The majority of research on food security and food poverty conducted in Africa focuses its attention solely at the household scale. This chapter argues that this has led to a series of inappropriate policies and programmes that neglect the systemic drivers of food insecurity. The chapter therefore makes a case for considering food insecurity as the outcome of the interaction of households and wider food and urban systems factors. The chapter organizes itself around a discussion about the value of the FAO’s Four Pillars of Food Security as a basis to develop urban food security policy and programming. It makes a case for linking analysis of food security to analyses of food systems and urban systems more broadly in order to develop more appropriate policies and programmes.
Citation: 2018. In Jane Battersby and Vanessa Watson (eds.) Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities. London: Routledge.
