REPORTS
Developing Prosperous and Inclusive Cities in Africa – National Urban Policies to the Rescue?
Authors: Anton Cartwright, Edgar Pieterse, Ian Palmer, Anna Taylor, Susan Parnell
October 23, 2018
London and Washington, DC.
African cities will continue to expand—with or without government support. But strategic development of urban areas can ensure that rapid urban population growth drives economic productivity and better quality of life within a healthier local environment. Functional multilevel governance is a precondition to realizing this “urbanization dividend”—the positive dynamic through which the rapid growth of urban populations enables economic and human development.
National governments across Africa can enhance the effectiveness and accountability of multi-level governance by legally clarifying the roles and responsibilities of different international, national, and local actors. National governments are typically best placed to oversee matters such as the coordination of policy and regulatory frameworks; the efficiency and appropriateness of municipal boundaries; water basins; regional power grids; and intercity transport routes. In contrast, housing, sanitation, waste management, and urban transport benefit from local negotiation and coordination.
National Urban Policies (NUPs) emerged from Habitat III in 2016 as the policy instrument through which national governments can engage and shape an urbanizing world. They are particularly important in Sub-Saharan Africa, where urbanization is rapid and local governments are typically weak. NUPs can bring greater coherence and legitimacy to authorities and agents in cities and—critically—recalibrate the balance of power shared by different levels of government, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), civil society and the private sector.
Daily Practices of Informality amidst Urban Poverty
Authors: Edgar Pieterse, Suraya Scheba
December 3, 2018
Cape Town: The Mandela Initiative, UCT. 70pp
Daily Practices of Informality Amidst Urban Poverty by Philip Harrison, Edgar Pieterse, Suraya Scheba and Margot Rubin brings together the work of two case studies: research on the Hillbrow basements, in Johannesburg Inner City, undertaken by researchers associated with the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning (SA&CP) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and housing conditions in Delft undertaken in association with the South African Research Chair in Urban Policy and the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town. The work formed part of the Nelson Mandela Initiative (NMI) which explored multiple dimensions of poverty and inequality in South Africa.
The 2030 Agenda: Sustainable Urbanisation and the Research-policy Interface – Issues for the G20
Authors: Edgar Pieterse, Susan Parnell, Sylvia Croese
May 15, 2017
Bonn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
A new report The 2030 Agenda: Sustainable Urbanisation and the Research-Policy Interface – Issues for the G20, authored by Edgar Pieterse, Susan Parnell and Sylvia Croese of the African Centre for Cities has just been released. The report commissioned by German development agency Giz, investigates the apparent absence of urbanisation on the G20 agenda, which belies its importance in the global policy arena.
The report sets out conceptual framework on what sustainable urbanisation actually entails, illuminating in particular the imperative of a paradigm shift on infrastructure and urban form that will secure a common, inclusive future given the population expansion.
It explores what exists within the G20 by way of research policy capacity on global urban issues, with a particular focus on the engagement group Think 20 (T20). Examples of G20 affiliated urbanisation research capacity are also explored to illustrate modes of improving research-policy interfaces and itpresents an overview of an ideal research-policy interface highlighting the importance of the replication of research-policy interfaces to advance sustainable urbanisation, the role of National Urban Platforms, urban policy deliberation and the role of think-tanks as strategic intermediaries.
The report concludes that the G20 can better utilise existing knowledge and generate new multi-stakeholder ‘urban’ research within and beyond its borders, but especially in rapidly urbanising regions to support, enhance and promote multi-stakeholder interaction and knowledge exchange.
Food Insecurity in Informal Settlements in Lilongwe, Malawi
Authors: Emmanuel Chilanga, Liam Riley, Juliana Ngwira, Chisomo Chalinda, Lameck Masitala
2017
Urban Food Security Series No. 25. Cape Town: AFSUN
This report is based on a household survey conducted in six low-income informal areas in Lilongwe, where three-quarters of the population live in informal settlements.4 According to the former chief executive of the Lilongwe City Council, “the rapid population growth rate [4% per annum] is almost synonymous with the growth of informal settlements.”5 Understanding the dimensions of household food insecurity in these neighbourhoods is critical to sustainable and inclusive growth in Malawi’s capital city.
Food Remittances: Rural-Urban Linkages and Food Security in Africa
Authors: Jonathan Crush, Mary Caesar
March 2017
Report for International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London
2017. Report for International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London.
Globally, the transfer of funds by migrants to their home countries or areas (cash remittances) is at an all-time high. By 2017, it is predicted to rise to US$500 billion – and there is a growing policy consensus that cash remittances can be mainstreamed into development. Equally, food remitting also has a role to play in urban and rural food security. Yet despite its importance, researchers and policymakers tend to ignore food remitting.
