Post-diagnosis: Towards a just food system

The national inquiry into the food systems of South Africa will begin next week, from 12 March 2026. It takes place at a moment when the evidence is no longer in dispute. Across this five-part series, we have traced how hunger is produced: through history, through markets, through the marginalisation of indigenous knowledge and through the concentration of power in the food economy.

With the window for submissions now closed and testimony set to begin, the question shifts from diagnosis to direction: What does global experience reveal about how countries change their food systems? South Africa occupies a notable position on the global hunger map. According to the 2025 Global Hunger Index, the country records a score of 15.1, indicating a moderate levelof hunger.

While this is better than many low-income and conflict-affected nations, it is nevertheless significantly worse than countries at similar or comparable income levels. The key drivers are well known, including persistent food price inflation, which makes healthy diets unaffordable for many, economic inequalities and unemployment and stubbornly high levels of child malnutrition. The reality must be read alongside South Africa’s binding legal commitments.

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Domestically, the Constitution guarantees everyone the right of access to sufficient food and provides children with an immediate right to basic nutrition. Internationally, the country is a state party to the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognises the right to adequate food and obliges governments to respect, protect and progressively fulfil it. At the regional level, obligations are reinforced through the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, which requires states to ensure adequate nutrition for children.

Together, the instruments place a clear duty on the state not only to alleviate hunger but to transform the structural conditions that produce it. If the commitments are to be met, the international lessons offer both sobering lessons and grounds for optimism.

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