A food sovereignty insight into land, gender and justice in provincial agri-food governance: lessons from nongovernmental organisations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
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Date
2022
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Abstract
The author argues that food insufficiency and gender inequity are conjunctive social ills
which require concomitant analysis and intervention. To assist, food sovereignty offers a
viable heuristic mechanism to critique such a range of injustices associated with present
food systems. However, despite the efforts of its promulgators, researchers regard food
sovereignty’s nexus with gender dynamics as precarious. Given the extent to which
agrarian social structures remain bastions of gender inequity, the shortcoming is likely to
compromise food sovereignty’s transformative potential. Moreover, in acknowledging the
concomitant feminisation of agriculture and deprivation, any failures in public and third
sector strategy have most profound repercussions for smallholder women. Consequently,
the author proposes an intersectional framework of feminist food sovereignty to centralise
smallholder women in governance and development praxes. The framework considers a
layered food systems approach which highlights the sociological dynamics surrounding
intrahousehold food production, processing and consumption. In formulating this
framework, the research undertook a qualitative analysis of third sector insights into food
sovereignty and gender equity in rural KwaZulu-Natal. These findings furthered the
conceptual link between food sovereignty and gender in context. Furthermore, to test the
viability of such a framework as an apparatus of critique, analysis of relevant governance
arrangements was undertaken. The feminist food sovereignty insight was imbricated
within an existing diagnostic framework to engender holistic critique of food systems
governance arrangements. Ultimately, the researcher offers multiple recommendations to
consolidate governance and development praxes for the dual benefit of gender equity and
food sufficiency.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.