The Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) Phase II for the Limpopo Basin Development Challenge (LBDC) project aims to develop methods, processes, and technologies to help resource- constrained smallholder farmers mitigate poverty and food insecurity through improved agricultural water management (AWM) strategies. The purposes of this paper are to: 1) Identify areas in the Limpopo River Basin with high levels of rural poverty and food insecurity; 2) Identify areas where AWM interventions are taking place; and 3) Check whether current activities of the CPWF in the Limpopo Basin are located in areas of need as per poverty profiles and geographical location of smallholder farms. The generated poverty and food insecurity maps were based on food security surveys and estimates of consumption or income-based welfare outcomes at the district level from 2003–2013. Based on existing district level poverty and other relevant data in the basin, the study shows that the LBDC study sites are located in poor areas in the Limpopo Basin, and poverty reduction efforts should prioritize vulnerable female and child-headed households as they are the most negatively impacted by poverty and food insecurity in the four countries. Hence, with the overall aim of CPWF under LBDC to reduce poverty and food insecurity, and improve livelihoods, poverty indices should rank highly as one of the factors for project site selection. Poverty and food insecurity mapping plays an important role in identifying areas lagging behind in social and economic development, and also in facilitating targeted developmental programs such as education, health, access to credit, agricultural production support and food aid. However, it should be recognized that using district-level information often masks the existence of poverty pockets in otherwise relatively well-off districts, which could lead to poorly targeted AWM schemes. In addition, the poverty index is limited by the subjective nature of community-level and household-level factors that influence it, and this is reflected by the responses from research participants. Whereas a common poverty line for a particular time frame enables poverty comparisons across countries, local level poverty assessments, however, usually require more in-depth and diverse information that can be used in designing cost-effective and efficient anti-poverty programs and livelihoods enhancement opportunities. In order to achieve the research project’s goals of poverty and food insecurity reduction, and livelihood enhancement of smallholder farmers in the Limpopo Basin, it is of greater significance to understand trends in poverty rates rather than 1-year values at CPWF-LBDC study sites. Poverty maps that highlight areas marginalized by resource constraints help in setting priorities for developing technologies and in deploying resources where they are most needed and likely to alleviate poverty and food insecurity. This work provides background information on the Limpopo Basin.

Recurrent food crises and climate change, along with habitat loss and pollution, have put food security and environmental sustainability at the top of the political agenda. Analyses of the dynamic linkages between food consumption patterns and environmental concerns have recently received considerable attention from the international and scientific community. Using the lens of a wide sustainability concept, this paper aims at developing a multidimensional framework for evaluating sustainability in food systems and diets applicable to the Mediterranean countries. The Mediterranean region - a geographically interlocked and heterogeneous area including South European, North African and South-East Mediterranean Countries – presents several conditions of vulnerability to food insecurity and unsustainability. Furthermore the demographic growth, in urban and coastal areas of the Basin, leads to an increasing pressure on natural resources and widening disequilibria with rural areas. Derived from natural disaster and sustainability sciences, a coupled domain/vulnerability approach has been applied to the analysis of the concepts of sustainable food security and diets. Within consensus-based preselected domains, the vulnerability methodology offers a coherent framework that disentangles exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacities. A DELPHI method is applied to select the final set of indicators from the literature. The main result is the elaboration of an innovative conceptual evaluation framework for measuring sustainability in the agrofood system. The framework draws upon two existing approaches: a vulnerability-based assessment method combined with an analysis of detailed empirical domains relevant for Mediterranean countries. The DELPHI selection process, involving several international experts, has reduced the number of indicators to a reduced pool of indicators. Use of the participatory approach of the DELPHI method helps move beyond subjective evaluation and reach consensus. Recognizing the systemic dimension of sustainability, the vulnerability approach enables to investigate the causal factors dynamics, instead of targeting exclusively the final outcomes. The domain-based framework reflects the region- specific attributes that necessarily need to be identified to link scientific concepts with metrics. Urbanisation is a main domain of vulnerability as it is a key driver of change affecting both market dynamics and consumers’ behaviours, raising questions for food security.