Recipient organisationUniversity of LeedsSource-published name: University of Leeds
Funding£1.4M
PeriodSept 2022 — Mar 2026
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Maize dominates southern Africa’s food system, locking millions into a narrow diet that harms both human health and the environment. This project works with farmers, governments, and communities in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia to map out practical routes away from that dependence. The problem is that current food systems in the region produce poor health outcomes—malnutrition, diet-related disease, and environmental degradation—while also being vulnerable to climate shocks. Past efforts have often focused on single fixes, ignoring how food, land, water, and markets interact. FoSTA-Health fills that gap by treating the entire system as a connected web. If successful, the project will produce concrete action plans for shifting away from maize monocultures, diversifying diets, rethinking irrigation, and balancing export markets with local needs. These plans will target specific leverage points—places where a small change can ripple through the system—at local, national, and regional levels. The result could be food systems that deliver better nutrition, healthier ecosystems, and fairer access to resources, without requiring people to choose between feeding their families and protecting the land.
View original technical description
Food Systems Transformation in Southern Africa for One Health (FoSTA-Health) will develop ambitious and inclusive visions of, and action plans for food systems transformation for achieving positive One Health outcomes in southern Africa. The project is centered around four key transformation agendas: (1) transformations within and out of maize; (2) transformations of land use and irrigation; (3) transformations from domestic to export markets; and (4) diet diversification. In relation to each, we will work with cross-system stakeholder groups (from government, industry, farmers, non-governmental organisations, and rural communities) and draw on evidence from case study contexts in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia to build an understanding of the complex system dynamics that link food systems transformation to diverse animal, environmental and human health outcomes. A set of representative transformation pathways (RTPs) describing alternative plausible transformation futures, will be outlined, and novel integrated modelling tools used to collaboratively evaluate the potential these offer for delivering positive One Health outcomes. This will be combined with a mapping and analysis of leverage points of food system transformation at local/landscape, national and regional government, and supply chain scales. Action plans will be developed and capacities built for supporting action around leverage points at each of these scales. Across FoSTA-Health particular attention will be paid to equity and justice in the visioning, governing and outcomes of transformative change. Critical reflection on participation and power dynamics within the focal contexts of the project, and within the project itself, will be the basis for making recommendations and advocating for the equitable and inclusive governance of food systems transformation
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