urbanization and FNS

Last year’s Food & Business Knowledge Platform’s work on Food and Nutrition Security from a food systems approach in Ghana and on measuring the Food Environment revealed a great need and huge potential for a Ghanaian Dutch multi-stakeholder coalition and further private and public sector development in the field of Urban Food Environments. This has resulted in the set-up of a Netherlands Food Partnership collective impact coalition in this field. »

Please download the final factsheet of Global Challenges Programme project “Enhancing urban food security through development of allotment gardens in and around the cities of Benin”. »

This study investigates how retail policies driven by food safety impact the diets of the urban poor in Hanoi, Vietnam. From both time–spatial and quality–affordability perspectives, supermarkets do not contribute to more healthy diets for low-income urbanites. Distance to supermarkets did not change shopping practices. »

This report focuses on the concern that urbanization will have profound effects on eating patterns and increase the risk of nutrition-related non-communicable diseases. It is found that individuals who relocated to urban areas experience a much more pronounced shift away from the consumption of traditional staples, and towards more high-sugar, conveniently consumed and prepared foods. Living in an urban environment is not found to contribute positively to the intake of protein-rich foods, nor to diet diversity. Moreover, the results indicate that the growth of unhealthy food consumption with urbanization is largely linked to rising incomes. »

This special issue explores different dimensions and drivers of urban food insecurity, but share a focus on low-income and marginalized groups. The key questions explored in this issue include 1) the links between urban poverty and food insecurity, 2) the contribution of food safety concerns to the restriction of traditional and informal food markets, and the impacts for low-income consumers and traders, 3) the importance of using a gender lens to understand the challenges to achieving food securit, and 4) the often underestimated role of food in social relations and in supporting community networks. »

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. »