Planning for Food Secure African Cities Podcast

What have you eaten today? Seems like a mundane question, one that probably feel quite far removed from your thinking about planning, about city governance. In the first episode of the Planning for Food Secure Africa Cities podcast series, presenter Jane Battersby uses this simple question as an entry point into the ways in which our daily food choices are fundamentally shaped by planning, regulations and policies.

 

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why is food not commonly considered by planners and local government in African cities?
2. Using the six pillars of food security, how and where do you see urban form (physical characteristics of the city) and function (role or services of the city) in shaping food security?
3. Wayne Roberts says that

“one way or the other, these [food] choices account for 20 percent of all retail sales, 20 precent of all service jobs, 10 percent of industrial jobs, 20 percent of all car trips and traffic, 20 percent of chronic diseases, 25 percent of fossil fuel energy and air pollution, 40 percent of all garbage, 80 percent of sewage…” in our cities.

Roberts, 2001:7

 

How much of an impact does the food system have on these dimensions in your city?

 

GLOSSARY

• Food Security: [is] asituation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (FAO, 2001).

• Food system: The food system refers to the entire range of actors, and the various activities that are involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food products (FAO, 2018).

• The Six Pillars of Food Security

Availability – Having a quantity and quality of food sufficient to satisfy the dietary needs of individuals, free from adverse substances and acceptable within a given culture, supplied through domestic production or imports

Access (economic, social, and physical) – Having personal or household financial means to acquire food for an adequate diet at a level to ensure that satisfaction of other basic needs are not threatened or compromised; and that adequate food is accessible to everyone, including vulnerable individuals and groups

Utilisation – Having an adequate diet, clean water, sanitation, and health care to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met

Stability – Having the ability to ensure good security in the events of sudden shocks (e.g., an economic, health, conflict, or climate crisis) or cyclical events (e.g., seasonal good insecurity

Agency – Individuals or groups having the capacity to act independently to make choices about what they eat, the foods they produce, how that food is produced, processed, and distributed and to engage in policy processes that shape food systems. The protection of agency requires socio-political systems that uphold governance structures that enable the achievement of FSN for all.

Sustainability – Food system practices that contribute to long-term regeneration of natural, social, and economic systems, ensuring the food needs of the present generations are met without compromising the food needs of future generations.

Adapted from: HLPE. 2020. Food security and nutrition: building a global narrative towards 2030. A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security, Rome.

http://www.fao.org/3/ca9731en/ca9731en.pdf

 

RESOURCES

CUP Project and affiliated project Resources

• Battersby, J. and Haysom, H. 2019. Chapter 3: Linking urban food security, urban food systems, poverty, and urbanisation. In Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities. J. Battersby and V. Watson, Eds. Routledge: New York. 56 – 67.
  This chapter provides a conceptual overview of how each of the dimensions of food security relate to each other, specifically within the African urban context. Through this, the possibilities for interventions to alleviate food security in relation to these pillars are considered.

• Joubert, L. 2018. Introduction. In Tomatoes and Taxi Ranks. L, Joubert, Ed. African Centre for Cities: Cape Town. 9 – 14.
  The introduction to Tomatoes and Taxi Ranks presents a summary of the various reasons as to why food should be thought of in the context of cities, particularly in African cities.

• Consuming Urban Poverty Project. 2018. Understanding Food Poverty in African Cities. [Video file].
  This animated short video illustrates the multi-dimensional nature of poverty and how it shapes what people eat from the perspective of African cities, using research findings from the Consuming Urban Poverty project.
  Scholarly Resources

• Roberts, W. 2001. The Way to a City’s Heart is Through its Stomach: Putting Food Security on the Urban Planning Menu. Toronto Food Policy Council: Toronto
  In this resource, Roberts provides various arguments for why urban planners should be conscious of food issues when undertaking planning projects.

• Kasper, C., Brandt, J., Lindschulte, K. and Giseke, U. 2017. The urban food system approach: thinking in spatialized systems. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. 41 (8): 1009 – 1025.
  This paper focuses on the role that urban food systems as a tool to analyse the underlying spatial structures in cities, and how the components of the urban food system are interconnected through the various functions of the city. 

