Indigenous Peoples, especially women and children, are affected disproportionately by malnutrition and diet‐related health problems. Addressing this requires an investigation of the structural conditions that underlie unequal access to resources and loss of traditional lifestyles and necessitates inclusive approaches that shed light onto these issues and provide strategies to leverage change. Indigenous Peoples' food systems are inextricably connected to land, which in turn is interwoven with issues of self‐determination, livelihoods, health, cultural and spiritual heritage, and gender. Ongoing loss of land and the dominant agri‐food model further threaten Indigenous Peoples' food systems. Continuing gender‐based discrimination undermines the self‐determination and rights of women and negatively impacts their health, nutritional status, and overall well‐being, as well as the well‐being of households and communities. We suggest that feminist political ecology and modern matriarchal studies provide holistic interlinking frameworks for investigating underlying issues of power and inequality. We further argue that a focus on the principles of respect, responsibility, and relationships, and an openness to different worldviews, can facilitate a bridging of Indigenous and Western approaches in research and community action conducted in partnership with Indigenous Peoples. This can contribute to creating new ways of knowing regarding Indigenous Peoples' food systems, equally valuing both knowledge systems. Indigenous Peoples' rights, right to food, and food sovereignty are frames that, despite some tensions, have the common goal of self‐determination. Through their ability to inform, empower, and mobilize, they provide tools for social movements and communities to challenge existing structural inequalities and leverage social change.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate whether the sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) enables an analysis of the complex interrelations and interdependencies between social entrepreneurs (SEs), destination communities’ livelihood assets and related transforming structures and processes. SEs in tourism are regarded as drivers for linking destination communities with enterprises, aiming to create economic benefits and livelihoods. Design/methodology/approach: Data were gathered through participatory action research at a tourism lodge and its foundation, which facilitated agricultural training, and by conducting in-depth interviews with ten key stakeholders. The sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF) served as the theoretical framework. Findings: The SLA enables an analysis of interrelations and interdependencies between various stakeholders and to visualise the way SEs forge the impacts tourism has on livelihoods. The agricultural project did not reach its full potential because of, amongst other factors, competing aims between the profit and non-profit business, resulting in the lack of a clear vision and strategy. Additional challenges were dependency on external funding and a lack of reciprocal communication between the stakeholders involved. Research limitations/implications: This research is based on one case study, and findings cannot be generalised. Future studies should develop the SLF further, possibly through adaptation and integration of other tools. Practical implications: The SLF enables researchers to integrate local knowledge and participatory research methods, thus facilitating engagement and learning between different stakeholders. Originality/value: Through empirical research, this paper adds valuable insights into the applicability of the SLF in the context of social entrepreneurship in tourism.

The COVID-19 outbreak forced governments to make decisions that had adverse effects on local food systems and supply chains. As a result, many small-scale food producers faced difficulties growing, harvesting, and selling their goods. This participatory research examines local small-scale farmers’ challenges as farmers but also as consumers and their coping strategies during the month of April and one week in June 2020. The study was initiated and conceptualized in collaboration with small-scale farmer members of an existing research network in selected urban and rural areas in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Indonesia. Participants co-designed the research, collected and uploaded data through digital survey tools, and contributed to data analysis and interpretation. A common observation across regions is that the measures imposed in response to COVID-19 highlighted and partly exacerbated existing socio-economic inequalities among food system actors. Strict lockdowns in Cape Town, South Africa, and Masvingo, Zimbabwe, significantly restricted the production capacity of small-scale farmers in the informal economy and created more food insecurity for them. In Maputo, Mozambique, and Toraja and Java, Indonesia, local food systems continued to operate and were even strengthened by higher social capital and adaptive capacities.

Objective: To investigate underlying causes for food and nutrition insecurity in black South African households and to gain understanding of the factors contributing to better nutrition security, with emphasis on household organisation, gender and intra-household dynamics and social networks.Design, setting and subjects: Within a larger cross-sectional survey that investigated the impact of urbanisation on the health of black South Africans, 166 people, mostly women, were interviewed on household food security. Methods used were structured face-to-face interviews, in-depth interviews, observation, interviews with key informants and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Information was collected from 1998 to 2000 in 15 rural and urban areas of the North West Province, South Africa.Results: Three-quarters of households in this sample are chronically food-insecure. Families are disrupted, due to migrant work, poverty and increasing societal violence, and half of households are female-headed. Certain categories of female-headed households and households based on partnership relationships, despite more limited resources, achieve a better or an equal economic status and better nutrition security than those households led by men, with the latter often being considered an economic liability. The reliance on and fostering of social ties and networks appear to be of central significance.Conclusion: Gender and intra-household relations, as well as social networks and income from informal sector activities, are often not uncovered by conventional statistical methods. Qualitative research can reveal the unexpected and furthermore empowers people, as their voices are heard.

Urban agriculture (UA) is perceived to foster the self-determination of localised food systems and feed growing urban populations. We apply a food justice lens with a focus on place and power to explore UA's contributions to livelihoods and food availability in Cape Town, South Africa and Maputo, Mozambique and to understand the power dynamics between actors. We conducted household surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, participant observations, and farmer-led co-research from 2017 to 2019. In Cape Town, UA is an NGO-led, subsidised initiative regulating production decisions and market access, instead of enhancing self-determination. Food is produced in highly confined spaces in informal settlements, almost exclusively for a niche market of wealthy consumers in the city centre. Farmers are disconnected from consumers and from their own produce, with only 15% of farmers eating the vegetables they grow. In Maputo, UA emerged from farming traditions in the peri-urban green belt, producing leafy green vegetables for both the urban population and 99% of the farmers themselves, thereby contributing to local food availability. However, farmers depend on prices determined by intermediaries with farm association members of higher status and privilege holding leading positions and determining access to agricultural inputs and services. In both contexts, we revealed stark structural inequalities and highly uneven power dynamics. As one outcome of co-research in Cape Town, farmers established their own market channels and advocated for food councils that would enable them to have a voice in shaping urban agriculture and local food systems.