Harnessing Social Innovation for Food Systems Transformation: Systematic Review

The global food system faces unprecedented challenges related to food insecurity, environmental degradation, and social inequalities. In response, social innovations have emerged as a means of driving transformative change within food systems. It aims to examine social innovations' contribution across various stages of the food system. Following PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic review of the literature on social innovations for food systems transformation by searching databases on Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, using relevant search terms; and applying clearly defined inclusion criteria to ensure relevance and comparability. The review includes peer-reviewed studies and grey literature published since 2016 that examine the contribution of social innovation in transforming the food systems. After multi-stage screening, 145 eligible studies were considered as key findings for this review, while the CASP checklist was employed to assess the quality of the included studies. The review analyzes the contribution of social innovations to promoting sustainable and resilient food systems. It investigates enabling factors and barriers to scaling up social innovations, as well as their potential to improve food system transformation, reduce environmental impacts, and empower local communities. The article is organized into sections: introduction, methods, discussion, knowledge gaps and future directions, and conclusion. The review highlights the importance of social innovations in transforming food systems and calls for rethinking research and innovation approaches to better support this transformation. It emphasizes the need for further research on scaling models, community engagement, motivations, barriers, and the long-term impacts of social innovation in food systems.