The growing literature on rural-urban linkages highlights their complex, dynamic nature in the context of rapid urbanisation and growing rural-urban migration in Africa. Food remitting cannot be treated in isolation from the ‘complex web of relations and connections incorporating rural and urban dimensions and all that is in between’ (Tacoli, 2007). Yet the remitting of goods, and especially foodstuffs, across international boundaries and within countries has received little attention, particularly in Africa, where it seems that ‘transfers of food are invisible in the sense that they run within the family and outside market channels’ (Andersson Djurfeldt 2015a: 540).
This report is aimed at researchers and policymakers interested in transforming rural-urban linkages and the implications for food security of rural and urban residents. The current rural-urban binary is arbitrary, outdated and unhelpful. At a time of rapid urbanisation in the South, a wider lens is needed: focusing on rural-urban linkages and moving beyond cash-based, market transactions to consider the bidirectional flows of goods – including food – and their impact on food security. This report contributes to the study of changing rural-urban linkages by:
- Expanding the geographic and thematic scope of research,
- Demonstrating the value of examining the links between informal food transfers and urban-based household food security,
- And arguing for a new research and policy agenda focused on food remitting.
Using case studies from Zimbabwe and Namibia, this report also demonstrates how lessons related to food remitting can be applied in other African contexts – and highlights the urgent need for a new research agenda. The report concludes with recommendations for policymakers and researchers.
Food Security in Africa’s Secondary Cities: No. 1 Mzuzu, Malawi
Authors: Riley, L., Chilanga, E., Zuze, L., & Joynt, A.
2018
AFSUN Report No. 27
This report marks the first stage of AFSUN’s goal of expanding knowledge about urban food systems and experiences of household food insecurity in secondary African cities. It contributes to an understanding of poverty and sustainability in Mzuzu, Malawi, through the lens of household food security. The focus on food as an urban issue not only speaks to the development challenges presented by urbanization, but it also brings a fresh perspective to debates about food security in Malawi. The urban setting highlights the changing food system in Malawi where people in rural and urban areas are increasingly reliant on cash income to buy food. The report’s key findings include that the most vulnerable households are those without a formal wage income, households headed by older people, especially older women, and households that are not able to produce food in the rural areas. The research also shows that the food system is dynamic and diverse, with households accessing food from a variety of formal and informal food sources and relying on rural-urban linkages for urban survival. Urban and rural agriculture are important features of the food system, but there is little evidence that these are the “self-help” responses to poverty that advocates for urban agriculture in Africa sometimes imply.
HCP Workshop in Nanjing Report
Authors: Jonathan Crush, Mary Caesar
2018
Report for International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London
The Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) and Nanjing University, China organized a workshop entitled “Wet Market and Urban Food System in Nanjing” on January 12, 2017 at the School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences of Nanjing University in Nanjing, China. The workshop aimed to disseminate the results of the HCP household food security survey in Nanjing to government officials and researchers and to discuss the management of the urban food system. It also facilitated communication and understanding between the HCP team and local government officials regarding research themes in 2017. Presenters included Prof. Jonathan Crush, HCP Postdoctoral Fellow Zhenzhong Si, and officials from Nanjing City Administration Bureau, Nanjing Urban Planning Bureau, Commerce Bureau of Jianye District, the manager of the Nanjing Wholesale Market and the manager of Heyuan Wet Market. The officials gave presentations on various relevant policies and regulations and the government’s efforts to manage street vending, and govern the development of wet markets and wholesale markets in Nanjing. Other participants included Professor Xianjin Huang (Vice Dean of the School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences of Nanjing University), Associate Professor Dr. Taiyang Zhong, Associate Research Fellow Dr. Shuangshuang Tang and Dr. Jinliao He from Nanjing University, HCP PDF Cameron McCordic, Mr. Roger Dickinson from South Africa, and other researchers and graduate students from Nanjing University.
