Food insecurity and intimate partner violence are important determinants of health and wellbeing in southern Africa. However, very little research has attempted to investigate the association between them even though food insecurity is anticipated to increase in the region, mostly owing to climate change. The objective of this paper was to descriptively review peer reviewed studies that investigated the relationship between food insecurity and intimate partner violence in southern Africa. Literature searches were carried out in Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed databases without any time restriction. A total of five studies that investigated the association between food insecurity and intimate partner violence were identified in South Africa and Swaziland. Of these four studies used a cross-sectional design, and one employed a longitudinal design. Samples varied from 406 to 2479 individuals. No empirical studies were found for the remaining southern African countries of Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Mozambique. Moreover, the reported findings indicated that there was an association between food insecurity and interpersonal violence (i.e., physical, psychological, and emotional) in the sub-region regardless the fact that the five studies used diverse measurements of both food insecurity and intimate partner violence.

Social workers and public health professionals are expected to collaborate in promoting health and social equity to address the complex challenges faced by societies now and in the future. This collaboration is particularly crucial in low-income countries, where social and health issues significantly affect people’s wellbeing. This study explored social workers’ perceptions of their role in society, their collaboration with public health professionals, and the importance of sustainable development in their professional practice. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted between March and June 2024, involving semi-structured interviews with twelve professional social workers from the three main geographic regions of Mozambique (north, central, and south). Content analysis was used to identify and synthesize the key categories that emerged from the data. Four main categories were identified: limited public understanding of the mission and practice of social work; a lack of collaboration with public health professionals; the integration of sustainable development goals into social work practice; and anticipated future challenges for Mozambique’s social and public health sectors. The findings highlight a perceived lack of societal awareness regarding the role of social workers and limited interprofessional collaboration, with barriers such as poor communication and a lack of mutual understanding between the two professions. Moreover, the participants recognized the need to contribute, through their daily work alongside public health professionals, to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Acute food insecurity remains a major challenge in Mozambique, where climate shocks, conflict, displacement and structural vulnerability affect livelihoods, food access and local food systems. This ecological time-trend study uses Mozambique as a district-level case study to examine how subnational monitoring can reveal persistent vulnerabilities in climate-exposed and conflict-affected settings. Publicly available district-level data were obtained from the Humanitarian Data Exchange/Integrated Food Security Phase Classification platform. Current situation observations from 2017 to 2025 were analysed, and the proportion of the population affected by acute food insecurity was modelled as a continuous outcome. Temporal patterns were assessed using mixed-effects regression and natural cubic splines, while district-level choropleth mapping and province-specific trajectories examined spatial heterogeneity. Between 2017 and 2025, acute food insecurity remained persistently high, with the estimated national average close to one third of the population. Northern provinces, particularly Nampula and Cabo Delgado, showed higher levels than several southern provinces. The overall temporal pattern suggested only modest decline, with projections indicating a possible reduction to approximately 26.6% by 2030, although uncertainty increased over the projected period. These findings show that national averages conceal important subnational vulnerabilities. Beyond Mozambique, the study highlights the value of district-level monitoring for countries where climate extremes, conflict, displacement, rural livelihood dependence and uneven territorial capacity interact to sustain food insecurity. Reducing acute food insecurity requires geographically targeted, climate-sensitive and conflict-responsive policies linking food assistance, social protection, agricultural resilience, market access and local monitoring.

Food insecurity constitutes a major public health problem, particularly in the contexts of forced displacement, poverty, and socioeconomic vulnerability, a

Acute food insecurity remains a major challenge in Mozambique, where climate shocks, conflict, displacement and structural vulnerability affect livelihoods, food access and local food systems. This ecological time-trend study uses Mozambique as a district-level case study to examine how subnational monitoring can reveal persistent vulnerabilities in climate-exposed and conflict-affected settings. Publicly available district-level data were obtained from the Humanitarian Data Exchange/Integrated Food Security Phase Classification platform. Current situation observations from 2017 to 2025 were analysed, and the proportion of the population affected by acute food insecurity was modelled as a continuous outcome. Temporal patterns were assessed using mixed-effects regression and natural cubic splines, while district-level choropleth mapping and province-specific trajectories examined spatial heterogeneity. Between 2017 and 2025, acute food insecurity remained persistently high, with the estimated national average close to one third of the population. Northern provinces, particularly Nampula and Cabo Delgado, showed higher levels than several southern provinces. The overall temporal pattern suggested only modest decline, with projections indicating a possible reduction to approximately 26.6% by 2030, although uncertainty increased over the projected period. These findings show that national averages conceal important subnational vulnerabilities. Beyond Mozambique, the study highlights the value of district-level monitoring for countries where climate extremes, conflict, displacement, rural livelihood dependence and uneven territorial capacity interact to sustain food insecurity. Reducing acute food insecurity requires geographically targeted, climate-sensitive and conflict-responsive policies linking food assistance, social protection, agricultural resilience, market access and local monitoring.

Food insecurity disproportionately affects historically marginalised populations and remains a major public health challenge in Brazil. Quilombola communities, Afrodescendant traditional territories shaped by resistance to enslavement, are frequently exposed to infrastructural and environmental deprivation resulting from long-standing institutional neglect. This cross-sectional, community-based study examined the association between environmental and infrastructural deprivation, interpreted through the lens of environmental racism, and household food insecurity in seven quilombola communities in Bahia, north-eastern Brazil, between April 2023 and February 2024. Household data were collected through face-to-face interviews using the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale (EBIA) and a structured questionnaire on sociodemographic, behavioural and environmental conditions. Food insecurity was dichotomised as food secure versus food insecure. Environmental and infrastructural deprivation was measured using household-level indicators and summarised through a composite Environmental and Infrastructure Deprivation Index (EIDI), per one-point increase, interpreted through the lens of environmental racism and environmental justice. Hierarchical logistic regression models with cluster-robust standard errors were estimated. Among 204 households, 70.6% experienced food insecurity, including 32.4% in severe food insecurity. Food-insecure households were more frequently exposed to lack of street paving, inadequate sanitation, absence of an in-house bathroom, unsafe waste disposal and precarious electricity access. In adjusted analyses, each additional adverse environmental condition was associated with higher odds of food insecurity (OR=1.50; 95% CI 0.94-2.39; p=0.086), suggesting a cumulative pattern of environmental disadvantage. These findings indicate that food insecurity in quilombola communities is shaped by structural environmental deprivation and support integrated policies linking food and nutrition security with environmental justice and basic infrastructure investments.