Policy Related Resources:

• HLPE. 2020. Food security and nutrition: building a global narrative towards 2030. A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security, Rome.
  This report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, provides a global overview of the current situation with regards to food security and nutrition in relation to concepts, outcomes and drivers of critical policy directions. The key messages from this report pertain to an urgent need to strengthen and consolidate the conceptual thinking around food security and nutrition particularly the right to food; the extent to which the food security and nutrition community is falling short of reaching Agenda 2030 targets; and, the policy approach and actions that the HLPE recommends are taken forward to enable and uphold all dimensions of food and nutrition security.

Additional Resources in Popular Media:

• Steel, C. 2009.  How Food Shapes our Cities. [Video File].
  In this TED Talk, using the example of London, Carolyn Steel discusses the way in which a city is fed on a daily basis, as well as how historical food routes have shaped the modern world.

• Raja, S. 2016. It’s Not Food, It’s the Food System. [Video File].
  Samina Raja provides an explanation for why food security is a systemic issue, in her TEDxUniversityatBuffalo Talk. Raja goes on to discuss the problems with the food supply chain which causes this systemic issue, as well as how this affects our cities and daily lives.

• Joubert, L. 2017. Op-Ed: Mind the (food) gap. Daily Maverick. 12 December.
  Leonie Joubert writes how access to food remains unequal in African cities, and that unless policy makers address the multi-dimensional and complex reasons why the urban food system remains unequal, citizens will continue to be hungry, heavy and sick.

• ICLEI-RUAF CITYFOOD Network in Africa
  Open to all local and regional governments, the ICLEI-RUAF CityFood Network in Africa is a global network for regional governments to develop a strategic approach to their city-region food systems. The resources below provide a report of the 2020 African CITYFOOD Month, and a link to the webinars.

• Battersby, J. 2020. Understanding Cape Town’s Food System: Facts, figures, flows. [Video File]
  In this presentation as part of the 2020 Cape Town Food Dialogues, Jane Battersby provides and overview of the urban food system in Cape Town.

• The Food Systems Dashboard. Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Johns Hopkins University. 2020. Geneva, Switzerland.
  This dashboard combines data from multiple sources in an attempt to provide a complete view of food systems country by country. Users can also compare different components of food systems across countries and regions, as well as use the dashboard to identify ways in which to sustainably improve their food systems.

 

In this second episode of the Planning for Food Secure African Cities Podcast, host, Jane Battersby, explains how historic planning process have shaped our food systems, urban spaces, economies and societies.

 

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Can you identify some of the ways in which your city’s history could have impacted on the current form of the urban food system?
2. The podcast argues that “We need to understand historic planning and governance, not just for what they have hardwired into the planning frameworks and policies governing our cities, but the values that they reflected and that they reinforce every day in the minds of those who govern and the lives of those who live in our cities.”  What values do you think are reflected and reinforced by your city’s historical planning and governance of the food system?
3. Going forward, what role do you think planners and local government policy makers could play in the governance of the urban food system?

 

GLOSSARY

Food Processing: A variety of operations by which food is change through chemical or mechanical means to change or preserve it.  

CUP Project and affiliated project Resources:

• Duminy, J. 2019. Chapter 5: Historical urban food governance in Africa: the case of Kenya, c. 1900 – 1950. In Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities. J. Battersby and V. Watson, Eds. Routledge: New York. 83 – 93
  Using the case of Kenya, James Duminy’s chapter in Urban Food Systems Governence and Poverty in African Cities, provides a historical context to the argument that little attention has been paid to the local governance and food planning in Africa. Through this, Duminy highlights how urban food issues emerged as a problem of the colonial government in Kenya.

• Chigumira, E., Tawodzera, G., Manjengwa, O. and Mbengo, I. 2019. Chapter 10: Governace of food systems in Epworth Zimbabwe. In, Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities. J. Battersby and V. Watson, Eds. Routledge: New York. 141 – 153.
  The authors of this chapter examine the state of food governance in the case of Epworth, Zimbabwe, through a discussion of the food system actors, and the various political, economic and legislative instruments which shape and impact on the urban food system.

