Women’s empowerment as a driver to household food security in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa: a structural equation model approach

Livelihood resilience and food security remain central in achieving sustainable development. The study investigated the structural relationships between women’s empowerment, access to resources, agricultural participation and food security in urban and rural households in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The study employed the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to analyze data from 19,017 participants utilizing the 2023 and 2024 South Africa General Household Surveys to assess the direct and indirect effects of socio-economic and infrastructural factors on livelihood outcomes. The results reveal that women’s empowerment has an indirect effect reducing food insecurity through enhanced access resources ( p ≤ 0.001). Urban residence and improved sanitation significantly influenced resource accessibility ( p ≤ 0.001). Larger household size constrains resource access, highlighting intra-household vulnerability ( p ≤ 0.001). Agricultural participation is strongly influenced by urban–rural location and household size ( p ≤ 0.001). Although the SEM showed negative association of agricultural participation and food insecurity, the logistic regression highlighted a positive influence ( p ≤ 0.001). The findings also indicate that resource access, empowerment, agricultural participation, household size and urban residence have direct effects on food insecurity ( p ≤ 0.001). Empowerment has strong direct effects on resource access. Resource access and empowerment have direct effects on agricultural participation ( p ≤ 0.001). Agricultural participation, access to resources and food insecurity had direct effects on agriculture sales ( p ≤ 0.001). Empowerment had indirect effect on food security through improved resource access and reduced agricultural participation ( p ≤ 0.001). Resource access had the strongest mediating factor. Empowerment and income access exert negative but significant effects, indicating potential opportunity costs between off-farm income and agricultural engagement. Rural households have higher risks of food insecurity than in urban areas. It was concluded that women’s empowerment and access to improved basic services promote income opportunities that reduce food insecurity and support agricultural commercialization. The study highlights that, targeted interventions to improve resilience and nutrition among households is imperative in supporting sustainable development goals related to gender equality and food security.