Hunger will not wait: this World Food Day, let us build food security together

As we mark World Food Day, recent Shoprite’s 2025 South African Food Security Index shows the country is still in a food security crisis. Food inflation is easing, but that has not been enough to stop hunger.

According to the report in 2023, the index stood at 44.9, the lowest on record. It has since climbed to 56.5. It also states that food inflation, which peaked at 14% in early 2023, has also eased. But the score is still well short of the 65.8 recorded in 2019, and hunger remains stubbornly high. Among households with children, the share going hungry rose from 9% to 11.9%.

The report also found that 61.7% of South Africans cannot afford a healthy, nutritious diet at a daily cost of R64.23 ($3.90). These figures are not just there to be studied. They describe a reality that needs urgent action from the private and public sectors alike.

This year’s World Food Day theme is “Innovate Today. Nourish Tomorrow”. It calls on governments, the private sector, farmers, academia, civil society and individuals to work together to ensure a greater variety of nutritious, affordable, accessible, safe and sustainable food, so that everyone can have a healthy diet.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the world already produces enough food to nourish everyone, yet 645 million people still face hunger and 2.69 billion cannot afford a healthy diet. Conflict, economic instability and climate shocks are putting further pressure on agrifood systems.

South African children are among those most affected. Unicef’s 2024 Child Food Poverty Report found that 23% of the country’s children live in severe food poverty, placing South Africa among just 20 countries that together account for 65% of all children affected worldwide. This leads to stunting, where children do not reach a healthy height for their age.

At Oribi, we believe lasting food security is built close to where people live. Strong local food systems, run by people from the communities they feed, make nutritious food more available and more affordable. That is why we work as an impact incubator focused on resilient food systems and inclusive entrepreneurship.

Oribi is one of 26 partners in AfriFOODlinks, a Horizon Europe -funded project coordinated by ICLEI Africa that works to improve food security and urban sustainability in more than 65 cities in Africa and Europe. The project looks at food security through the city, because that is where residents make the daily choices about what they eat.

It promotes healthy, sustainable diets, runs real-world experiments to change urban food environments, and brings public officials, small businesses and communities into shared decision-making on their local food systems. It also backs women and youth-led agri-food businesses, so that more people can add value locally and take part in the food economy.

Alongside this, our own work as an impact incubator is to design and deliver the right support for young food innovators, especially from marginalised places. In line with this year’s World Food Day theme, we equip food entrepreneurs with tools, tailored development and mentorship, with a focus on women and youth, so they can launch and sustain businesses that improve access to food, benefit the environment and earn an income. This helps close gender gaps in South Africa’s food entrepreneurial ecosystem.

We have also launched the REACH CSOs programme, funded by the European Union, which supports youth and women-led green agri-food social enterprises in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. This support is bridged initially through conducting capacity-building trainings that seek to strengthen the capacity, governance and advocacy skills of grassroots civil society organisations operating in the communities of the women and youth we seek to support, so that the people closest to food insecurity issues, including hunger, have a stronger voice and opportunities for shaping the food system around them.

None of this works in isolation, collaboration is at the heart of everything we do, hence we are excited to witness what the REACH CSOs programme will turn into in the coming years. We believe that real change in food systems happens when organisations, communities and individuals come together, and build partnerships because collective action, not isolated efforts, is what transforms the systems we work in.

Now another challenge is coming. El Niño looms. According to the World Food Programme at least 50 million people will be pushed into hunger because of El Niño, at a time when living costs are already high and an essential food basket now costs R5 479,80. 

For households already struggling to eat, this will mean more hunger and more climate heat-related challenges . Small-scale farmers and food entrepreneurs will be among the first to feel it. 

South Africa must be placed on a climate emergency footing now. That means accelerating a deep, just transition through a society-driven Climate Emergency Social Contract, one that protects the people who will be hit first and hardest: children, women, small-scale farmers and food entrepreneurs in marginalised communities. Climate-resilient food production, local food systems and food sovereignty are central to that transition, because they are how communities will keep feeding themselves through the shocks ahead.

We stand in solidarity with the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign and the Climate Justice Charter movement who marched to National Assembly (Parliament) to call on government to treat child nutrition and climate readiness as food security priorities, and to back the small food producers and enterprises that feed local communities.

W also call on funders to invest in grassroots organisations and emerging food entrepreneurs for the long term. We call on retailers and food businesses to open their supply chains to emerging food entrepreneurs from marginalised places.

Hunger and a warming climate will not wait for us to agree. We can meet them divided, or we can meet them with solidarity. At Oribi, we are committed to building partnerships, sharing what we learn and standing with the communities we serve. We invite government, business, funders, farmers, researchers and citizens to stand with us and act now, so that no household in South Africa is left to face the coming heat and hunger alone.

If your civil society organisation works on food security and you would like to know more about the REACH CSOs programme, visit our website at www.oribi.org.za and leave your details so we can share more with you.