The Southern Africa Food Lab (SAFL) brings together diverse role-players with passion and influence in the regional food system in order to identify and pilot innovative means of enhancing long-term food security. Its origins lie in a multi-stakeholder workshop held in Johannesburg in February 2009, at which there was widespread agreement on the need for better collaboration within and between sectors on food security matters.  This workshop led to the establishment of a steering group and the development of a proposal to implement a year-long “Change Lab” process, inspired by methodologies implemented in a range of similar initiatives, including the Sustainable Food Lab. Towards the end of 2009, funding was committed by GTZ, the German development aid agency, and Reos Partners were contracted to facilitate the process.