- Natural Resources Institute – University of Greenwich UK
- World Vegetable Center – Tanzania, Thailand
- WorldFish - Malaysia
- Ms Lydia O’Meara – PhD Candidate
- Dr Julia de Bruyn
- Dr Kendra Byrd
- Dr Jody Harris
- Assoc Prof Paula Dominguez-Salas
4. What changes are needed in urban planning to better support all dimensions of food security – including support for human rights, agency and sustainability? Which are some of the measures that can strengthen the agency of local actors in urban and peri-urban food systems?
7. How can urban and peri-urban food systems ensure that food and nutrition needs of specific groups of people, such as migrants, the internally-displaced, children, adolescent, etc., are met?
Response: This is a timely topic. Please find below examples and references of key leverage points for improving urban food systems, with a focus on increasing access to nutrient-rich foods recommended for both human and planetary health (e.g., fish and aquatic foods) for nutritionally vulnerable groups. Examples are given for both external (built) food environments and personal (individual) environments.
To improve the micronutrient adequacy and diet quality of urban populations, it is important to improve, and scale:
- Safe and affordable food preservation and packaging methods for highly perishable, yet often the most nutritious foods, such as animal source foods (including fish), fruits and vegetables.Examples are given for fish and aquatic foods.
- Technology for fish smoking in West Africa. Smoked fish is a nutritious and largely safe food (Byrd et al, in preparation) important to diets in Western Africa and the Eastern Africa Great Lakes Region (de Bruyn et al, 2021), but smoke inhalation among the processors and their families can lead to excess morbidity (Weyant et al, 2022). Improved technology for fish smoking that both reduces fish waste and loss and to improve the health of the fish processors is available but has yet to be scaled (Akintola and Fakoya, 2017). The fish processors also need access to financing to purchase new tools (such as improved fish smokers) and to invest in small enterprises, making them resilient to external market forces and securing this aspect of the fisheries value chain for generations to come.
- Extending the value chains / reach of small, dried fish products within the Eastern African Great Lakes Region could help improve the diet quality of children that live close to urban markets (e.g. those that live far from lakes and rivers) (O’Meara et al., 2021a, Byrd et al, 2021).
- Ongoing spatial analysis of GIS-tagged nationally representative secondary data (e.g. Demographic and Health Surveys, Global Lakes and Wetlands Database, SWOT — Surface Water and Ocean Topography database, Accessibility to Cities databases) sources could provide affordable methods for monitoring and evaluating supply chain access to nutritious foods such as fish from capture fisheries (O’Meara et al., 2021a).
Physical access to food sources:
- Many urban populations, especially the most marginalised (i.e. poorest living in slums) are often limited to accessing food sources that are within walking distance – due to constraints in the availability, affordability and suitability of public transport, and time and convenience of travel to more distant food sources. These barriers may be exacerbated for older people, those with disability, or those with children. Therefore, urban planning needs to prioritise decentralisation of urban wet markets / farmers markets and improvement of urban walkability (O’Meara et al 2021b; O’Meara(b) et al. in preparation). This would also make food environments more resilient in the face of future health crises such as epidemics.
Delivery of social protection programmes
- Uneven delivery of services / poor implementation (e.g. weaknesses in delivery of existing social protection programmes, logistical barriers for marginalized groups such as elderly, migrants, and those under house quarantine in accessing government cash assistance) is a strong barrier to achieving food security for marginalised groups, especially during emergency responses; therefore, adequate monitoring and evaluation is critical to inform improvement of policy roll-out to (i) build foundational resilience before emergencies, and (ii) enhance effectiveness of acute responses (O’Meara(b) et al, in preparation).
Regarding the scope – it would be nice to see this report extend beyond the built environment (e.g. availability, development of preservation methods for nutrient-dense foods/extension of supply chains, walkability of cities, proximity of markets) to also many of the personal food environment dimensions that mitigate the ability of individuals to interact with and procure healthy food from the external food environment, such as physical accessibility (transport access, disability, age, caregiving responsibilities, time, housing affordability/residential location), financial accessibility (e.g. women’s financial autonomy, livelihoods for vulnerable groups), and positive resilient community behaviours (e.g. social support/networks)
To make food systems more resilient to shocks – urban planning should also focus on strengthening personal food environment dimensions, alongside improving healthfulness of the external built environment.
