The report should take on board the issues concerning the Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition as outlined in the attached report recently released. In particular I should like to emphasise the contents of the article on the RtAFN in Africa by me and Davinder Lamba, which refers to urban agriculture, an aspect negelcted in the report so far.
Data cited on urban agriculture in Africa clearly show the importance of small-scale livestock production to food and nutrition security of the urban poor and women headed households in particular. Urban malnutrition is a growing problem due to the fact that many urban poor live in dense, unserviced slums. Obesity in these conditions is linked to lack of proper food due to its unaffordability and reliance on sugars and starches. Data show that keeping urban livestock may be a good strategy as improved food security and child health are linked to consumption of animal source foods (including milk and eggs and not just meat). Improved incomes are also linked to keeping urban livestock. Urban authourities need to put policies and plans in operation to permit and support urban livestock keeping, in order to address the right to adequate food and nutrition.
This is all in the article mentioned. I would like to add that, regarding policy improvements, Nairobi City County, which has an estimated 200,000 small household farmers within its boundaries, has just passed an Urban Agriculture Promotion and Regulation Act (27 August 2015), in confomity with the recognition of the right to food in Kenya's constitution of 2010 and Urban Areas and Cities Act of 2011.
Diana Lee-Smith