Africa was the only continent not to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goal of 50% poverty reduction. This paper asks whether Africa will fare better in meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) addressing poverty and hunger by 2030. To answer this question, we examine a diverse body of literature and provide relevant longitudinal data collected over 13 years of field research. We find that ‘sustainable development†is a failed concept immersed in the contemporary global economic system that favors growth over ecosystem stability and international institutions that undervalue womenâ€s capacity for sustainability in their care-work as food providers. We examine barriers to womenâ€s farming (climate change, gender bias, limited access to land, technology, finance) and provide examples of womenâ€s innovative strategies for overcoming barriers in their care practices toward family and community well-being and ecosystem health. We find that Africa will likely repeat past failures without community-level interventions that empower women to achieve SDGs on poverty, hunger, gender equity, and ecosystem management. We uncover similar holistic thinking in womenâ€s agricultural practices and scientific conception of ‘ecosystem servicesâ€. View Full-Text
