Food security strategies are determined by the prevailing realities within households and communities. Therefore, it is not surprising that in South Africa agricultural transformation is an important food security strategy. This article examines the role of human development and food sovereignty in fostering conditions that enable rural households to enhance their food security capabilities. Using an in-depth analysis of literature, national, regional and international instruments, this article takes its departure from the fact that subsistence agriculture is an effective strategy for improving household food needs when implemented within the broader human rights framework of human development. The results reveal that agriculture has the potential to increase household food security if appropriate agricultural technologies and productive resources such as land are made accessible to households. Further, for agriculture to attain optimal efficiency as a food security strategy, policies on agrarian transformation should be implemented within broader social development programmes.

The article focuses on the realisation of the right to education in South Africa. The State has an obligation in terms of section 29 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996 to ensure the progressive realisation of the right to basic education. The State is also obliged to take reasonable measures, to ensure that the right to education is progressively available and accessible at tertiary level. A historical approach is adopted in the discussion; the great disparities within the South African education system created by the apartheid regime are highlighted as basis for the discussion. The article also examines the States' international obligations and commitments under international in the realisation of the right to education. Finally, the article examines the measures that the South African government has taken to comply with its constitutional obligations to create an equal education system for all. In order to examine the measures taken by the State to realise the right to education, the article analyses existing legislation, policies, and judicial decisions.

Poor and marginalised households often lack the basic resources and assets that would enable them to cope with shocks such as unemployment, droughts and illness, and stressors such as distorted economic policies, illiteracy and landlessness. As a result, these households suffer severe poverty and food insecurity and without government intervention, they are vulnerable to a perpetual state of deprivation. Against this background, this article examines the relevance and importance of the concept of sustainable livelihoods in promoting access to food, with specific reference to the goal of the National Development Plan 2030 (NDP 2030) to eradicate poverty. The strategies aimed at poverty eradication as proposed in the NDP 2030 are discussed in relation to the sustainable livelihood approach or capabilities approach as developed in international law. First, this article discusses the origin and development of the notion of sustainable livelihoods as advanced by international instruments central to socioeconomic development and various scholars. The potentials and shortcomings of the sustainable livelihood approach are also examined. Second, livelihood assets in the form of land and policy are examined to determine their significance in promoting access to food. Finally, a conclusion is drawn on the integral role of the sustainable livelihood approach in enhancing livelihood security and assisting households to adopt both coping and adaptive strategies aimed at reducing poverty and food insecurity.