Background: Buffer capacity—the capacity of a social–ecological system to cushion stress and shocks—is often seen as an important dimension of social–ecological system resilience. While numerous studies have focused on other dimensions of resilience in social–ecological systems, literature on buffer capacity is scanty. Methods: Two agroindustrial cropping systems were surveyed based on wheat in Kenya, and soybean in Bolivia. The study was carried out in 2017–2018 using mixed methods; interviews, questionnaires, and observation. Two groups of indicators were used (livelihood capitals and functional and response diversity indicators). The five livelihood capitals, and functional and response diversity indicators (number of crops rotated, landscape heterogeneity, and percentage of arable land under natural vegetation) were used. Resilience indicators were assessed using a five-point Likert scale. Results: Both systems had high scores on physical, financial and human capitals, while the functional and response diversity scores were low. Both systems are found to be vulnerable to economic and climate change related shocks hence need to develop more diversified patterns to increase ecological resilience. Conclusion: The two cropping systems overall capacity to withstand shocks—particularly related mainly to climate change and variability and economic shocks was extremely low for soybean system and low for wheat. The two systems were found to have low scores of functional and response diversity especially with regard to landscape heterogeneity, crop and breed diversity and percentage of vegetation cover on arable land.

Research that focuses on changing problems of poverty, inequality, and food security may not always listen to what people who live in areas with sustainability problems need in order to make those changes. In our analysis of development research projects, we reflect on the challenges of participation faced by different actors in transdisciplinary science. For a decolonial turn, people need to be involved in making decisions about resources, research topics, and how to use knowledge.Transdisciplinary research is considered to offer contributions of science to sustainability transformations, partly because transdisciplinary approaches aim to increase the relevance, credibility, and legitimacy of scientific research by ensuring the active participation of non-academic actors in research. However, the possible impact of transdisciplinary research on decolonial sustainability science ‐ understood as actively undoing Euro-North American centricity, dispossession, racism, and ongoing power imbalances in inequitable social-ecological systems ‐ and simultaneous response to scientific rigor remain under debate. Thus, this article assesses the contributions of transdisciplinary research projects to decolonial sustainability science based on empirical information. To do so, we analyze a sample of 43 development research projects of theSwiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development (r4d programme)in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We found that despite significant differences in approaches, Global-North-dominated sustainability science still has far to go to achieve the decolonial potential of transdisciplinarity, enabling different actors’ participation.

Sustainable land management (SLM) practices are key for achieving land degradation neutrality, but their continued implementation lag behind the progression of various forms of land degradation. While many scholars have assessed the drivers of SLM uptake for restoring land affected by desertification, drought, and floods (SDG 15.3 and partly SDG 2.4), little is known about the implication of SLM implementation on invasive alien species (IAS) management. This study aimed at understanding the challenges and proposing solutions for the uptake of SLMs with respect to the management of the invasive tree, Prosopis juliflora, in Baringo County, Kenya. Data were collected with semi-structured questionnaires, the responses were coded into themes, and c-coefficient tables were used to determine code linkages. Our results show that the availability of incentives is the main motivation for invasion management. Thus, management efforts have often focused on private parcels, while communally shared lands tended to be neglected despite their vulnerability to invasion. We conclude that sustainable IAS management lies at a landscape scale, and thus the national IAS management strategies should adopt a collective approach by empowering local actors to engage in SLM implementation.

Food systems must be reconfigured for them to alleviate poverty, hunger, food losses, and waste, promote healthy diets, inclusivity, resilience, and livelihood opportunities, and be environmentally sustainable. This requires a shift in production, and consumption, as well as transformative research, responsive policy, people-centered innovations, and safety nets for the most vulnerable people. Transformation of food systems also depends on a shift in science, policy, and practice to promote sustainable futures. For science to be transformative, discipline-oriented research is important, however, societal challenges are becoming more complex hence requiring more interdisciplinary research with collaboration and integration of knowledge from actors in policy and practice. Scientists must learn to first work together, and then work with non-academic actors to solve complex problems facing food systems and the society at large. This kind of research is transdisciplinary, meaning right from the framing of complex problems, data collection, analysis, and validation, non-academic actors must be actively involved in the process of knowledge co-creation to create sustainable outcomes. This study demonstrates how co-production of knowledge between academic and non-academic actors through a participatory negotiated process, can contribute to transformative development intervention. The study applies a case study of an agro-pastoral community involved in a milk value chain in Laikipia County. The transformative areas in the study were; (a) capacity development in commercial dairy farming, (b) formation of Umande farmers’ Cooperative, and (c) construction of a cooler house, and installation of a milk cooling system for milk bulking, and value addition. The case study offers several lessons; (a) the role of transdisciplinarity in science, policy, and practice, (b) proper identification of stakeholders in collaborative community development initiatives, (c) the community must always be at the forefront of any development initiative for ownership and sustainability, and (d) skills development and economic empowerment are paramount for any innovation in the community. The objectives of the study were (a) participatory assessment of the local food system to identify the strengths and weaknesses, (b) assessment of perceived benefits of farmer capacity development and lessons learned, and (c) assessment of farmer perception of the benefits of milk cooling and bulking system on livelihoods. More farmer -led development initiatives are needed to improve livelihoods of actors in food systems.

Although there is a growing body of literature on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, limited evidence exists on the impact of the pandemic on informal female-owned enterprises, and especially those that are located in urban informal settlements. Based on a quantitative survey of 448 vendors selected through stratified random sampling, this study employed a descriptive design to examine the dynamics of women-led informal food vending enterprises across four informal settlements in Nairobi, with particular emphasis on the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the vendors’ coping strategies. Our findings show that women food vendors face numerous challenges which intensified during the pandemic, leading to increased business operation costs, spoilage of perishable products, and oscillating daily sales and profits due to unpredictable market forces. The vendors adopted various strategies to cushion their enterprises and households, including price and stock adjustments; the implementation of hygiene measures; increased use of mobile phones for transactions; reliance on credit, loans, savings, and social networks; temporary business closures; and the relocation of household members to rural areas. These results underscore the critical need for context-specific strategies to support and foster the resilience and sustainability of informal economies during future global pandemics. This is particularly urgent given that very few vendors received some form of institutional support, in addition to having limited access to business loans and training opportunities.

Food systems in arid and semi-arid lands face challenges that hinder them from meeting the food needs of communities and sustaining environmental resources. Using a collaborative approach between multiple societal stakeholders and academic actors, we applied the Food Sustainability Assessment Framework (FOODSAF) and a gender-differentiated participatory process in three workshops in Kenya involving women and men farmers, and social actors from the government, civil society, and private sector. The objectives of the study were to; a) assess the food sustainability of the Makueni agro-pastoral food system, b) assess the extent to which policies and practices of government, private sector, and civil society actors provide for an enabling or dis-enabling environment for farmers to achieve food sustainability, c) evaluate stakeholders perspectives of food sustainability indicators and identify areas in the food system that require intervention. The data were collected using workshops with farmers, policy implementers, private sector, and civil society actors, and analysed using descriptive analysis. The results show disparity in assessment of indicators by different stakeholders reflecting their perspectives, interests, experiences, and knowledge about each food system indicator. The performance of the value chain, the capacity of the food system to process and store food, and social self-organisation received the lowest scores and hence formed the basis for further reflection and collective action. This study shows that collective action supported by empirical evidence and collaborative considerations with stakeholders can contribute to the transformation of food systems and the associated farmer livelihoods. More collective actions are required to solve structural problems that smallholder farmers are incapable of negotiating individually.