• Toriro, P. 2021. Urban Food: An Examination of the Policy and Legislative Framework. In, Environmental Resilience. P. Toriro and I. Chirisa, Eds. Springer: Singapore. 33-45.
  In this chapter the author analyses Zimbabwe’s regulatory framework in our to assess its impact on the urban food system.

• Consuming Urban Poverty Project. 2018. How local is the local food system?  [Video file].
  In this animated short video, the question of how local the local food system is, is explored. Using the example of Kisumu, Kenya, this video using findings from the Consuming Urban Poverty project to uncover a surprising answer to the age old question: what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Scholarly Resources

• Kamete, A. 2012. Missing the point? Urban planning and the normalisation of ‘patholofical’ space in Southern Africa. Transaction of the Institute of British Geographers. 38 (4): 639 – 651.
  In this paper, Kamete argues that the urban planning systems in southern Africa have been mobilised to correct or eliminate “spatial pathologies” – an attempt by urban planning authorities to ‘correct’ or ‘normalise’ urban informality.

• Roy, A. 2005. Urban Informality: Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal of the American Planning Association. 71(2): 147-158.
  In this article, Ananya Roy highlights the challenges that urban informality produces, and the ways of dealing with the “unplannable” exceptions to the order of formal urbanisation – a state of exception that urban planners must learn to work within.

• Smale, M. and Jayne, T.S. 2003. Maize in Eastern and Southern Africa: seeds of success in an historical perspective (No. 97). IFPRI Discussion Paper.
  In this report, Smale and Jayne write about the “maize success story” in Sub-Saharan Africa, using the cases of Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi where maize is an important part of the food economy. The report covers the history of the period when maize become a dominant crop in the 1990s.

Additional Resources in Popular Media

• Haysom, G. 2020. Rethinking the roots of food poverty: Broken history, broken food system. [Video File].
  In this presentation from the 2020 Cape Town Food Dialogues, Gareth Haysom presents an rethinking of the roots of food poverty, by viewing the food system in conjunction with historical events, particularly a history of exclusion in cities.

• How Great Cities Are Fed
  How Great Cities Are Fed takes an in-depth look at 21st-century urban food systems and how they have changed – or haven’t – over the past 100 years. Over nine episodes, this podcast series covers themes including food waste, retail, food markets and the transportation of food.

 

In this third episode of the Planning for Food Secure African Cities, host Jane Battersby explores the ways in which the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda provide new opportunities for getting food security and the food system on the development agenda.

 

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

 

1. Why do you think food hasn’t really been on the urban agenda? Are the food-based problems experienced in cities today a new phenomenon?
2. The New Urban Agenda radically reframes food security and food systems as core urban issues. Do you think this reframing will practically change anything in your city.?
3. The City Region Food System approach argues strongly for a regional approach to food systems planning. Battersby and Watson are concerned that this may encourage city government to overlook challenging urban scale planning issues. How can we ensure that both remain in focus? Do the same or different actors need to be involved in both?

 

GLOSSARY

Sustainable Development Goals  

“The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.”

United Nations. 2016. “What are the Sustainable Development Goals”.

 

New Urban Agenda

“The New Urban Agenda was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador, on 20 October 2016. It was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly at its sixty-eighth plenary meeting of the seventy-first session on 23 December 2016.

The New Urban Agenda represents a shared vision for a better and more sustainable future. If well-planned and well-managed, urbanization can be a powerful tool for sustainable development for both developing and developed countries.”

United Nations. 2016. HABITAT III – 17-20 OCTOBER 2016. The United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development. Quito: Ecuador. https://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/

 

RESOURCES

CUP Project and affiliated project Resources

• Battersby, J. and Watson, V. 2019. The planned ‘city-region’ in the New Urban Agenda: an appropriate framing for urban food security?. Town Planning Review. 90 (5): 497-518 
  In this paper, the authors argue that although the NUA acknowledges the importance of urban food and nutrition security as a key component in sustainable urban development, the use of the city-region model disregards critiques of the concept. Further, the city-region model, with foundations in both regional economic planning and food policy, ignores the current economic, social and institutional realities as well as the diversity of urban centres and regions across the world.

