Creating more resilient and equitable urban food systems in Southern Africa

This policy brief from the Southern African Resilience Academy (SARA) examines the interconnected policies shaping urban food systems in Southern Africa. It argues that resilient and equitable food systems—those capable of withstanding shocks while ensuring fair access to nutritious food—require an integrated approach to urban planning that incorporates food considerations, supports informal food actors, and ensures inclusive stakeholder representation.

• Urban food systems in Southern Africa are influenced by a wide array of interconnected policies, including agricultural, trade, land use, food retail, infrastructure, and food safety regulations, as well as nutrition, social protection, waste management, energy, and climate change policies.
• Urban planners can enhance food system resilience and equity by integrating food considerations into development plans, such as strategically locating food system elements, designing transportation that prioritizes fresh food movement, and planning for cold storage and food aggregation centers to reduce post-harvest losses.
• Improving food-sensitive infrastructure and land use is critical for urban food access. This includes upgrading market facilities (toilets, water, lighting), designating legal areas for street vending, allocating land for community gardens and urban farms, and incentivizing local shops in underserved neighborhoods.
• Climate resilience can be integrated into urban planning through green infrastructure projects, such as solar lighting, green space development, and rainwater harvesting tanks, while incorporating the perspectives of those most affected by climate change.
• Achieving equitable food systems requires inclusive policy formulation and stakeholder engagement. This involves using participatory workshops, establishing formal advisory committees, providing capacity-building training in advocacy and negotiation, and ensuring transparent access to information.
• It is essential to formally recognize and include informal food system actors—such as street vendors, open-air market vendors, and small-scale processors—in policy discussions through dedicated forums or trade associations.
• Low- to middle-income urban households in Southern Africa face high food insecurity driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, food price shocks from disrupted supply chains, and climate variability affecting regional production.

APA

Global Resilience Partnership (2023). Creating more resilient and equitable urban food systems in Southern Africa. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/sara_policy-note_21nov.pdf

Chicago

Global Resilience Partnership. Creating more resilient and equitable urban food systems in Southern Africa. 2023. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/sara_policy-note_21nov.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Resilience Partnership |title=Creating more resilient and equitable urban food systems in Southern Africa |date=July 2023 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/sara_policy-note_21nov.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalresiliencepartnership2023creating, author = {{Global Resilience Partnership}}, title = {{Creating more resilient and equitable urban food systems in Southern Africa}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/sara_policy-note_21nov.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }