urbanization

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 issue that urban food security, or its lack, is attracting growing interest in global policy debates. The researchers argue that the voices of the urban poor are missing in these conversations. To fill this gap, grassroots community organizations, with decades-long experience collecting data on their own communities and taking action to improve conditions, decided to ask the urban poor in Cambodia and Nepal how they define and measure food security, what key challenges they face in the daily struggle to put food on the table and what actions might help. »

This paper provides an overview of the healthiness of African urban food environments, discusses the ways food environments can be characterised and summarises the methods that can be used to investigate and intervene in the food environment. he informal food sector plays an important role in the retail food environment. Macro-level food price changes are an important factor influencing nutritional quality of African diets. »

This policy brief examines changes in food systems, including urbanisation, changing diets and free trade, the risks and opportunities of these changes and its implications for policy priorities. The changes in food systems create both systemic risks and transformational opportunities that demand a deeper understanding of food systems and how to ensure their long-term resilience, inclusiveness, and sustainability. »

This paper provides an insight on the opportunities provided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda (NUA) in advancing food systems within the context of urbanisation. The paper focuses on the role that sustainable urbanisation can play in supporting food systems, especially as it relates to and the application of an integrated territorial approach and urban–rural linkages. »

This article examins relationships between consumers’ socioeconomic status, use of different modern and traditional retailers, and dietary patterns in urban Zambia. Use of modern retailers is positively associated with higher consumption of ultra-processed foods. However, the use of traditional stores and kiosks is also positively associated with the consumption of ultra-processed foods, suggesting that modern retailers are not the only drivers of dietary transitions. »