The informal economy is a powerful force shaping Africa’s rapidly expanding cities. Due to the scarcity of formal jobs and the systemic exclusion many poor people face, informal-economy livelihoods are an important safety net across most African cities. This is particularly true for women and youth. However, punitive policies towards informal trade and weak protective mechanisms against economic displacement by more powerful formal entities put livelihoods in the informal economy at risk, and represent an important causal driver of urban food insecurity. Yet it need not be this way. A food-sensitive approach to urban planning and design presents an opportunity to valorize informal traders as allies in cities’ efforts to eradicate hunger and malnutrition.

Low-income urban communities are largely left on their own to cope with chronic adversity and extreme shocks. Women play a critical role in such coping mechanisms, both at household and community level. However, as our research in Nairobi and Cape Town shows, successful bottom-up coping mechanisms such as community kitchens or savings groups, continue to rely heavily on women’s overstretched personal resources and unpaid work. Transitioning from such community driven solutions to systemic transformation therefore requires building an enabling environment that fosters both local agency as well as accountability by power holders.

In fragile settings, governments and civil society often lack information to adequately respond to multifaceted crises. This challenge is particularly acute in densely populated informal urban settlements. While some city-aggregated data on food security may be publicly available, this is often outdated and unlikely to offer localized and real-time insights on food and nutritional dynamics. As demonstrated by the Covid-19 crisis, this lack of place-specific information not only hinders emergency responses, but undermines critically needed strategic planning processes to create more inclusive and sustainable food systems. With targeted support, communities in low-income urban settings could provide much needed contextualized information to tackle this data gap.

“Poverty and inequality are the underlying structural causes of food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms," (FAO, 2021). By focusing on pathways to progressively realize the right to food as a binding global agreement, TMG and its partners aim to get at the heart of such inequalities. Both South Africa and Kenya recognize the Right to Food in their constitutions and have subsequently developed supporting national policies on food security. However, this "food mandate" remains highly fragmented across departments and spheres of government, making it hard to operationalize, especially at the level of local governments that interface most directly with community organizations.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2021), Africa's agricultural production growth has contracted by more than 30% over the past six decades due to climate change. Continued global warming will further impact African food systems by shortening growing seasons and increasing water stress. Despite accounting for a small fraction of the food needs of Africa's growing cities, urban and peri-urban agriculture can enhance local access to fresh vegetables, pulses, eggs, and other high nutritive value foods. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) approaches such as hydroponic farming can be a cost-effective and eco-friendly alternative where farming space is limited or where land tenure systems are complex.