Governance and Legislative Reform
Author: Edgar Pieterse
Background Report for UN-Habitat World Cities Report
The State of Poverty and Food Insecurity in Maseru
Authors: Resetselemang Leduka, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne and Cameron McCordic
2015
AFSUN Urban Food Security Series No. 21, Cape Town
This report on food insecurity in urban Lesotho is the latest in a series on Southern African cities issued by AFSUN. Like the previous reports, it focuses on one city (Maseru) and on poor neighbourhoods and households in that city. More than 60% of poor households surveyed in Maseru were severely food insecure. While food price increases worsen food insecurity for poor households, it is poverty that weakens the resilience of society to absorb these increases. This report argues that Maseru residents face specific and interrelated challenges with respect to food and nutrition insecurity. These are poverty; limited local liveli- hood opportunities; and dependence on food imports. Among AFSUN’s recommendations are improved infrastructure as a fundamental pre- condition for meaningful development; the creation of livelihood oppor- tunities within the food system; social safety nets designed in ways that promote economic growth and equity; and free movement of labour between Lesotho and South Africa, which would dramatically improve the incomes of many poor households. The Government of Lesotho and the Maseru Municipality and District can direct both aid and invest- ment into an integrated food security strategy that prioritizes urban infrastructure, livelihoods, welfare and mobility. This takes political will, but the development and implementation of such a food security strategy is well within the reach of the country’s leaders.
Future South African Food System Scenarios
Authors: Jane Battersby, Gareth Haysom, Godfrey Tawodzera, Florian Kroll and Maya Marshak
Sustainable Cities Programme. South African Cities Network (SACN)
Towards Democratic Urban Food Systems Governance: Re-Interpreting the Urban Food Security Mandate
Authors: Resetselemang Leduka, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne and Cameron McCordic
2015
Sustainable Cities Programme. South African Cities Network (SACN)
Although South Africa is food security at a national level, there is widespread household food insecurity. Despite clear evidence of high levels of urban food insecurity, the problem is generally framed as being predominantly rural. This has led to a neglect of urban considerations in food security policies and programmes at the national and provincial levels, and an approach that fails to consider the systemic drivers of food insecurity. This has left local government without a clear mandate to address food insecurity.
Although National policies and strategies continue to neglect the drivers of urban food security, the 2014 National Policy on Food and Nutrition Security does identify a role for local government. The National Development Plan argues for a more complex understanding of food security and its possible solutions. Although the vast majorty of local government food security initiatives focus on urban agriculture, there are indications that a more systemic approach is being considered.
This policy brief calls for national government to formally acknowledge the mandate for food security to local government, and for provincial government to provide more scope for local government to drive the provincial urban food security agenda. The South African Cities Network has an important role to play in driving these processes, and in providing opportunities for horizontal learning. The brief argues that local governments should seek to maximise their food security programming and interventions within their existing mandates and develop over-arching food security and food system strategies, which address sustaianability issues and vulnerabilities to mega-trends. Finally, it argues that food systems governance should be recognised as an intervention with multiple benefits and returns on investment.
Looking Beyond Urban Agriculture Extending Urban Food Policy Responses
Authors: Jane Battersby, Gareth Haysom, Godfrey Tawodzera, Florian Kroll and Maya Marshak
Sustainable Cities Programme. South African Cities Network (SACN)
Although there are high levels of food insecurityi in South Africa’s cities and towns, the problem continues to be framed as predominantly rural in nature. This has led to policies and programmes that fail to acknowledge urban food insecurity. Local governments have no clear mandate to address food insecurity, and tend to take their lead in any food security programming from national and provincial objectives. This has led to urban agriculture becoming the default response to food insecurity in urban areas.
There is however little evidence to support the continued promotion of urban agriculture as the only local government response. The uptake of urban agriculture varies considerably across the country, but is below 10% in most of the metros. Available evidence indicates that it does not play a significant role in household consumption and is not a viable income generation strategy. There are significant weaknesses in available data, which make it hard to justify current levels of support for urban agriculture.
This policy brief makes two sets of recommendations, the first aim to increase the viability of urban agriculture, and the second set are to encourage municipalities to think beyond urban agriculture. In order to increase the viability of urban agriculture municipalities should develop outcome and impact monitoring and evaluation, partner with NGOs, and facilitate access to land and protect land for urban production. However, more importantly municipalities need to look beyond urban agriculture to address food insecurity. Expecting the urban poor, who have the least access to the resources (money, land, tools, seed, knowledge, equipment) necessary to establish successful agricultural ventures, to “grow their own” in order to uplift themselves out of poverty, fails to recognise the massive barriers constraining urban agriculture in South African cities. Municipalities should therefore view urban agriculture as part of the wider food system, strengthen linkages between urban agriculture and other parts of the urban food system,
seek to develop alternative food security programmes and policies within their existing mandates, and develop food security strategies which address the multiple drivers of food insecurity in order to achieve food security for all.
