POLICY BRIEFS
Enhancing Food Security through Urban Agriculture in Kingston, Jamaica
Much focus has been accorded rural agriculture, both in the literature and in practice. Yet urban agriculture is both a viable and necessary area of focus as it pertains to food security in Jamaica. An education and communication strategy is required to ensure that attitudes towards nutrition and poor food choices are changed (within the range of affordability) in efforts…
Improving the Profitability of Wet Market Food Vendors in China
The characteristics of individual vendors and their business operations have a more significant impact on business profits than more general socioeconomic factors. Policy interventions need to prioritize the former. The profits of wet market vendors vary spatially in Nanjing, China. The average profit level in central urban districts is higher than in peri-urban districts. Almost all determinants have more significant…
Demand: The Forgotten Side of Informal Economy Policy
Policymakers who seek to support informal economic activity too often rely on supply-side solutions that fail to address the central needs of the urban poor. Efforts should instead focus on the alleviation of poverty to ensure that potential customers have the economic means to buy sufficient food to meet their needs. Governments must prioritize the promotion of adequate formal employment…
Gender Inequality and Food Security Policy Responses
Gender inequality and the legacy of racial discrimination operate alongside poverty and economic inequality to shape the household food security experience in low-income areas in South African cities. In Cape Town, male-headed households are more likely to be food secure than female-headed households, although both experience high levels of severe food insecurity. National food security policy and local government do…
Food Security and the Changing Landscape of Food Retailing in Nanjing, China
The expansion of supermarkets and online food markets are changing the complexion of food retailing in Nanjing. At the same time, traditional forms of retail display considerable resilience. Nanjing has low levels of food insecurity overall as measured by the HFIAS and HDDS. The one in five households who are food insecure are primarily low-income and female-centred. Concerns over food…
Enabling Informal Food Vending in Urban South Africa
Food vending is an important component of the South African economy, where it provides employment, income, livelihoods and contributes to the food security of poorer households. Policies towards the informal food sector in most South African cities are restrictive and often punitive, and undermine the critical contributions of informal food vending. To maximize their impacts, informal food vendors need an…
Devising Urban Food Security Policy for African Cities
Informal food services are one of the few options for financially disadvantaged families. Food access policy needs to be created in partnership with informal economy actors to ensure that those who rely on informal systems are not ignored. As household size increases, the likelihood of food insecurity grows exponentially. Adequate social protection programs are required to support household dependants including…
An Urban Perspective on Food Security in the Global South
The global food security policy community should reorient its actions on food security in the Global South to consider the urban food consumer. Since it is currently working with value chains in rural areas, we recommend that this view is extended into urban areas. Specifically, global and multilateral actors and national and local governments need to prioritize an urban food…
The SDGs, Food Security and Urbanization in the Global South
As governments develop policies to achieve SDG 2 in rapidly urbanizing countries, the need to pay particular attention to the role of the informal economy, non-food issues, pro-poor pricing structures and healthy food consumption patterns will increase. The case studies in Mexico, China, Kenya and India have highlighted important food security challenges facing urban dwellers and how to overcome them…