• Battersby, J. and Muwowo, F. 2019. Chapter 9: Planning and governance of food systems in Kitwe, Zambia. In, Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities. J. Battersby and V. Watson, Eds. Routledge: New York. 128 – 140.
  This chapter refers to one of the case studies used in this episode. Through the example of Kitwe, Zambia, Jane Battersby and Francis Muwowo argue that the centrality of the governance of food as integral to the management of markets has been lost.

• Battersby, J. 2017. MDGs to SDGs – new goals, same gaps: the continued absence of urban food security in the post-2015 global development agenda. African Geographical Review. 36:1. 115-129.
  DOI: 10.1080/19376812.2016.1208769
  In this paper, Battersby argues that despite hunger and food insecurity holding prominent positions in the framing of the Millennium Development Goals, and the Sustainable Development Goals, the approach towards achieving food security as outlined through these goals, is flawed.

• Consuming Urban Poverty Project. 2018. How local is the local food system?  [Video file].
  In this animated short video, the question of how local the local food system is, is explored. Using the example of Kisumu, Kenya, this video using findings from the Consuming Urban Poverty project to uncover a surprising answer to the age old question: what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Policy Related Resources:

• Carey, J., & Cook, B. 2021. The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact monitoring framework: A practical handbook for implementation. FAO. Rome.
  The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Monitoring Framework Handbook, provides a practical guide for any city wishing to develop and adopt a monitoring framework for their urban food policy. The handbook includes practical steps, simple tools, and top tips for other cities to follow.

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2018. Our world is urbanizing. Is food on your agenda?.
  This document, produced by the FAO, outlines how local governments are at the forefront of creating sustainable food systems, as well as provides steps and opportunities for local governments to place food on their urban agenda.

• Food Action Cities.
  This website provides a platform for users to explore the ways in which cities can shape urban and food systems for improved nutrition. Included on this website are useful policy related resources and growing number of case studies from cities around the world.

• Pieterse,E., Cirolia, LR., and Cartwright, A. 2020. Reframing the Potential of Sustainable Urbanism for Africa. Cape Town: African Centre for Cities.
  In this debate primer, the authors argue that cities can drive Africa’s economic imperative to achieve structural transformation, and that sustainable infrastructure is one critical catalyst for green industrialisation and thriving settlements.

• Teftt, J., Jonasova, M., Adjao, R., and Morgan, A. 2017. Food Systems for an Urbanizing World: Knowledge Product. World Bank Group.
  This report provides a first step in the World Bank’s process of determining how it could assist national, local and metropolitan governments to address urban food issues.

Additional Resources in Popular Media:

• Banda, M. 2021. Food dialogue: Sustainable systems are vital to South Africa. Daily Maverick. 21 June.
  This article provides a report of a recent food system dialogue in South Africa that was hosted by Minister of Agriculture Thoko Didiza.

• Crush, J. 2019. Romantic visions of pastoral Africa won’t solve urban food insecurity. Daily Maverick. 30 January.
  In this opinion piece, Jonathan Crush argues that given that one of the greatest challenges that Africa currently faces is a rapidly growing population and a lack of access to sufficient, affordable and nutritious food, systemic interventions must be made to address this multidimensional crisis.

• Haysom, G., Crush, J., and Frayne, B. 2021. Food security in African cities needs a fresh approach – our book sets out the issues. The Conversation. June 3.
  In their latest book the Handbook on Urban Food Security in the Global South, Haysom, Crush and Frayne seek to understand the complex and linked challenges of urban development and food systems in the global South. This article provides an overview of some of the key points that this book aims to address.

• Oni, T. 2021. Why we need to make planetary health part of city design. UCT News. 24 June.
  Prof Tollulah Oni argues in this article that in order to achieve planetary goals such as the African Unions Agenda 2036, requires a transformational change in how we build cities.