Retail Planning as a Means to Support Food Security: A Role for Urban Planning
Authors: Jane Battersby, Gareth Haysom, Godfrey Tawodzera, Florian Kroll and Maya Marshak
2015
Sustainable Cities Programme, South African Cities Network (SACN)
The Return of Food: Poverty and Urban Food Security in Zimbabwe After the Crisis
Authors: Godfrey Tawodzera, Liam Riley and Jonathan Crush
2016
AFSUN Urban Food Security Series No. 23, Cape Town
The nadir of Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis in 2008 coin- cided with the implementation of a baseline household food security survey in Harare by AFSUN. This survey found that households in low- income urban areas in Zimbabwe’s capital were far worse off in terms of all the food insecurity and poverty indicators than households in the other 10 Southern African cities surveyed by AFSUN. The central ques- tion addressed in this report is whether food security in Zimbabwe’s urban centres has improved. AFSUN conducted a follow-up survey in 2012 that allows for direct longitudinal comparisons of continuity and change. The status of household food security in low-income neigh- bourhoods in Harare was improved in 2012 relative to 2008, and yet persistently high rates of severe food insecurity demonstrate that the daily need to access adequate food continued to be a major challenge. The key lesson for policymakers is that even in the context of overall economic improvement, food insecurity remains endemic among the poorest segments of the urban population. Households are already accustomed to drawing on resources outside of the formal economy and improvements in employment income have not reversed that trend. These alternative livelihood strategies should therefore be considered as a normal part of urban life and supported with state resources that can improve access to food for the most marginalized groups.
The Informal Economy’s Role in Feeding Cities: A Missing Link in Policy Debates?
Authors: Caroline Skinner and Gareth Haysom
PLAAS/CoEFS Working Paper 4, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, Belville
Urban Strategies for Sustainable Cities in Africa
Authors: Edgar Pieterse, Anton Cartwright and Susan Parnell
2016
OECD/AfDB/UNDP Africa Economic Outlook 2016: Sustainable Cities
While urbanisation does not in and of itself create structural transformation, it is a fundamental megatrend that will continue to profoundly transform African societies and economies in the coming decades (Chapter 6). More can and must be made of this megatrend for advancing the agenda of sustainable development on the continent (Chapter 7). Although policy priorities and sequencing will depend on each country’s specific context, new and ambitious national urban strategies will need to tackle three broad challenges: i) how to better manage the country’s economic and social spaces in the context of rapid urbanisation; ii) what governance structures should frame the design and implementation of those strategies; and iii) how to finance the necessary investment.
Alternative Food Geographies
Author: Gareth Haysom
PLAAS/CoEFS Working Paper 4, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, Belville
Food Remittances: Migration and Food Security in Africa
Authors: Edgar Pieterse, Anton Cartwright and Susan Parnell
SAMP Migration Policy Series No. 72, Cape Town and Waterloo
The Food Insecurities of Zimbabwean Migrants in Urban South Africa
Authors: Jonathan Crush and Godfrey Tawodzera
2016
AFSUN Urban Food Security Series No. 23, Cape Town
This report examines the food security status of Zimbabwean migrant households in the poorer areas of two major South African cities, Johannesburg and Cape Town. The vast majority were food insecure in terms of the amount of food to which they had access and the quality and diversity of their diet. What seems clear is that Zimbabwean migrants are significantly more food insecure than other low-income households. The primary reason for this appears to lie in pressures that include remittances of cash and goods back to family in Zimbabwe. The small literature on the impact of migrant remittances on food security tends to look only at the recipients and how their situation is improved. It does not look at the impact of remitting on those who send remittances. Most Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa feel a strong obligation to remit, but to do so they must make choices because of their limited and unpredictable income. Food is one of the first things to be sacrificed. Quantities decline, cheaper foods are preferred, and dietary quality and diversity inevitably suffer. This study found that while migrants were dissatisfied with the shrinking job market in South Africa, most felt that they would be unlikely to find work in Zimbabwe and that a return would worsen their household’s food security situa- tion. In other words, while food insecurity in Zimbabwe is a major driver of migration to South Africa, food insecurity in South Africa is unlikely to encourage many to return.
Food System and Food Security Study
Authors: Edgar Pieterse, Anton Cartwright and Susan Parnell
2014
For the City of Cape Town, Cape Town
A long-term vision is needed for an improved food systeminCapeTownwiththeshorttermobjectiveof eradicating chronic food insecurity. To meet the challenges of improving nutrition and feeding a growing population in the face of rapid urbanisa- tion, the council and city planners must make the metropolitan food supply system an integral part of their development and planning strategies. This must happen in the context of local government in South Africa, where there is currently no explicit mandate to address food security. Although many actors are working in some way on interventions in the food system, one could fairly question these interventions’significance and urgency (Visser 2011). The city council of Cape Town, under leadership of the Mayor, has taken a proactive approach by commissioning a study to inform the city’s response to food security and food system planning.
