Human Geography Commons^™

No. 50: Food Security And Poverty Reduction Programmes In A Cape Town Community: A Qualitative Study, Sarah Duncan

Hungry Cities Partnership

Despite increased engagement with public programmes, low-income urban South African communities continue to experience high levels of food insecurity. More needs to be known about why progress in poverty alleviation and food security has plateaued (Shisana et al 2013). This discussion paper is based on a qualitative study that investigated how food insecure female-headed households in a Cape Town community made use of state (national) and local (government, NGO and community-led) poverty reduction programmes and social networks in their pursuit of food security (Duncan 2016). It revealed the study participants as skilled survivors who carefully navigated their environment, using both …

No. 52: Assessing Supermarket Patronage In Matola, Mozambique, Cameron Mccordic, Bruce Frayne, Naomi Sunu

Hungry Cities Partnership

As an indicator of a broader nutrition transition, the supermarketization of urban food systems in the Global South has become a growing area of research interest. While the rising dominance of supermarkets in urban food systems has been noted in several primate cities in the Global South, there have been few investigations into the spatial and demographic characteristics that may govern the patronage of supermarkets in smaller secondary cities. This paper assesses the supermarketization trend via an investigation of supermarket patronage in a secondary city through a 2014 household survey of Matola, Mozambique. Using a combination of descriptive statistics and …

No. 23: Inclusive Growth And The Informal Food Sector In Windhoek, Nambia, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Lawrence Kazembe, Jonathan Crush, Tobias Shinyemba

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report presents the results of the first comprehensive survey of Windhoek’s rapidly-growing informal food sector. As such, it aims to shed light on the food system of Windhoek, Namibia’s capital and largest urban centre. The report is part of a research programme on food security in cities of the Global South by AFSUN and the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) and builds on earlier publications on Windhoek’s food system including:

- The State of Food Insecurity in Windhoek, Namibia (Pendleton et al 2012);

- The Supermarket Revolution and Food Security in Namibia (Nickanor et al 2017);

- Urban Informal Food …

No. 49: Urban Food System Governance And Food Security In Namibia, Jonathan Crush, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Lawrence Kazembe

Hungry Cities Partnership

Namibia’s transition to an urban society is occurring extremely rapidly and with it has come a transformation of urban food systems, changes in diets and food consumption patterns, increased undernutrition and overnutrition, and the rapid growth of non-communicable diseases. This paper examines the policy response of the Namibian government to the nutrition transition and double burden of malnutrition with particular reference to urban centres and populations. The national government assumes responsibility for all food security and health-related programming, while local government’s mandate is largely confined to non-food related management issues such as housing, transport and sanitation. The paper shows that …

No. 46: Hunger, Anger, And Strangers: Precarious Status And Food Insecurity Among Refugees And Asylum Seekers In South Africa, Jennifer Kandjii

Hungry Cities Partnership

This discussion paper analyzes the impact of a multiplicity of actors, policies, and practices on the food security of refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa’s urban spaces. Building on recent work that focuses on the legal production of illegality, institutionalization of precarity, and the reproduction of bordering practices by the state and citizenry, the paper reviews how South Africa’s migration governance processes coalesce with societal xenophobic tendencies to shape food security outcomes for forcibly- displaced populations. The discussion paper aims to fill a policy and research gap through understanding the experiences of displaced persons at the intersection of food …

No. 47: Urban Food Security And Household Shocks In Nairobi, Kenya, Elizabeth Opiyo Onyango, Jonathan Crush, Samuel Owuor

Hungry Cities Partnership

Even though urban poverty is a key component of the development agenda in Nairobi with a focus on job creation, provision of basic infrastructure (such as roads and clean drinking water), food security has traditionally been omitted by city planners and managers despite its centrality to people’s health and wellbeing. One of the consequences of the lack of integration of food security into development planning is that emergency food preparedness planning has not been viewed as a priority. Rather, emergency procedures are only enacted when a food emergency is already in progress. This discussion paper demonstrates that female-centred households, households …

No. 48: Covid-19 And Emergency Food Security Policies In Urban China, Taiyang Zhong, Jonathan Crush, Zhenzhong Si, Steffanie Scott

Hungry Cities Partnership

The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to spread worldwide, threatening people’s health as well as their food security. Yet, empirical research investigating its impacts on food security is scant. Limited attention has been paid to the local food security management implications of an infectious disease pandemic. To narrow these gaps, this study investigated the development of emergency food policies in Wuhan and Nanjing in China and households’ food security, based on a combination of online surveys of household food security and policy document analysis. This study shows that COVID-19 and associated quarantine measures caused many households to experience food insecurity. There …