• Ngcuka, O. 2021. Indigenous crops: local is not only lekker, it’s also a weapon in the climate crisis battle. Daily Maverick. 1 July.
  This news article focusses on the role that indigenous crops can play in mitigating the effects of the climate crisis in South Africa, despite currently being absent from South Africans’ plates.

This episode introduces the possibilities for planners and local government decision makers to bring food back into urban planning and governance. This is an invitation for a new generation of food planning and food planners to emerge in Africa. To start this discussion that will continue over two episodes, this week’s episode discusses the role of food planning in relation to food markets.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. In what ways do you think planners could engage in the food system? Can you name some points of intervention where this could happen?
2. If a planner is to intervene in a site, what sort policies do you think they would need to in influence in order to achieve a desired food system and planning outcome?
3. Can you list some stakeholders who planners would need to incorporate into the design and implementation of their plan?

RESOURCES

CUP Project and affiliated project Resources

• Smit, W. 2019. Current urban food planning and governance in Africa. In, Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities, J. Battersby and V. Watson, Eds. Routledge: New York. 94 – 103.
  This chapter provides an overview of the governance of urban food systems in African cities. As Smit argues, it is important to first the existing governance of these urban food systems before attempting to improve any governance processes.

• Skinner, C. 2019. Contributing yet excluded?: informal food retail in African cities. In, Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities, J. Battersby and V. Watson, Eds. Routledge: New York. 104 – 115.
  In this chapter, Skinner argues, that informal food retailers make critical contributions to urban food security, yet despite this, traders are excluded from policy and regulatory processes.

• Battersby, J. and Muwowo, F. 2019. Planning and governance of food systems in Kitwe, Zambia: a case study of food retail space. In, Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities, J. Battersby and V. Watson, Eds. Routledge: New York. 128 – 140.
  In this chapter, Battersby and Muwowo argue that despite the historical role that local governments have played in Zambia in managing food markets, the centrality of the governance of food itself as integral to the management of these markets has been lost. As a result, the importance of these food retailers as source of food security has not been acknowledged by the state.

• Joubert, L. 2018. Chapter 3: Cinderella Markets. In Tomatoes and Taxi Ranks. L, Joubert, Ed. African Centre for Cities: Cape Town. 57 – 80.
  While supermarkets and shopping centres are seen as symbolic of the modern African city, this chapter argues that it is in fact the informal economy that is bringing food and jobs to our cities.

• Joubert, L. 2018. Chapter 6: White Elephant. In Tomatoes and Taxi Ranks. L, Joubert, Ed. African Centre for Cities: Cape Town. 123 – 136.
  This chapter interrogates the role that local government can play in making sure that people are not just free from hunger, but properly nourished too.

‘Scholarly’ Resources:

• Miraftab, F. 2009. ‘Insurgent Planning: Situating Radical Planning in the Global South’, Planning Theory, 8(1), pp. 32–50.
  In this paper, Miraftab addresses themes relating to the complexities of state and citizen relationships, within colonial and post-colonial regimes, that often emerge when planning in the global South. The inherited, now hegemonic,  planning practices in post-colonial cities, illustrate the tensions that emerge between state and citizens through planning practice. Insurgent planning practice is put forward as a counter-hegemonic practice in response to the hegemonic planning practices.

• Morgan, K. 2013. The Rise of Urban Food Planning. International Planning Studies. 18(1):1-4.
  This editorial introduces a special edition that sought to cover the emergence of food planning over the past decade. Highlighted in this piece is the argument that food planning includes more than professional planners.

• Pieterse, E. 2019. Urban governance and spatial transformation ambitions in Johannesburg. Journal of Urban Affairs. 41(1): 20 – 38.
  This article explores the history of democratic decentralization reforms in South Africa and Johannesburg, using an analysis of the significance of the Corridors of Freedom in the Johannesburg metropolitan government. This provides a critical perspective on the latest generation of strategic planning in metropolitan South Africa

• Skinner, C. and Haysom, G. 2016. Informal sector’s role in food security: A missing link in policy debates. Working Paper 44. PLAAS, UWC and Centre of Excellence on Food Security.
  This working paper provides a review of what is currently understood about the role that the informal retail sector plays in the accessibility of food in South Africa.

