REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health and Nutrition
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1604405
This article is part of the Research TopicTransforming Food Systems: Addressing Malnutrition and Inequality in Low- and Middle-Income CountriesView all 25 articles
Social enterprise interventions to tackle food insecurity in Sub -Saharan -Africa: a scoping literature review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of General Practice Medicine, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
- 2Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands, Netherlands
- 3The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
- 4Division of Population Health, School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
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Food insecurity remains a significant global challenge, particularly in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), where it contributes to the growing prevalence of the double burden of malnutrition. Social enterprises (SEs) are increasingly recognized as effective tools for addressing social challenges through innovative and sustainable approaches. However, their role in mitigating food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa has not been extensively explored.This scoping review seeks to assess the scope, depth, and impact of existing research on SE interventions aimed at addressing food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa.We conducted searches across six academic databases, Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, to identify peer-reviewed studies evaluating social enterprise (SE) interventions addressing food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Additional relevant studies were identified by reviewing citations and references from the initial search results. The selected literature was screened, and data were extracted by two independent reviewers. To ensure accuracy, a third reviewer verified the data extraction process.Overall, 10 articles were included in this review. The identified SE interventions were categorized into three groups: (1) livestock production and supply, (2) microcredit and loan ventures, and (3) biodiversity and education programs.Social enterprises encompass a promising way forward in contributing to tackle food insecurity in SSA. SEs often work in cooperation with other organizations such as community support groups, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and governmental organisations. The sustainability of such interventions depends on financial viability, local ownership, adaptability, integration with local systems, and effective monitoring and evaluation.
Keywords: social enterprise, community support groups, Food security, Sub-Saharan-Africa, Sub- Saharan- Africa.
Received: 01 Apr 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Von Salmuth, Phillips, Bhattacharjee, Kwansa and Akparibo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Robert Akparibo, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
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