A Spatial Perspective On Decarbonization Efforts: A Comparative Analysis Of Japan And Singapore’S Decarbonization Strategies, Michelle Rio Yoshida

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Exploring how spatiality influences public policies and local behaviors towards achieving the goal of a low carbon society could demonstrate the significance of regional knowledge. This research used Tobler’s first law of geography as the conceptual framework to analyze and find similarities in Japan and Singapore’s historical emissions and geographic limitations to achieve their carbon reduction goals. The study collected and compared Japan and Singapore’s historical emissions data, energy consumption trends, and emission trajectory by sector. The research used a mixed-methods approach to identify common practices, relevant public policy frameworks, large-scale emissions reduction projects, and environmental and socioeconomic ground realities …

The Politics Of The Visible/Invisible Border: Canada's Responses And (In)Actions Towards Refugee Claimants' Protection, Monica Romero

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis explores Canadian responses towards unexpected arrivals of asylum seekers at their borders. Grounded in critical and feminist geopolitics, it aims to unveil hidden and concealed policies that are implemented behind a narrative of humanitarianism. In particular, it takes the land border crossings from the US to Canada that occurred after the implementation of restrictive asylum policies in the US in 2017 and following years. Although migratory movements can be attributed to several factors, this displacement was triggered by Trump’s anti-immigrant narratives and policies aimed to decrease refugee and immigrant arrivals to their territory.

The dissertation’s central argument is …

Containment & Covid-19 In The Settler State: Indigenous Incarceration And Immigration Detention In Canada And Australia, Kate Motluk

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Canada and Australia each have long histories of containing Indigenous peoples and migrants. The overincarceration of Indigenous peoples continues to worsen in both countries, despite targeted reforms. Migrant detention is on the rise worldwide, with Canada and Australia’s systems understood as among the harshest. This thesis explores why Canada and Australia contain these populations by examining these practices through the lens of contemporary settler colonialism. Like most everything, containment by states has undergone rapid changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to understand how COVID-19 impacted those within carceral institutions, and contextualize that treatment within the …

Park Agency Social Media Communication During The Covid-19 Crisis, Raluca Oprean

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all industries and organizations, including park agencies. There is a lack of research on how park agencies utilize Twitter during times of crisis, specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic. How park agencies communicate with the public and how they use their social media has not been extensively studied. In addition, the coronavirus pandemic is a novel management issue for these agencies, and there has been no empirical analysis in the ways in which information is being communicated to the public or how that information is being perceived.

This study aims to better understand park agency response …

Evaluating Employees’ Experiences In Implementing Covid-19 Safety Protocols In Ontario Parks, Jessica Kaatz

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a wide range of public health challenges for park management and staff in Ontario. Green spaces have become a source of resilience during the spread of the virus, partly due to their proven positive impacts on social, mental and physical well-being. With the introduction of social distancing protocols, utilization of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and standardizing constant sanitation efforts, park employees are more responsible than ever for the daily implementation of rules governing park safety and security. At the same time, increased visitor numbers and continually changing government protocols that varied between regional jurisdictions have …

Enhancing Harvester Safety And Traditional Food Access Through Participatory Mapping With The Ka’A’Gee Tu First Nation Of Kakisa, Northwest Territories, Neomi Jayaratne

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Northern Canada has struggled with various systemic challenges based on Eurocentric ideologies, policies, and practices. A major challenge Indigenous communities face North of the 60^th parallel is their food security and sovereignty. Inuit, First Nation and Métis populations across the North experience 5 to 6 times higher levels of food insecurity compared to the National average (Food Secure Canada, 2020). These communities face concentrated levels of food system issues, which connect to other factors, such as, health and wellness, the supply chain of market foods, governance, a shift away from traditional foods, and the impacts of climate change. Climate …

No.07: Demand: The Forgotten Side Of Informal Economy Policy, Graeme Young

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Policymakers who seek to support informal economic activity too often rely on supply-side solutions that fail to address the central needs of the urban poor.

■ Efforts should instead focus on the alleviation of poverty to ensure that potential customers have the economic means to buy sufficient food to meet their needs.

■ Governments must prioritize the promotion of adequate formal employment opportunities to ensure that the urban poor have livelihood options beyond informality.

No.08: Improving The Profitability Of Wet Market Food Vendors In China, Xinxian Qi, Taiyang Zhong, Zhenzhong Si, Xianjin Huang

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ The characteristics of individual vendors and their business operations have a more significant impact on business profits than more general socioeconomic factors. Policy interventions need to prioritize the former.