• Skinner, C. and Watson, V. 2021. Planning and informal food traders under COVID-19: the South African case. Town Planning Review. 92 (32): 301 – 308.
  In many cities in the global South, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of the informal economy in providing access to food for residents. In this paper, Skinner and Watson argue that it is essential that state actions protect and enhance their operation.

• Watson, V. 2013. Planning and the ‘Stubborn Realities’ of Global South-East Cities: Some Emerging Ideas. Planning Theory. 12(1): 81-100.
  As quoted in this episode, in this paper, Watson identifies new strands of planning thought in relation to the global South-East. Watson argues that the cause of many breakdowns in state run planning projects is because of a ‘conflict of rationalities’ between rigid professional planning processes and the context, needs and expectations of residents.

Policy Related Resources:

• FAO. 2019. FAO framework for the Urban Food Agenda. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/ca3151en
  This framework provides guidance for broadening the food policy agenda, taking into account the often-untapped potential for urban areas to drive food and nutrition security plans. Secondly, this framework defines the FAO’s principals and engagement in relation to food and nutrition security needs, associated with urban development and urbanisation.

• Raja, S. Born, B.M., and Kozlowski Russel, J. 2008. A Planners Guide To Community and Regional Food Planning: Transforming Food Environments, Facilitating Healthy Eating. American Planning Association: Chicago.
  This handbook provides some useful tools for planners who are wanting to embed food into their daily planning practice and processes.

Additional Resources in Popular Media:

• Cities of Integrity: Urban Planning and Corruption in Africa. 2021. The Story of a Zambian Market: Practicing integrity in Planning. [Video file]
  This animated video provides a real life example of planning for a market in Zambia and the multiple stakeholders involved in the process. The video illustrates the vital role that planners can play in influencing food access through projects that are seemingly not related to food.

Building on the previous episode’s introduction to ways in which planners might meaningfully intervene in the food system, this episode goes a step further to consider the role of Food Sensitive Planning.  

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

DISCUSSION QUESTION

1. Think about what you’ve eaten today. How many ‘invisible’ infrastructural services can you think of which might have been involved in enabling that meal to make it to your plate?
2. In what ways do you think food or the impact on the urban food system could be considered in the planning approval of a new development?
3. How do you think future unintended impacts on the urban food system can be avoided through a food sensitive approach to planning and urban design?

CUP Project and affiliated project Resources

• Joubert, L. 2018. Chapter 6: White Elephant. In Tomatoes and Taxi Ranks. L, Joubert, Ed. African Centre for Cities: Cape Town. 123 – 136
  This chapter interrogates the role that local government can play in making sure that people are not just free from hunger, but properly nourished too. This chapter goes on to ask: where is local government in terms of decision making, planning and crafting food sensitive plans?

• Park-Ross, R. 2019. Incorporating Food into Urban Planning: A toolkit for planning educators in Africa. Consuming Urban Poverty Project.
  This toolkit focuses on why it is critical for planners in Africa to think about food issues, as well as how to equip them to do this as a planning educator. The toolkit aims to help planners develop theoretical and practical knowledge about food sensitive planning.

Scholarly Resources

• Battersby, J. 2017. Food System Transformation in the Absence of Food System Planning: The case of supermarket and shopping mall retail expansion in Cape Town, South Africa. Built Environment. 43 (3): 417 – 430.
  In this article, Battersby argues that despite local government having no clear mandate to address the urban food system, local planning and policy decision makers are playing a profound role in reshaping the urban food system. This is done through non-food related planning and policy decisions. One way in which this is taking place is through supermarket expansion.  

• Haysom, G. 2021. Integration Food Sensitive Planning and Urban Design into Urban Governance Actions. Urban Forum. 1 – 22.
  In this paper, Haysom argues that spatial planning and urban design principles and actions provide an immediate and effective means through which to engage in urban food system questions. Food sensitive planning and urban designed is offered as an approach which could assist in programming food system related challenges at the urban scale.

