Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems - Southern Africa (SHEFS-SA)

SHEFS-SA will catalyse the transformation of Southern African food systems and communities towards systems and communities that are healthy and resilient to climate risks.

We will do this by: (i) undertaking SHEFS transdisciplinary research to shift understanding of complex climate change (CC) challenges for health, as mediated by food systems, within particular contexts, translated into scalable solutions and policy recommendations with high impact; (ii) developing a transdisciplinary Community of Practice (CoP), led by the Global South, that contextualises and applies systems thinking within an expanded climate sensitive SHEFS Framework, to improve food security, food safety, nutrition, and health, including mental health; and (iii) developing a Global South-led cohort programme to train emerging scholars and practitioners in transdisciplinary research approaches at the intersection of Climate and Health.

The SHEFS1 consortium will focus on providing actionable evidence for informed decision-making and identifying and developing practical solutions for CC mitigation and/or adaptation, while evaluating in detail how their effects connect to health, including mental health, through food security, food safety and nutrition (public health areas of concern identified in SHEFS1) The programme deepens our work in South Africa, and will expand to include Zimbabwe and Malawi to ensure regional policy impact.