■ The profits of wet market vendors vary spatially in Nanjing, China. The average profit level in central urban districts is higher than in peri-urban districts.

■ Almost all determinants have more significant impacts on vendor profitability in peri-urban than urban areas. Measures should therefore be taken to improve the profitability of wet market vendors in peri-urban areas.

No.09: Enhancing Food Security Through Urban Agriculture In Kingston, Jamaica, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, Robert Kinlocke, Therese Ferguson

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Much focus has been accorded rural agriculture, both in the literature and in practice. Yet urban agriculture is both a viable and necessary area of focus as it pertains to food security in Jamaica.

■ An education and communication strategy is required to ensure that attitudes towards nutrition and poor food choices are changed (within the range of affordability) in efforts to achieve food security.

■ Given the threats posed by climate change, the development of urban agriculture should incorporate not only previously designated sites through zoning for small-scale livestock and produce rearing; it also should incorporate backyard farming/gardening, …

No.06: Gender Inequality And Food Security Policy Responses, Mary Caesar

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Gender inequality and the legacy of racial discrimination operate alongside poverty and economic inequality to shape the household food security experience in low-income areas in South African cities.

■ In Cape Town, male-headed households are more likely to be food secure than female-headed households, although both experience high levels of severe food insecurity.

■ National food security policy and local government do not recognize the systemic nature of gender inequality and food insecurity; a gap that needs to be addressed.

Global Demand For Medical Professionals Drives Indians Abroad Despite Acute Domestic Health-Care Worker Shortages, Margaret Walton-Roberts, S. Irudaya Rajan

Global Nurse Migration Pathways: A Comparative Project

No abstract provided.

No. 21: Inclusive Growth And Informal Food Vending In Nairobi, Kenya, Samuel Owuor

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report presents and analyzes the findings of a city-wide informal food vendors survey conducted by the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) in Nairobi, Kenya, in October 2019. It builds on, and should be read in conjunction with previous HCP reports on Nairobi: HCP Report No. 6: The Urban Food System of Nairobi, Kenya (Owuor et al 2017) and HCP Report No. 11, The State of Household Food Security in Nairobi, Kenya (Owuor 2018). This report, which is divided into nine sections, provides an up-to-date overview of the informal food sector in Nairobi’s food system. The next section describes the survey …

No. 42: The Role Of Infrastructure Access In Urban Household Vulnerability To Food Insecurity In Southern Cities, Cameron Mccordic, Bruce Frayne, James Sgro

Hungry Cities Partnership

The geographical concentration of poverty in informal neighbourhoods across cities is a common socioeconomic feature of the urban form. Many of these impoverished areas also suffer from limited access to urban infrastructure. Given the expense and planning necessary to develop urban infrastructure, these areas are socially vulnerable in part because of their exclusion from urban master plans. This vulnerability is made more severe by the knock-on impacts of limited infrastructure access on other aspects of human insecurity. This paper uses HCP data to assess the predictive relationship between household infrastructure access and food insecurity across five case-study cities (Mexico City, …

No. 40: Food Retailing Transitions And New Retail Businesses In Nanjing, China, Ning Dai, Zhenzhong Si

Hungry Cities Partnership

China’s food retailing sector is transitioning towards a digitalized consumer society in the context of widespread food safety anxiety. At the forefront of this transition is an innovative form of food retailing called New Retail Businesses (NRBs). Based on field research and interviews with key stakeholders in Nanjing, this study outlines distinctive features of NRBs in contrast to the conventional food system. It also points out that NRBs have shared goals with the government’s Vegetable Basket Project. Thus the implementation of this project in Nanjing has propelled the growth of a local NRB. Equipped with an integrated ecological food supply …

No. 38: Reconceptualizing Informal Economic Governance: Implications From Cape Town, South Africa, Graeme Young

Hungry Cities Partnership

As awareness of the centrality of informality in urban development processes in the Global South is slowly incorporated into the international development agenda, a full understanding of the myriad ways in which informal economic activity is governed has become increasingly urgent. This discussion paper seeks to address this need through an analysis of informal economic governance in Cape Town, South Africa. It first outlines a general theoretical framework for understanding the governance of informal economies that focuses on the logics that inform governance, the systems in which governance take place, the modes in which governance operates, and the forms that …

No. 19: Inclusive Growth And The Informal Food Sector In Kingston, Jamaica, Robert Kinlocke, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report should be read in conjunction with previous work on the food system in Kingston by the Hungry Cities Partnership. HCP No. 4, The Urban Food System of Kingston, Jamaica provides a comprehensive overview of the nature and operation of Kingston’s food system and the current state of knowledge about the informal food sector (Thomas-Hope et al 2017). It demonstrates the importance of the informal sector and city markets as a source of affordable food and employment. HCP No. 15, The State of Household Food Security in Kingston, Jamaica (Kinlocke et al 2019) presents the results of a city-wide …

