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.