Daniel N. Warshawsky

FoodBank Johannesburg, State, and Civil Society Organisations in Post-Apartheid Johannesburg

This article analyses FoodBank Johannesburgs impact on the network of food security organisations in Johannesburg, South Africa. The introduction of the American food banking model into Johannesburg has led to many positive outcomes, including expanding the number of institutions committed to food security, streamlining food donation processes, increasing the amount of food delivered, and reducing waste. While FoodBank Johannesburgs alignment with the state and capital has assured some level of state funding, it also has the potential to delegitimise particular food security interventions, depoliticise hunger, deepen central state penetration, create new bureaucracies, and allow government to shirk responsibilities towards the food insecure. Additionally, even though food retailers and food manufacturers have committed to the food banking concept, it is not clear whether the food banks dependence on food business inefficiencies, such as overproduction and incorrect packaging, is an appropriate way to ensure food security. Moreover, FoodBank Johannesburg has transformed non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) through processes of inclusion and exclusion and legitimised a top-down approach towards food security that privileges particular food security interventions over others. For some NGOs, institutional stability has been ensured by changing the organisational mission, accessing private sector funding, or joining forces with FoodBank Johannesburg. Yet, for many NGOs and CBOs, resource unavailability, ineffective governmental policy, and new food bank bureaucracies pose potential institutional challenges and an uncertain future.

Civil society and urban food insecurity: analyzing the roles of local food organizations in Johannesburg

Food security civil society organizations (FSCSOs) have emerged as important institutions in the battle against food insecurity in the Global South. However, little attention has so far been paid to their organizational structure, institutional roles, and governance configurations. To fill this gap, in this paper I used surveys, semi-structured interviews, and place-based case studies to analyze the landscape of Johannesburg’s FSCSOs. Results indicate that while they fulfill many important roles, an uneven distribution of resources, institutional instability, and underdevelopment of food security social movements nevertheless weakens their ability to be effective service providers and vehicles of broader social change. Thus, despite a growing literature on alternative food and food justice movements that heralds FSCSOs as a solution to urban food insecurity, this paper argues that their conceptualization has, so far, been poorly developed; and as a consequence, their transformative potential remains weakly theorized.

The Potential for Mixed Methods: Results from the Field in Urban South Africa

With the “cultural turn” in geography, scholars have become more focused on the politics of representation, politics of fieldwork, and politics of the research setting. In human geography, this epistemological shift has been accompanied by a methodological move toward intensive methods at the expense of extensive methods. In this article, I suggest that mixed methods that utilize the strengths of both intensive and extensive methods can offset the weaknesses of each method. Moreover, results from the field suggest that the combination of intensive and extensive methods could produce unique insights only possible from a mixed method approach.

Measuring the Size, Scope, and Location of Civil Society Organizations in Johannesburg's Food System

Food security civil society organizations (FSCSOs) are key institutional players in the Global South, yet researchers have not adequately examined their size, scope, or location within urban areas. To fill this gap, this article analyzes Johannesburgs FSCSOs using quantitative survey data and spatial analysis. Data findings suggest that FSCSOs’ resources are unevenly distributed across Johannesburg, with larger, privately resourced FSCSOs located in white suburbs and smaller, unstable, turnover-prone FSCSOs located in black townships and informal settlements. Overall, these data suggest that the citys network of FSCSOs is spatially polarized and weakest in areas where food insecurity is the greatest.

Civil Society and Public–Private Partnerships: Case Study of the Agri-Food Bank in South Africa

Abstract In recent decades, civil society organizations (CSOs) have joined public–private partnerships (PPPs) to reduce poverty and promote local development. In what follows, I analyze the development of the Agri-FoodBank (AFB) CSO in South Africa in order to critically examine PPPs. As part of the FoodBank South Africa (FBSA) network of food banks, the AFB has emerged to reduce rural and urban food insecurities. Building on the national system of food banks, the AFB aims to train small-scale rural farmers to sell their crops to the food bank’s network of local food organizations which then feed the urban poor. In the case of the AFB, findings suggest that the PPP emerged as a mutually beneficial collaboration between the state and FBSA, as the state needed political power and FBSA needed money. However, for this PPP to form, FBSA completely transformed its mission and structure to fit the state’s preference for rural development projects. Thus, although the AFB formed to empower FBSA, data findings indicate that the AFB has increased state control over FBSA. In this way, PPPs need to be understood within the context of local state-civil society relations, as methods of state control reflect South Africa’s unique version of neoliberalism.

State, civil society, and the limits of NGO institutionalization in post-apartheid South Africa

While some civil society organizations (CSOs) initially embraced the state in post-apartheid South Africa, many became increasingly disappointed with the state’s incapacity to effect meaningful and long-lasting social change. This has resulted in a range of new CSO activity, including semi-autonomous non-governmental organizations, numerous basic needs organizations, and broad based social movements. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation, this article examines one CSO as a case study to highlight the emerging fractures in South Africa’s state–civil society configuration. Findings in this article suggest that some CSOs have successfully disengaged with the South African state due to its inefficient and corrupt funding practices, incapacity for effective leadership, and outright hostility towards CSOs. However, these data also indicate that problematic state–civil society relations may weaken South African CSOs’ potential to operate effectively or develop social movements which challenge the state.

The Perpetual Uncertainty of Civil Society: Case Study of an Anti-Hunger Organization in South Africa

Abstract South Africa has one of the most active civil societies in the world, with more than 85,000 registered civil society organizations (CSOs). However, the growth of CSOs in post-apartheid South Africa does not necessarily imply that the sector is strong. While it is true that the demise of the apartheid regime increased democratic representation within South Africa, CSOs have experienced a series of institutional challenges which have weakened their organizational stability. This has included increased oversight by the state, inefficient and inconsistent funding from government, fickle demands by private donors, and competition from other sectors. Through an in-depth case study of a historically prominent CSO in South Africa, this paper critically analyzes the institutional challenges faced by CSOs in South Africa. Data findings suggest that lack of long-term funding support, ineffective state funding mechanisms, and competition from state programs and new CSOs have resulted in perpetual uncertainty for some CSOs. In all, these institutional problems may have the potential to shrink, destabilize, and limit the viability of South African CSOs. Moreover, this suggests that South African democratization may have simultaneously produced new opportunities for some CSOs, yet reinforced unequal power relations for other CSOs and thus produced a highly polarized CSO landscape.