Urbanization, Nutrition and Development in Southern African Cities

This paper draws on exisiting studies and survey data collected from 11 cities in nine Southern African countries by the African Food Security Urban Network in order to explore the relationship between urban poverty and food and nutrition insecurity in Southern Africa. The paper demonstrates that poverty underpins the high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition evident amongst the urban poor in Southern Africa; therefore, access to food, and not availability, is at the heart of the urbanisation-nutrition-development nexus. The paper reviews the state of knowledge about food insecurity and the double burden of nutritional diseases in the urban areas of Southern Africa and lays out an agenda for future research to fill significant knowledge gaps.