The ways in which rapid urbanization of the Global South are transforming food systems and food supply chains, and the food security of urban populations is an often neglected topic. This international group of authors addresses this profound transformation from a variety of different perspectives and disciplinary lenses, providing an important corrective to the dominant view that food insecurity is a rural problem requiring increases in agricultural production. Starting from the premise that food security in urban areas is primarily a challenge of food access, the chapters explore the various economic, social, and governance policies and structures that constrain and inhibit the access of all to food of sufficient quantity and quality. As the Global South continues to urbanize, the challenge of feeding hungry cities will become even more daunting, and this Handbook explains why the existing food system, although undergoing rapid change, is inadequate for this task and cannot meet the challenge without substantial reform. The Handbook as a whole, and the individual chapters, provide comprehensive overviews of relevant themes mixed with empirical, real-world examples for university readership teaching and taking courses on food systems, migration and urbanization, urban policy and planning, geography, agricultural economics, public health, and international development. It will also introduce practitioners to current debates in the field and provide strong support for the renewed, and growing, focus on the food security of urban populations. The Handbook's comprehensive overviews of relevant themes mixed with empirical, real-world examples are ideal for university readership. It will also introduce practitioners to current debates in the field and provide strong support for the renewed, and growing, focus on the food security of urban populations.

Urban population growth is extremely rapid across Africa and this book places urban food and nutrition security firmly on the development and policy agenda. It shows that current efforts to address food poverty in Africa that focus entirely on small-scale farmers, to the exclusion of broader socio-economic and infrastructural approaches, are misplaced and will remain largely ineffective in ameliorating food and nutrition insecurity for the majority of Africans. Using original data from the African Food Security Urban Network's (AFSUN) extensive database it is demonstrated that the primary food security challenge for urban households is access to food. Already linked into global food systems and value chains, Africa's supply of food is not necessarily in jeopardy. Rather, the widespread poverty and informal urban fabric that characterizes Africa's emerging cities impinge directly on households' capacity to access food that is readily available. Through the analysis of empirical data collected from 6,500 households in eleven cities in nine countries in Southern Africa, the authors identify the complexity of factors and dynamics that create the circumstances of widespread food and nutrition insecurity under which urban citizens live. They also provide useful policy approaches to address these conditions that currently thwart the latent development potential of Africa's expanding urban population.

There is overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing. It is the poorest countries and people who are the most vulnerable to this threat and who will suffer the most. This book shows how increasing urbanization and growing poverty levels mean that it is imperative to ask how climate change might impact on asset accumulation and food security for the urban poor. It demonstrates how these three, often separate foci, can be brought together to frame a holistic urban adaptation approach. Furthermore, although much has been written about climate change, limited evidence exists in southern Africa of how climate change has been integrated in urban planning. The authors explore the urban climate change nexus linking asset adaptation, climate change science and food security through several case study cities. These include Cape Town, George and Khara Hais (South Africa), Lusaka (Zambia), Maputo (Mozambique), Mombasa (Kenya) and Harare (Zimbabwe). The results shed light on how this nexus might be explored from different perspectives, both theoretical and practical, in order to plan for a more resilient future. Climate Change, Assets and Food Security in Southern African Cities comprises ten chapters which focus on southern African cities, with each chapter written by highly experienced academics, research-focused practitioners and professional planners. Although the book concentrates on southern African cities, the insights which are presented can be used to understand other urban centres in low and middle-income countries outside of this region and around the world.

Urban population growth is extremely rapid across Africa and this book places urban food and nutrition security firmly on the development and policy agenda. It shows that current efforts to address food poverty in Africa that focus entirely on small-scale farmers, to the exclusion of broader socio-economic and infrastructural approaches, are misplaced and will remain largely ineffective in ameliorating food and nutrition insecurity for the majority of Africans. Using original data from the African Food Security Urban Network's (AFSUN) extensive database it is demonstrated that the primary food security challenge for urban households is access to food. Already linked into global food systems and value chains, Africa's supply of food is not necessarily in jeopardy. Rather, the widespread poverty and informal urban fabric that characterizes Africa's emerging cities impinge directly on households' capacity to access food that is readily available. Through the analysis of empirical data collected from 6,500 households in eleven cities in nine countries in Southern Africa, the authors identify the complexity of factors and dynamics that create the circumstances of widespread food and nutrition insecurity under which urban citizens live. They also provide useful policy approaches to address these conditions that currently thwart the latent development potential of Africa's expanding urban population.

There is overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing. It is the poorest countries and people who are the most vulnerable to this threat and who will suffer the most. This book shows how increasing urbanization and growing poverty levels mean that it is imperative to ask how climate change might impact on asset accumulation and food security for the urban poor. It demonstrates how these three, often separate foci, can be brought together to frame a holistic urban adaptation approach. Furthermore, although much has been written about climate change, limited evidence exists in southern Africa of how climate change has been integrated in urban planning. The authors explore the urban climate change nexus linking asset adaptation, climate change science and food security through several case study cities. These include Cape Town, George and Khara Hais (South Africa), Lusaka (Zambia), Maputo (Mozambique), Mombasa (Kenya) and Harare (Zimbabwe). The results shed light on how this nexus might be explored from different perspectives, both theoretical and practical, in order to plan for a more resilient future. Climate Change, Assets and Food Security in Southern African Cities comprises ten chapters which focus on southern African cities, with each chapter written by highly experienced academics, research-focused practitioners and professional planners. Although the book concentrates on southern African cities, the insights which are presented can be used to understand other urban centres in low and middle-income countries outside of this region and around the world.

Since the collapse of apartheid, there have been major increases in migration flows within, to and from the Southern African region. Cross-border movements are at an all-time high across the region and internal migration is at record levels. The implications of greater mobility for areas of origin and destination have not been systematically explored. Migration is most often seen as a negative phenomenon, a result of increased poverty and the failure of development. More recently, the positive relationship between migration and development has been emphasised by agencies such as the Global Commission on International Migration, the Global Forum on Migration and Development, the United Nations Development Programme and the African Union. The chapters in this publication are all based on primary research and examine various facets of the relationship between migration, poverty and development, including issues that are often ignored in the migration-development debate like migration and food security and migration and vulnerability to HIV. The book argues that the development and poverty reduction potential of migration is being hindered by national policies that fail to recognise and build on the positive aspects and potential of migration. As a result, as these studies show, migrants are often pushed to the margins where they are forced to "survive on the move." Their treatment violates labour laws and basic human rights and compromises the potential of migration as a means to create sustainable livelihoods, reduce poverty and food insecurity, mitigate the brain drain and promote the productive use of remittances. This book shows that migrant lives and livelihoods should be at the centre of international and African debates about migration, poverty and development.

The Southern African Migration Project is a collaborative project and this paper is published jointly by IDASA in Cape Town and Queen's University, Canada. It seeks to establish a background for understanding the complex and dynamic linkages between urbanisation, migration, HIV/Aids and urban food security in Southern and Eastern Africa. It documents the key dimensions of the connections. The linkages between HIV/Aids and urban food security are particularly less well-established, and in documenting them here, the authors simultaneously link them with migration, the first to examine these dynamics at a regional level. Jonathan Crush is the Director of the Southern African Migration Project, the Director of the Southern African Research Centre at Queen's University, Canada, and an Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town. Miriam Grant is a Professor at the University of Calgary. Bruce Frayne is a Research Fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Coordinator of the Regional Network on Aids, Livelihoods and Food Security.