As Africa urbanises and the focus of poverty shifts to urban centres, there is an imperative to address poverty in African cities. This is particularly the case in smaller cities, which are often the most rapidly urbanising, but the least able to cope with this growth. This book argues that an examination of the food system and food security provides a valuable lens to interrogate urban poverty. Chapters examine the linkages between poverty, urban food systems and local governance with a focus on case studies from three smaller or secondary cities in Africa: Kisumu (Kenya), Kitwe (Zambia) and Epworth (Zimbabwe).
The book makes a wider contribution to debates on urban studies and urban governance in Africa through analysis of the causes and consequences of the paucity of urban-scale data for decision makers, and by presenting potential methodological innovations to address this paucity. As the global development agenda is increasingly focusing on urban issues, most notably the urban goal of the new Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda, the work is timely.
The Open Access version of this book, available at: http: //www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9781315191195, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
About the Author:
Jane Battersby is a senior researcher at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and is the Research Coordinator of the ESRC/DFID-funded Consuming Urban Poverty project and PI of the IDRC-funded Nourishing Spaces Project. She is the Laurete of the Premio Daniel Carasso 2017. An urban geographer by training, her work focusses on urban food security, food systems and governance.
Vanessa Watson is a Professor of City Planning and Fellow of the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She holds degrees, including a PhD, from South African Universities and the Architectural Association of London, UK, and is on the executive committee of the African Centre for Cities. She is the PI of the ESRC/DFID-funded Consuming Urban Poverty project.