A Study of Current and Future Realities for Urban Food Security in South Africa
Authors: Jane Battersby, Gareth Haysom, Godfrey Tawodzera, Flo Kroll & Maya Marshak
2015
Report for South African Cities Network, Johannesburg
The State of Food Insecurity in Maputo, Mozambique
Authors: Ines Raimundo, Jonathan Crush & Wade Pendleton
2015
FSUN Urban Food Security Series No. 20, Cape Town
Food insecurity is a fact of life for the vast majority of households across Maputo’s poverty belt. The Maputo urban food security survey done by AFSUN as part of its baseline survey of 11 Southern African cities found that households exist in a constant state of food insecu- rity manifested in a lack of access to sufficient affordable food, poor dietary quality and undernutrition. Income is meagre and only those households with access to wage income have any chance of holding food insecurity at bay. With a vibrant informal food economy, Maputo’s poor are surrounded by fresh and processed food. Food availability is therefore not the primary determinant of food insecurity in Maputo. Certainly large-scale food import from South Africa and further afield makes the market price of food inherently volatile. But prices for the consumer are also driven down by the fact that there is intense compe- tition among vendors on the streets and in the marketplaces. The real cause of food insecurity is high urban unemployment and a lack of regular and decent-paying work. Among its recommendations, AFSUN urges the city of Maputo to set up a food security strategy that is multi- sectoral and policy-oriented and based on a better understanding of food flows into and within the city, the operation of the city’s informal food economy and the likely impacts of formal retailing for the food security of the urban poor.
Towards an Urban Africa Agenda
Authors: Edgar Pieterse, Susan Parnell & Gareth Haysom
2015
Background Report for UN-Habitat Africa Section
City Region Food Systems: A Literature Review
Authors: Alison Blay-Palmer, Henk Renting & Marielle Duebbling
2015
Report for Carasso Foundation
The aim of this report is to briefly and concisely analyse and systematise the content, definitions and delimitations of the concept of City Region Food Systems on the basis of a review of literature, ongoing experiences and analysis of scientific and policy debates.
Informal Migrant Entrepreneurship and Inclusive Growth in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique
Authors: Jonathan Crush, Caroline Skinner & Abel Chikanda
2015
SAMP Migration Policy Series No. 68, Cape Town
While increasing attention is being paid to the drivers and forms of entrepreneurship in informal economies, much less of this policy and research focus is directed at understanding the links between mobility and informality. This report examines the current state of knowledge about this relationship with particular reference to three countries (Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe) and four cities (Cape Town, Harare, Johannesburg and Maputo), identifying major themes, knowledge gaps, research questions and policy implications.
In many African cities, informal enterprises are operated by internal and international migrants. The extent and nature of mobile entrepreneurship and the opportunities and challenges confronting migrant entrepreneurs are under-researched in Africa in general and Southern Africa in particular. Their contribution to the informal economy and employment generation in countries of destination and origin are similarly undervalued by policy-makers. Informal migrant entrepreneurs are often viewed with suspicion, if not hostility, by citizens and officials. In part, this is because central and municipal governments see them as increasing the growth of an informal sector that they want tamed, if not eradicated. Also, it is because they are often incorrectly seen as all “illegal immigrants” and, by definition, engaged in illicit activities. And, in countries with high levels of xenophobia such as South Africa, migrant-owned businesses are a visible and easy target for xenophobic attacks. Violent attacks on migrant entrepreneurs and their property have become extremely common in many South African cities.
The Role of the Informal Economy in Addressing Urban Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Elizabeth Fraser, Malambo Moonga, Johanna Wilkes
August 2014
CIGI Junior Fellows Policy Brief, No. 14
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is facing high rates of urbanization and increasing food insecurity. The informal food economy addresses food insecurity by providing access to affordable food and significant employment opportunities to the urban poor in the SSA. The authors of the latest installment of the Junior Fellows Policy Brief Series state that different policy approaches need to be taken into account to address the diverse needs of the informal food economy, including the needs of “survivalist” traders, larger constrained enterprises and female vendors. They recommend that there should be a targeted social protection scheme for survivalists in the informal economy; informal-sector policies should consider the structural barriers women face in the informal sector; budgets for municipal governments should be increased; and government officials should consider policies to create an enabling environment for informal-sector enterprises facing constraints to growth.