South African cities face hunger and food insecurity as cost of living soars – The Mail & Guardian

Hundreds of thousands of households rely on informal traders to buy food

South Africa’s major cities are home to millions of people facing hunger and food insecurity along with others around the world where rapid urbanisation — even in wealthy countries — is growing.

This is according to research by the University of Cape Town’s Gareth Haysom and Jane Battersby, who co-led the Urban Food System Research Cluster, and Marc Wegerif and Julian May of the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security.

Battersby said more than 1.7 billion people worldwide live with food insecurity in urban and peri-urban environments, challenging the common misconception that hunger is a “rural issue”.

Cape Town, for example, is grappling with significant food insecurity, with the latest Statistics South Africa data showing that 240 970 households, comprising 771 000 people or 11% of the city’s population, experienced hunger in 2021. Rising costs of electricity, transport and data compete with household budgets for food, according to Haysom and Battersby’s report, The State of the City Food System Report.

“The report argues that there is more than enough healthy food in the food system, but food is inaccessible to those who need it most,” said Haysom.

Clarifying the difference between hunger and food insecurity, Haysom said “hunger is the absence of food, while food insecurity can mean skipping meals, reducing portions, or eating less nutritious food”. 

“Food insecurity leads to long-term health risks, such as diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs). At a social level, increasingly these issues are being shown to add to mental stress, and new research shows households experiencing food insecurity show a disproportionately higher level of gender based violence,” he said.

The broader picture showed that “moderate and severe food insecurity affects approximately two million people” when considering household data from census figures, surveys and food security assessments in the Western Cape.

A 2023 Human Sciences Research Council Report noted that 17% of the province’s population faced severe food insecurity while 37% faced moderate to mild food insecurity.

Haysom said research from other cities paints a similar picture, with Johannesburg showing 238,610 households (11.5%) experiencing hunger in 2021. Cities such as eThekwini and Nelson Mandela Bay reported much lower household hunger figures at 1.4% and 1% respectively.

A significant driver of food insecurity is the growing gap between wages and the cost of living.

The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group’s Household Affordability Index shows that a basic food basket in Cape Town costs more than R5,068 a month, while a worker earning the national minimum wage would take home R4,633.

“This leaves a household with a budget deficit of just over 45% before costs such as electricity, transport to and from work, data, sanitary and health products are factored in,” Haysom said.

According to the report, while some residents can afford to shop at supermarkets, less fortunate Capetonians only buy from these once a month. Throughout the month households with limited or no electricity and fridges rely on informal vendors in the areas in which they live.

“What happens is that the informal trader becomes the fridge, the stove and in many cases, even the pantry,” Haysom  said.

Haysom and Battersby’s research included state of city food systems reports from researchers in 15 African cities as part of the AfriFOODlinks project including, Antananarivo (Madagascar), Arusha (Tanzania), Bukavu (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Cape Town, Chefchaouen (Morocco), Dakar (Senegal), Kisumu (Kenya), Lusaka (Zambia), Mbale (Uganda), Niamey (Niger), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Quelimane (Mozambique), Tamale (Ghana), Tunis (Tunisia) and Windhoek (Namibia). 

Haysom said food insecurity in Africa reflects “deep systemic issues, not merely a lack of food” , because rapid urbanisation without industrial growth has created informal economies that struggle to provide food security.

“All cities reflected significant food system challenges. The reasons are both diverse and similar. The similarities are generally driven by the scale and pace of urbanisation.”

He said a systemic approach is needed to solve the problem, which can’t be fixed through the “very poor idea” of urban agriculture”. Rather, there needs to be a policy shift in recognising the role of informal food vendors.

“Across Africa the most important urban food system actors — the group offering the greatest support in enabling food access — are the wet markets and informal food vendors. Our governance actors see these as dirty, undermining their imaginations of world class cities,” Haysom said.

“Economists see these as minor, insignificant, inefficient. These are the key players, the main game in town, and policy and economic focus needs to enable these actors.” 

He said supermarkets are not the answer. “We need to capacitate what serves the urban majority, not assume that what serves the elite will serve the majority.” 

Battersby was the lead author for the recent Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Committee on World Food Security’s High Level Panel of Experts report: ‘Strengthening Urban and Peri-urban Food Systems to Achieve Food Security and Nutrition in the context of urbanisation and rural transformation’.

She said the report highlights how urbanisation is reshaping the global food crisis.

“Contrary to popular belief, food insecurity is now a predominantly urban phenomenon. This urban and peri-urban prevalence is evident in all continents, including Africa,” she said.

She said countries’ and cities’ policies could not neglect the food problem “in the context of increasing urbanisation, increased fragility and the concentration of climate shocks in urban areas, particularly in low income urban areas”.

The issue must be viewed as the result of a “complex set of interactions” between poverty, urban infrastructure and governance. “It requires the state to acknowledge the extent of the challenge and direct policy and investment to these areas.”

She said the informal sector plays a key role in Africa and must be recognised in policy.

“Supporting the informal sector is essential because it is a major source of food for urban residents,” she said, adding that infrastructure issues such as transport, energy costs and access to clean water and sanitation also shape food security outcomes.

Battersby said initiatives in Brazil and India have successfully confronted urban food insecurity.

“In Brazil, school feeding programmes are used to tackle malnutrition and support small-scale farmers, while in India, street vendors are included in market planning to better integrate them into the food system.”

The DSI-NRF Centre’s May said food insecurity and hunger occurs in most cities in the world including the United Kingdom and Canada.

“In South Africa there are now more people who are food insecure in urban areas than in rural areas, and most of these are living in informal housing with poor access to facilities and services,” he said.

But the proportion of people who are food insecure remains higher in rural areas.

May said a national food and nutrition council has not yet been established as committed to under the National Food and Nutrition Security Plan 2018-23 six years ago.

It was to have tackled malnutrition through seven objectives, including aligning policies and implementing programmes, expanding social protection measures and encouraging informed food decisions.

Considering solutions, Wegerif said that in other parts of Africa and China, cities and towns reserve minimum amounts of space for food markets.

“A clear target could be to ensure all people in urban areas live within walking distance of places selling food, including fresh produce that we need for healthy diets. If these market spaces are reserved for small and micro-enterprises they will also create more livelihood opportunities,” he said.

“Ideally, we need coordinated solutions driven by a clear vision that will address production issues, distribution challenges, land reforms, town planning, health and sanitation issues.”

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}