Initiatives for right to food, from South Africa to Europe

Guest speakers

Busiso Moyo is an activist, scholar, and movement builder working at the intersection of food systems and public health transformation. As co-founder of the Union Against Hunger (UAH) and an affiliate of the Centre of Excellence in Food Security in South Africa, he bridges academic research with lived struggles for justice. His work interrogates inequality and right to food struggles, the geographies of hunger and malnutrition, and the global political economy of food. His presentation will be a case study of the Union Against Hunger in South Africa and how this movement has bridged policy, expertise and experience in collective action efforts for the right to food.

Walter El Nagar is an internationally renowned chief, committed to gastronomy as well as to social issues. He used to own Le Cinquième Jour – a restaurant enriched with a strong concept of social inclusion - and is now leading Refettorio Geneva where "all are welcome and fed with dignity". Founder and Executive Director of Fondazione Mater, he believes cooking is a political act. Since 2020, he has led initiatives that confront inequality, waste, and exclusion through gastronomy. From Refettorio Geneva, the only fine-dining restaurant in the world that serves the homeless daily, to the Rapid Relief Kitchen, a mobile unit supporting communities in crisis, his work merges culinary innovation with systemic critique.

After successfully lobbying the city Government in Geneva with a Manifesto on the right to food, in 2024, he co-founded and incorporated Good Food For All – EU, a Brussels-based NGO leading the European Citizens’ Initiative on the Right to Food. He serves as its strategic coordinator, driving advocacy across Europe for food systems rooted in justice, dignity, and sovereignty.