The new international food security agenda focuses almost exclusively on raising food production by small rural farmers (something that has preoccupied rural development ‘experts’ for decades without success). The authors of this paper argue that there is a very real danger that this approach will be transferred uncritically to urban areas in the form of technical inputs for poor urban households to grow more food for themselves and for market. There is already an emerging focus on the “technical” aspects of urban farming and how these can be supported and enhanced through strategic interventions such as the promotion and adoption of innovative and appropriate urban farming technologies. However, as elsewhere, such technocratic ‘solutions’ are likely to fail if they do not first examine why so few poor households in southern Africa currently grow any of their own food. Agriculture is rarely recognised as a legitimate land use activity in urban plans or municipal designs. For urban farmers, this means that land is scarce and they often ruffle the feathers of officials and police by establishing their farming activities wherever they can, and urban farmers are often harassed by municipal authorities. The authors conclude that comprehensive, systematic research into the links between urban agriculture, food security and health/nutrition could go a long way to easing such institutional and political obstacles so that city farming can meet its full potential in Southern Africa.
Poverty and health
This bulletin provides a sketch of urban health in developing countries, documenting the intra-urban differences in health for a number of countries and showing how the risks facing the urban poor compare with those facing rural villagers. It notes that, to better understand urban health in developing countries, the situations of the urban poor and near-poor must be distinguished from those of other city residents. Even among the urban poor, some live in communities of concentrated disadvantage (slums) where they are subjected to a daily barrage of health threats. The author recommends geographic targeting as an effective health strategy for reaching slum dwellers, though other approaches should be devised to meet the needs of the poor who live outside slums. Public health agencies need to work in tandem with other government agencies, and public health programmes should draw on the social capital that is embodied in the associations of the urban poor.
Even if, in terms of income, there are still today a higher number of poor people in the countryside than in Kenya’s cities, poor urban-dwellers face an alarming (and growing) range of vulnerabilities. Oxfam GB Kenya’s report highlights the mutually reinforcing dimensions of vulnerability in Nairobi’s slums. It launched a new Urban Programme Strategy in 2009 that aims to build on the organisation’s strategic comparative advantages, bringing its experience elsewhere into the urban sector in Kenya. These advantages include: coordinating partnerships with key stakeholders, bringing Oxfam GB’s experience in peace and conflict transformation in other parts of rural Kenya into the urban arena; capitalising on its international status in terms of resource mobilisation; and utilising its expertise on water, sanitation and food security to support local organisations in delivering basic urban services. The strategy will be implemented on a phased basis over a fifteen-year period, and will focus on three strategic priority areas: urban governance, sustainable livelihoods, and disaster preparedness and risk reduction.
The number of poor and food-insecure people in developing countries is increasing more quickly in urban areas than in rural areas, and could be dropping off the policy radar, according to new research by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). By 2030 the majority of people in all developing countries will live in urban areas, and UNFPA estimates that about 60 percent of the urban slum population will be under the age of 18. Sub-Saharan African countries have the world's highest rates of urban growth and highest levels of urban poverty – the slum population in these countries doubled from 1990 to 2005, when it reached 200 million. Health hazards emanating from food in urban areas are a critical concern: buying pre-cooked food from street vendors, close contact between humans and poultry and other domestic animals for slaughter, and generally unhygienic conditions in urban markets can have significant health consequences.
Treating household water with low-cost, widely available commercial bleach is recommended by some organisations to improve water quality and reduce disease in developing countries. This study analysed the chlorine concentration of 32 bleaches from twelve developing countries. The average error between advertised and measured concentration was 35% (range = -45%–100%; standard deviation = 40%). Because of disparities between advertised and actual concentration, the use of commercial bleach for water treatment in developing countries is not recommended without ongoing quality control testing.
Violence and injuries are the second leading cause of death and lost disability-adjusted life years in South Africa. With a focus on homicide, and violence against women and children, this paper reviews the magnitude, contexts of occurrence, and patterns of violence, and refer to traffic-related and other unintentional injuries. The social dynamics that support violence are widespread poverty, unemployment, and income inequality; patriarchal notions of masculinity that valourise toughness, risk-taking and defence of honour; exposure to abuse in childhood and weak parenting; access to firearms; widespread alcohol misuse; and weaknesses in the mechanisms of law enforcement. So far, there has been a conspicuous absence of government stewardship and leadership. Successful prevention of violence and injury is contingent on identification by the government of violence as a strategic priority and development of an intersectoral plan based on empirically driven programmes and policies.
Public water and electricity are back in vogue! Yet many state-owned utilities are now undergoing “corporatization”: they have legal autonomy and manage their own finances. Is this a positive development in the struggle for equitable public services? Or a slippery slope toward privatisation? This video draws from in-depth research on corporatization cases from around the world.
This report was launched during the Third African Water Week in Addis Ababa on 23 November 2010. About 350 million Africans still do not have access to water, according to the report. The author investigates whether poor governance has been a major contributory factor in the lack of sustainability in the African water sector. The report identifies numerous but common governance risks, and shows that these are easily identifiable and preventable. The main challenges and issues in the water sector are identified as sustainability, capacity and finance. The report also finds that substantial gains would be made if government assessments became standard procedure and if governance criteria were introduced in donor project approval procedures. While local and national institutions have the most visible role to play in governing the water sector, the report notes that it is the sector’s underlying policies, legislation and regulations that provide the foundation for overall governance. To meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, an enormous annual investment is required, probably more than four to five times current investment rate in the water sector.
The provision of safe water, sanitation and waste management and hygienic conditions are essential for protecting human health during all infectious disease outbreaks, including of COVID-19. Ensuring evidenced-based and consistently applied WASH and waste management practices in communities, homes, schools, marketplaces, and healthcare facilities will help prevent human-to-human transmission of COVID-19. This guidance provides additional details on risks associated with excreta and untreated sewage, hand hygiene, protecting WASH workers and supporting the continuation and strengthening of WASH services, especially in underserved areas.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have signed an agreement to work together to reduce child stunting in Eastern and Southern Africa in an effort to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. UNICEF and WFP acknowledged the progress that had been made to address the nutritional factors hampering children’s health. UNICEF said that the prevalence of stunting in the developing world declined from 40% to 29% between 1990 and 2008. Stunting in Africa only fell from 38% to 34% in the same period. Of the 24 countries that make up 80% of the world’s stunting burden, at least seven are in Eastern and Southern Africa. UNICEF argues that investing in child nutrition pays high dividends for a country’s social and national development. National nutrition strategies need to tackle not only the root causes of stunting, but also to target the most vulnerable children and their families, including those in remote areas, or from the poorest and most marginalised communities. Only 11 African countries are on track to reaching the Millennium Development Goals to halve hunger by 2015, four of which are from the eastern and southern African (ESA) region: Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland and Angola.