Cape Town Resolution adopted at the 6th Social Justice Summit

Below follows the Cape Town Resolution — a Resolution on Social Justice and Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) — adopted at the 6th Social Justice Summit, Artscape Theatre Centre, Cape Town, South Africa on 18 October 2024.

The participants, drawn from government, the judiciary, the diplomatic, legal, business, civil society and faith communities,

• Recognise that hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition remain critical challenges in South Africa, despite constitutional and international commitments regarding human rights, social justice and sustainable development that seek to ensure access to adequate food and nutrition for all,
• Accept that ending hunger is a constitutional and international law human rights obligation, flowing from sections 27 and 28 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1966), and the African Charter for Human and People’s Rights and its Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (2003) (“Maputo Protocol”),
• Acknowledge that ending hunger is a sustainable development commitment, in terms of the Copenhagen Declaration (1973), the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs), the AU Agenda 2063, and the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development and its Addendum on Violence against Women (1997) (“SADC Gender Protocol”) and the National Development Plan (NDP),
• Are convinced that hunger is also a social justice matter, with legal and social obligations flowing from the country’s constitutional and international law social justice commitments, ubuntu, and the acknowledgement that the majority of those trapped in hunger or at high risk of it tend to be social groups experiencing generational deprivation as an aftermath of patriarchy, apartheid and colonialism,
• Believe that this obligation requires an integrated, multidimensional, multifocal, and intersectional approach, with all role players, including civil society, global governance, and international cooperations, playing their parts, mindful that governments bear the bulk of the responsibility for ending hunger and ensuring equal enjoyment of the right to food and adequate nutrition by all,
• Are encouraged by efforts made to end hunger, among them an elaborate social security and social assistance system that includes social grants: Child Support Grant (CSG); Old Age Pension, Disability Grants; the National School Nutrition Programme; a Social Relief of Distress Grant; a Food For All Campaign; and Policies for Economic Inclusion and Parity such as Social Employment, Land Redistribution and Economic Advancement of the historically excluded,
• Are saddened that despite such efforts, hunger persists, and more have been thrown into its dark pit by the multiple and concurrent crises of our time, exacerbated by corruption, maladministration in state affairs, and corporate greed, which includes unconscionable food price inflation, gentrification, and poor pay,
• Believe that the Social Justice Musa Plan (Musa Plan) can catalyse the trajectory and pace of advancing equality and ending poverty while overcoming hunger and climate change, thus fostering sustainable development and peace,
• Further believe that the purposeful design of policies and laws by and for all that centres around justice, food security and food sovereignty can ensure congruence with constitutional objectives and should, therefore, inform the design of all policies, laws and programmes.

We recognise that:

1. South Africa faces significant socio-economic inequalities,
2. Despite the constitutional right to food, national frameworks and international and African instruments, a large proportion of the population remains food insecure,
3. Gaps between constitutional, legal and policy commitments, as well as the lived realities of millions of South Africans persist, while some policies, laws and programmes unintentionally exacerbate inequality, poverty and hunger,
4. Lack of coordination among corporate, civil society organisations, government, and international partners in efforts to combat hunger has been a significant barrier to creating inclusive and sustainable change.

We agree that key challenges include:

1. Economic inequality and poverty
2. Access to nutritious food and the fostering of food sovereignty at all levels
3. The existence of an implementation gap
4. Impact of climate change and conflict, including war and displacement
5. Lack of proper nutrition for mothers and children
6. Impact on people living with disabilities, including invisible disabilities such as the deaf community and mental health disabilities
7. One-size-fits-all policies, laws and programmes whose unintended consequence is the exacerbation of inequality, poverty and hunger
8. High food inflation rates and food waste
9. Transversal coordination of hunger and related food security
10. Vulnerabilities related to rural communities, the homeless, students, children, refugees and the unemployed or early retired
11. Equitable access to Information and digital inclusion and the justice system
12. Competition between food and the rising prices of energy, transport, education, health, housing and the impact of legacy spatial inequalities.

We agree that the following principles guide this resolution:

1. Human dignity
2. Human rights and ubuntu
3. Multidimensionality of hunger
4. Focus on marginalised communities
5. Social justice impact-conscious policy reform
6. Individual and collective responsibility
7. Food education

We, thus, hereby agree to adopt the following programme of action to address these challenges individually and collectively, to align with SDG 2, and to scale and fast-track the Social Justice Musa Plan and its key result areas:

1. Strengthen legal accountability for food security and food sovereignty, appreciating the interdependence of food systems
2. Support the Social Relief of Distress Grant (SRD Grant)
3. Promote sustainable agricultural practices
4. Address food distribution inefficiencies
5. Focus on nutrition and food quality
6. Encourage public-private partnerships
7. Execute anticipatory Social Justice Impact Assessments (SIAM)
8. Ensure inclusive communication

We Conclude:

a) Hunger is not just a charity issue but a social justice, human rights and sustainable development issue.
b) By focusing on the constitutional right to food, strengthening policy and legal accountability, promoting sustainable agriculture, agro-ecology and addressing systemic inequalities that cause a barrier to access to food, South Africa can make meaningful progress toward attaining SDG 2 by 2030.
c) Collective action must include civil society stepping up more meaningfully in a collaborative, “all-hands-on-deck” partnership aimed at leaving no one and no community behind.
d) Call for a renewed commitment to achieving Zero Hunger by addressing the root causes of food insecurity through a social justice framework.
e) Hunger is not merely a technical problem but a profound social injustice that demands urgent and coordinated action across all sectors of society.
f) We, therefore, pledge to lead by example, which will include tracking and mapping hunger and current solutions to it to strengthen collaboration to ensure that no one is left behind.
g) We authorise the CSJ to collect pledges from among us and others, which affirm our acceptance that hunger is a social justice issue that we pledge to tackle urgently through action undergirded by the belief that hunger is everyone’s responsibility and our commitment to take, scale and connect actions that will end hunger by 2030.

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