Short Abstract

Food security has become increasingly urgent as climate change affects agricultural production in Africa. The purpose of this panel is to zoom in on how these challenges are experienced by local communities. We seek contributions exploring the political economy of local food system governance.

Long Abstract

Across Africa, food security has become increasingly urgent as climate change affects agricultural production and rural livelihoods, and as the new geopolitics disrupt global supply chains . African governments have committed themselves both to increasing agricultural investment and to pursuing climate mitigation and adaptation through their Nationally Determined Contributions. Yet these commitments may generate competing priorities and uneven outcomes, as they are translated into a wide set of different decisions about resource allocation and local development.

This panel examines the political economy of these processes within local food systems. To what extent and how are national and international commitments reflected in local governance? Do local communities have a say in shaping priorities affecting their food security situation, and whose knowledge and interests are recognised? How do institutions, policy arrangements, land tenure systems and power relations affect communities’ food security and vulnerability to climate change?

The panel engages with the ECAS theme of African Prisms by asking how food-system governance looks when examined from the places in which policies are implemented, negotiated and experienced. We invite empirically grounded papers on governance of relevance to livelihood and food security. These could be contributions on land and resource governance, agricultural policy investment, climate interventions, relations between state and non-state actors, and local understandings of food security and environmental change. Comparative and interdisciplinary contributions are welcome. Together, the papers will consider how locally grounded research can refine broader debates on climate change, and the political economy of agricultural production and food security.

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