Valuable traits within crop wild relatives (CWR) are needed to enhance present and future food security for 130 million poor people in southern Africa. Yet CWR are poorly conserved, are threatened, barely accessible to breeders, and generate few benefits for farmers. The project will establish strategic partnerships/networks of protected areas for CWR conservation and use; design mechanisms to enhance the benefits farmers from conserving CWR; increase access to germplasm, and build gendered capacity, underpinning southern-African food security and poverty reduction.