Adaptive Governance and Market Heterogeneity: An Institutional Analysis of an Urban Food System in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

African cities face immense challenges over the coming decades. As countries urbanize, African cities must maintain service provision for rapidly increasing populations, yet with limited resources. In particular, urban food systems must be able to cope with regional food shortages and catalyze (or at least enable) the distribution of food from diverse sources in order to ensure that the cost of food remains affordable for all of the segments of a city's population. Food systems in most African cities are composed of wholesale sellers, formal markets, street vendors, shops, and increasingly large-scale international stores, creating an evolving landscape of food sources. At the same time, urban population growth can result in rapid changes in urban structure with new peri-urban development and transitions in socioeconomic status within existing areas. Governance plays an important role in the creation and coordination of formal and informal actors across different types of food providers. At the municipal level, new markets must be approved to keep pace with urban expansion. Within residential areas, market management committees must work to maintain traditional markets in the context of increasing competition from large-scale grocers and small-scale street vendors. We use household and market-level data that was collected in Lusaka, Zambia, to conduct an institutional analysis of residential areas to examine the interplay between households, public markets, and street vendors. Analysis of the city's food system identifies a complex network of relationships featuring formal and informal governance arrangements, which may affect food system functionality.

The Food Desert as a Concept and Policy Tool in African Cities: An Opportunity and a Risk

“…While the findings from each individual research component largely corroborate findings from other studies, with exception of Blekking et al's [56] recent work in Lusaka, which thus far has focused on governance issues emanating from their findings, these other studies have focused either on the food system dynamics or on food security. The AFSUN and CUP findings across the three research components allow for critical reflection on the dialectical relationship between food security and the food system, and therefore for critical reflection on policy approaches to alleviating food insecurity through food system interventions, as discussed below.…”

Comparing measures of urban food security in Accra, Ghana

“…Finally, governance plays an important role in the creation and structure of food systems within urban areas (Battersby and Watson 2018). Both informal and formal governance arrangements of food retailing influence household food purchases and food security (Blekking et al 2017). Tackling the problems of diverse governance requires a nuanced approach that balances the modernization of food retailing with the needs of low-income consumers and local vendors.…”

Pathways for Sustainable and Inclusive Cities in Southern and Eastern Africa through Urban Green Infrastructure?

“…Persistent or increasing disadvantage leads to a cascading effect of several other problems such as disease, hunger, crime and conflict [51]. For example, Blekking et al [52], in their analysis of the urban food system in sub-Saharan Africa, conclude that urban households must obtain up to 90% of their calorie intake from purchased food. Especially for the urban poor, there is a danger that the costs of food can no longer be met.…”