• Ilieva, R. 2016. Urban Food Planning: Seeds of Transition in the Global North. Routledge: New York.
  This book examines the rise of urban food planning in the global north and offers insights into the relationship between cities and food which has been developing over the past decade. The conclusions and recommendations that Ilieva put forward, have significant implications for scholars, activists and public officials who are seeking to radically transform the ‘co-evolution’ of food, cities, and the environment.

• Wegerif, M. 2014. Exploring Sustainable Urban Food Provisioning: The Case of Eggs in Dar es Salaam. Sustainability. 6 (6): 3747 – 3779.
  This paper, which is used as an example in this episode, is a study of the patterns of egg provisioning in Dar es Salaam. It explores whether existing patterns of food supply in the city provide workable alternatives. Eggs offer a lens through which to explore the sustainability of different modes of provisioning.

Policy Related Resources

• Donovan, J., K, Larsen and McWhinnie. 2011. Food sensitive planning and urban design: a conceptual framework for achieving a sustainable and healthy food system. Melbourne, Australia. National Heart Foundation of Australia.
  This framework, as mentioned as an example in this episode, provides a set of ideas for consideration by all those who collectively play a role in shaping our towns and cities.

• Haysom, G., Battersby, J., and Park-Ross, R. 2020. Food sensitive planning and Urban Design – A blueprint for a future South African city? Food Security SA Working Paper Series: #007. DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security.
  This working paper provides an argument for the adoption of Food Sensitive Urban Planning and Design and what this would mean in South African cities, as well as how various existing planning legislation would have to adopt these processes

Additional Resources in Popular Media

• Swilling, M. 2021. Op-ed: July 2021 Zumite sedition and the emerging ‘politics of the mall’. Daily Maverick. 21 July.
  In this opinion piece written following the recent ‘failed insurrection’ in South Africa, Marc Swilling argues that the ‘mallification’ of South Africa over the past 20 years, was why malls were targeted during mass looting. Malls have become the ‘epicentre of everyday economic life’, and were initially developed with little thought given to the impact on food security in cities.

In this final episode of the Planning for Food Secure African Cities Podcast, we take a look back at the previous 5 episodes in the series. We go on to provide examples from cities around the world, and Africa, that have started to incorporate food into their urban planning practices. We start by providing examples of individual programmes and interventions, and then move on to examples of where planning has been included in a wider suite of urban food system actions and strategies. We hope you have enjoyed this series, and are able to apply some of the lessons from these episodes into your own practice and research.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

DISCUSSION QUESTION

1. Having listened to this episode, which examples resonated with you most and why?
2. The episode suggests that individual interventions may need to be nested in a wider urban food strategy. In your context, where might the starting point for getting food onto the urban agenda be?
3. What have been the key take home points for you from this episode and the series as a whole?

Resources mentioned in this Episode

• Tefft, J., Jonasova, M, Zhang., F., Zhang, Y. 2021. Urban Food Systems Governance : Current Context and Future Opportunities. FAO and the World Bank. Available: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35936. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
  This report provides insights and emerging lessons on food system governance from the experience of nine cities that have developed urban food interventions.

• Battersby, J., Haysom, G., Tawodzera, G., McLachlan, M., and Crusch, J. 2014. Food System and Food Security Study for the City of Cape Town. The African Food Security and Urban Network. http://www.afsun.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Final-Food-System-Study-Report_Corrected-_WITH-COUNCIL-REPORT.pdf
  This study provides a comprehensive overview of the food system and food security in Cape Town. This report is mentioned in the episode in reference to the City of Cape Town’s current spatial development framework which uses language around protecting high value and unique agricultural areas.

• Halliday, J., Platenkamp, L., Nicolarea, Y. 2019. A menu of actions to shape urban food systems for improved nutrition. GAIN, MUFPP and RUAF. Available: https://foodactioncities.org/case-studies/urban-agriculture-ordinances-2/
  This case study of a set of five ordinances in Kampala, Uganda, provides a good example of how to provide space for urban agricultural practice. As mentioned in the episode, this example demonstrates that land use planning alone cannot be impactful, but often needs to be included in a wider set of actions in order to be effective.