Foster social capital / support and networks:
- During Covid-19 mobility restrictions, studies highlight the importance of strong social support / networks for food security, especially for women and other marginalised groups. Therefore, urban planning should prioritise policies that strengthen urban community connections, and development and maintenance of strong social networks such as safe community meeting places and support for self-help groups (O’Meara et al 2021b; O’Meara(b) et al. in preparation).
Enhance personal agency
- Women’s personal agency is a strong determinant of a woman’s ability to procure sufficient healthy food (O’Meara(a) et al, in preparation; Hope et al, in preparation). Constraints on women’s financial autonomy and women’s time use are strong barriers to dietary adequacy. Therefore, it is important that policies: (i) devise equitable strategies to enhance food security for women, including financial empowerment strategies; and (ii) monitor and evaluate short and long-term effects of urban planning on women’s personal agency indicators at multiple levels (e.g. women’s financial autonomy and physical mobility), alongside women’s nutrition and health outcomes.
References:
Akintola, S. L. & Fakoya, K. A. Small-scale fisheries in the context of traditional post-harvest practice
and the quest for food and nutritional security in Nigeria. Agric. Food Secur. 6, 1–17 (2017).
Byrd, K. A., Pincus, L., Pasqualino, M. M., Muzofa, F. & Cole, S. M. Dried small fish provide nutrient
densities important for the first 1000 days. Matern. Child Nutr. e13192 (2021) doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.13192.
de Bruyn J, Wesana J, Bunting SW, Thilsted SH, Cohen PJ. Fish Acquisition and Consumption in the African Great Lakes Region through a Food Environment Lens: A Scoping Review. Nutrients. 2021; 13(7):2408. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu1307240
O’Meara, L., Cohen, P.J., Simmance, F., Marinda, P., Nagoli, J., Teoh, S.J., Funge-Smith, S., Mills, D., Thilsted, S., Byrd, K. (2021a) Inland fisheries critical for the diet quality of young children in sub-Saharan Africa, Global Food Security, 28, 100483, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100483.
O’Meara, L., Turner, C., Coitinho, D.C., Oenema, S. (2021b) Consumer experiences of food environments during the Covid-19 pandemic: Global insights from a rapid online survey of individuals from 119 countries, Global Food Security, 100594, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100594.
O’Meara, L., de Bruyn, J., Dominguez-Salas, P., Turner, C., Hope, T., Wellard, K., Stoynova, M., Ferguson, E. (2022) Characteristics of food environments that influence food acquisition and diets of women in low-and middle-income countries: a scoping review protocol (JBI Evidence Synthesis JBIES-21-00482).
Hope, T.; O'Meara, L.; Ohl, M.; O'Mullan, C. (2022) The impact of women's empowerment in food systems on women's dietary diversity in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis (protocol). PROSPERO 2022 CRD42022298612 Available from: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42022298612
Weyant, C. L. et al. Occupational Exposure and Health in the Informal Sector: Fish Smoking in Coastal Ghana. Environ. Health Perspect. 130, (2022).
In preparation:
Byrd, K., Li, H., Fakoya, K. & Fiorella, K. Fresh large fish are commonly consumed among women in
Nigeria, but dried small fish are the richest in iron, zinc, calcium, and vitamin B-12.
O’Meara(b), L.; Sison, C; Isarabhakdi, P.; Turner, C.; Harris, J. (in preparation). ‘Whatever we have is what we eat’ the lived experience of the COVID-19 pandemic on food environments and diets of marginalised urban groups in the Philippines and Thailand.
Hope, T.; O'Meara, L.; O'Mullan, C. (in preparation) The impact of women's empowerment in food systems on women's dietary diversity in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review.
Sra. Lydia O'Meara