informal markets

This special issue brings together a diverse collection of case studies from seven countries across the Global South—China, Jamaica, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda—to explore the dynamics of Africa’s urban informal food sector in comparative international context. »

This article focuses on the relationship between informality and food deserts in African cities. Informal settlements in rapidly-growing African cities are urban and peri-urban spaces with high rates of formal unemployment, poverty, poor health outcomes, limited service provision, and chronic food insecurity. Traditional concepts of food deserts developed to describe North American and European cities do not accurately capture the realities of food inaccessibility in Africa’s urban informal food deserts. »

This special issue calls for both empirical studies and theoretical discussions of urban food deserts in the Global South, with a focus on a broad range of issues such as food accessibility, food affordability, urban food sources, informal food economies, supermarketization and the food security characteristics and consequences of food deserts, as well as urban policies that contribute to or mitigate the existence and development of food deserts. »

This book discusses planning cities in such a way they will increase food security and nutrition, not only for the affluent segments of society but primarily for the poor. The integration of food into urban planning is a crucial and emerging topic. The book draws on cities of different sizes, from regions across the global north and south, in both developed and developing areas, thereby the contributors collectively attest to the importance of global knowledge rooted in local food planning practices, programmes and policies. »

This dissertation is a sociological analysis of the agri-food system of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, that feeds most of the over four and a half million residents of this fast-growing city. It is based on qualitative research that has generated a picture of the food system that supplies the important foods for the majority of residents of the city. »

This meeting report discusses the impacts urban growth is going to have on food security and nutrition, how it reshapes agricultural value chains and how small farmers can benefit from it. »