality, the Worcester Ward Committees, and the South African Local Government Association. This work was completed under the South African DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security.

FundersFunder number
Breede Valley Municipality
DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security
European Union’s EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020
LEAP-Agri
NWOWOTRO
South African Local Government Association
Worcester Ward Committees
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk OnderzoekW09.03.106
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
National Research Foundation of KoreaUID118889b
National Research Foundation of Korea

    Keywords

    • complex networks
    • directed acyclic graphs
    • food systems
    • knowledge exchange

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