No. 22: Inclusive Growth And Informal Food Vending In Mexico City, Mexico, Salomón Gonzalález Arellano, Guénola Capron

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report aims to shed further light on the food system of Mexico City’s Metropolitan Zone (referred to in this report as “the ZMCM”). The report is part of a research program on food security in cities of the Global South within the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) and builds on earlier HCP publications including The Urban Food System of Mexico City, Mexico (Capron et al 2017), The State of Household Food Security in Mexico City, Mexico (Capron et al 2018), and Urban Food Deserts in Nairobi and Mexico City (Wagner et al 2019). It also contributes to the comparative analysis …

No. 20:Inclusive Growth And The Informal Food Sector In Bangalore, India, Kailas Shankar Honasoge, Keerthana Jagadeesh, Veneet J. Kalloor, Shriya Anand

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report presents and analyzes the findings of a food vendor survey conducted by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements as part of the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) in Bangalore, India, in September and October 2018. It is a supplement to, and should be read in conjunction with, HCP Report No. 5: The Urban Food System of Bangalore, India (Surie and Sami 2017) and HCP Report No. 14, The State of Household Food Security in Bangalore, India (Koduganti et al 2019). The former provides essential contextual background on the history, demography, and economy of Bangalore, while the latter presents findings …

No. 18: Inclusive Growth And Informal Vending In Maputo's Food Markets, Inês Raimundo, Jeremy Wagner, Jonathan Crush, Ezequiel Abrahamo, Cameron Mccordic

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report builds on, and should be read in conjunction with related work on informality in the Mozambican capital by the Southern African Migration Program (SAMP) (Chikanda and Raimundo 2017, Crush et al 2015, Peberdy 2000), the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN) (Raimundo et al 2013), and the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP). The HCP has produced two reports that provide essential context. HCP Report No. 2, The Urban Food System of Maputo, Mozambique (Chikanda et al 2016), provides a comprehensive overview of current knowledge about the nature and operation of Maputo’s food system. It demonstrates the importance of the …

No. 44: Change, Challenge And Opportunity In The Indian Urban Food System: Lessons From Bangalore, India, Farhan Rahman

Hungry Cities Partnership

Over the past decade and a half, food policies have undergone much change as decentralization and the reliance on free markets have escalated. Increasing levels of research into the traditional wholesaling system prompted Indian lawmakers to embark upon reform. Using evidence obtained from doctoral research in Bangalore, India, this paper demonstrates that the traditional system is still largely intact. However, there are structural socio-economic and political challenges that act as barriers towards the continued survival of traditional food vendors in the urban sphere. This paper outlines key areas of research in price management, micro-small medium enterprise development, political empowerment and …

No. 45: Food Security Policy Responses To Covid-19 In Wuhan And Nanjing, China, Yi-Shin Chang, Zhenzhong Si, Steffanie Scott, Taiyang Zhong, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

After decades of famine and thousands of deaths caused by food shortages and starvation, China was able to achieve food security for the majority of its population through ensuring food availability. Despite this, during COVID-19, the government needed to heighten their responses to ensure food security and faced several challenges in doing so. This paper analyzes Chinese policies around food security during COVID-19 in two cities: Wuhan and Nanjing. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s definition of food security and the four pillars it identifies (availability, access, utilization, and stability) are used to provide a framework for this analysis. …

No. 39: Urban Food Governance Perspectives In Changing African And Southern Cities, Gareth Haysom

Hungry Cities Partnership

The key urban food governance question in African and other Southern cities is understanding the role that appropriate infrastructures could play in delivering positive outcomes in the urban food system. This discussion paper looks at urban food governance needs in African cities and reflects on the governance actions required in order to respond to wider food system changes and challenges. It argues that food in the African city is a public good and discusses the role that a state (and city government) should play in enabling access. The paper finds that the normalization of food poverty, the absence of agency, …

No. 41: Migration And Food Security In Cities Of The Global South, Abel Chikanda, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera

Hungry Cities Partnership

South-South migration is an important, though poorly researched, component of the global migration regime. This discussion paper focuses on the movement of migrants from one country in the Global South to live and work in urban areas of another. While they move from one country to another for a variety of reasons and with variable outcomes, the vast majority of South-South migrants move to cities in countries of destination where employment and livelihood opportunities are greatest. The authors find that the data for generating an overall picture of the global distribution of South-South migrants in cities is patchy and dated …