• Skinner, C., Harvey, J and Orleans Reed, S. 2018. Supporting Informal Livelihoods in Public Space: A Toolkit for Local Authorities. Prepared by WIEGO for the Cities Alliance Joint Work Programme for Equitable Economic Growth in Cities. Manchester, UK:WIEGO. Available: https://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/Public%20Space%20Toolkit.pdf
  In this episode, reference is made to the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 in India. This act is based on the core principles of recognition and accommodation. This Toolkit, prepared by WIEGO, contains more information about this, and other examples of how local authorities can support informal livelihoods.

• Gayatri, A., Cassou,E., Jaffee, S., and Ludher, EK. 2020. RICH Food, Smart City. Washington, DC: World Bank. Available: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35137
  This report provides information on the case mentioned in this episode of a zoning regulation in Seoul, South Korea, to limit the trade of ‘unhealthy’ foods within a 200m radius of schools. This regulations restricts the sale of high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods that are deemed unhealthy by government standards. More information can be found in this report.

• Santandreu, A., 2018. One (short) step forward, two steps backwards–the limits of urban food planning. Integrating Food into Urban Planning. UCL Press: London. 117 – 133. Available: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv513dv1
  In this chapter, Santandreu explores the effects of planning interventions which do not have sufficient technical support. As mentioned in this episode, in the case of Lima, Peru, an urban agriculture failed to achieve its intended outcome due to as its place in the municipal organigram was not made clear.

• Moragues, A., Morgan, K., Moschitz, H., Neimane, I., Nilsson, H., Pinto, M., Rohracher, H., Ruiz,R.,Thuswald, m., Tisenkopfrs, T., and Halliday, J. 2013. Urban Food Strategies: the rough guide to sustainable food systems. Document developed in the frameowkr of the FP7 project FOODLINKS. Available: https://agri-madre.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Urban_food_strategies.pdf
  As cited in this episode, this report provides a useful definition of an urban food strategy as: [A] process consisting of how a city envisions change in its food system, and how it strives towards this change. Urban Food strategies aim to place food on the urban agenda, capitalizing on efforts made by existing actors and creating synergistic effects by linking different stakeholder groups. Written milestones in this process can be charters, action plans or full strategies…. Ideally, urban food strategies take a holistic approach to the food system of a city, considering horizontal and vertical dimensions. Moragues et al 2013, 6

• Halliday, J., Torres, C., and van Veenhuizen,R. 2019. Food Policy Councils: Lessons on inclusiveness. Urban Agriculture Magazine. 36. Available: https://ruaf.org/assets/2019/11/Urban-Agriculture-Magazine-no.-36-Food-Policy-Councils.pdf
  This issue of Urban Agriculture focusses on the lessons from food policy councils. As mentioned in this episode, food policy councils have become particularly popular in North American and European cities. In this edition readers can find lessons, the definition of as well as how to develop a good policy council.

Policy Related Resources

• FAO, RUAF, MUFFP. 2021. The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Monitoring Framework – A practical handbook for implementation. Rome. Available: http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cb4181en/
  This handbook provides a practical guide for any city wanting to adopt and implement a monitoring framework of its urban good policy.

• Food Action Cities https://foodactioncities.org
  Among other things, the Food Action Cities web platform aims to share articles and case studies to inspire and draw attention to topical content and transformative urban food system actions.

• ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability. 2021. City Practitioners Handbook: Circular Food Systems. Bonn, Germany. Available: https://circulars.iclei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ICLEI-Circulars-City-Practitioners-Handbook-Food.pdf
  This handbook is designed for local and regional governments working on the circular transition of their food system. In this handbook there are a number of resources for local practitioners to make use of to assist in their circular food system transition.

• Urban Food Actions Platform http://www.fao.org/urban-food-actions/en/
  This platform provides access to a comprehensive database of resources related to urban policies and programmes to achieve sustainable urban food systems. Global Database for City and Regional Food