Our Work
From rights to resilience.
AFRA works alongside farm dweller communities to advance secure land rights, strengthen food sovereignty and turn community experience into lasting social and policy change.
Three connected areas of work
Community power sits at the centre.
Land Rights
Secure tenure, dignity, access to services and meaningful participation in decisions affecting land and livelihoods.
Agroecology
Local food systems, ecological farming, farmer learning networks and community-controlled resilience.
Advocacy
Connecting community evidence with public and policy spaces to influence programmes, strengthen accountability and secure farm dweller rights.
Land Rights Programme
Advancing justice, dignity and secure futures for farm dwellers.
For generations, farm dwellers in South Africa have lived with deep-rooted insecurity. Despite constitutional protections and progressive laws, many continue to face insecure tenure, threats of eviction, limited access to basic services, land rights violations and exclusion from decisions that directly affect their lives.
AFRA works alongside farm dwellers to challenge these injustices and strengthen their ability to claim and exercise their rights. We combine community organising, strategic litigation, research, advocacy and strategic partnerships to shift the balance of power and ensure that rights are recognised, protected and implemented.
Our pathway to systemic change
Community Organising
Building collective power, rights awareness, community leadership and structures through which farm dwellers can act together.
Strategic Litigation
Using impact litigation and legal precedent to challenge recurring violations and strengthen protections beyond individual cases.
Research & Advocacy
Turning community-generated evidence into research and advocacy that reaches decision-makers, civil society and the media.
Referral & Monitoring
Connecting communities to responsible institutions and monitoring progress so that referrals move towards accountability and lasting solutions.
Building a movement for land justice
Organised communities generate knowledge and evidence. Research strengthens advocacy. Advocacy creates pressure for institutional change. Strategic litigation establishes stronger legal protections, while partnerships and monitoring help ensure that rights and court orders are implemented.
Agroecology Programme
Rooted in resilience: reclaiming food sovereignty.
AFRA works alongside farm dwellers to disrupt historical and structural precarity by fostering resilient and autonomous communities. Through agroecological production, communities can strengthen household food security, local incomes and control over localised food systems.
Agroecology is more than a farming method. It combines ecological science, social equity, cultural knowledge and food sovereignty, challenging dependency on industrial and corporate-controlled food systems.
Four pillars of systemic change
Autonomy
Reducing dependency on costly chemical inputs and keeping resources and value within households and communities.
Climate Resilience
Using crop diversity and healthy soil to improve water retention and resilience to drought and climate shocks.
Food System Transformation
Strengthening local supply chains, direct access to fresh food and local markets that retain value within communities.
Structural Change
Valuing traditional knowledge and community control over production as a route away from historic land and economic dependency.
Co-creation, learning and solidarity
AFRA works in equal partnership with farmers, bringing grassroots farming wisdom together with advocacy and technical support. Innovation and Learning Hubs, Farmer Champions, community seed banks, learning networks and Advocacy Champions help turn sustainable practice into a wider movement for environmental and social justice.
Advocacy
From community evidence to public influence.
AFRA brings the experiences and evidence generated by farm dweller communities into public, institutional and policy spaces. Advocacy helps make rural voices visible, strengthens accountability and seeks policies and programmes that respond to lived realities.
This work connects organising, research, partnerships, media engagement and policy processes—so that communities are not merely consulted, but can influence the systems and decisions that shape their lives.
Explore the evidence behind our work.
AFRA’s publications, reports, research and case studies bring community knowledge and programme learning into a wider public conversation.