FoSTA Health

Start date: 1 October 2022
End date: 31 March 2026
Value: £2,262,576.01
Primary investigator: Stephen Whitfield
Co-investigators: Professor Andy Challinor

FoSTA Health will take an interdisciplinary and systems approach evaluating the medium and long-term implications of four broad areas of food system change in southern Africa:

(1) emergent alternatives to maize production;

(2) changes in land use and investments in irrigation infrastructure;

(3) transitions from domestic to export markets for fresh fruits and vegetables;

(4) diversification of diets in urban centres. The project will combine stakeholder engagement and grounded research in case study contexts in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, with an integrated modelling framework, to examine the One Health outcomes associated with these transformations.

This will involve evaluating the consequences of system change for food and nutrition security, access to water and sanitation, animal and human disease risk, crop pests, food safety, livelihoods and more.