Food security and interventions: A glimpse at Windhoek’s informal settlements Hedwig Nelago Black A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Supervised by: Prof. Mary Scholes 22 May 2018, Johannesburg, South Africa I II Declaration University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences SENATE PLAGIARISM POLICY Declaration by student: I, Hedwig Black (Student number: 1101545) am a student registered for MSc by Dissertation (in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences) in the years 2016-2017. I hereby declare the following: e else’s work without their permission and/or acknowledging the original source) is wrong. School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences. he work submitted for assessment for my Dissertation is my own unaided work except where I have explicitly indicated otherwise. f the Witwatersrand may take disciplinary action against me if there is a belief that this is not my own unaided work or that I have failed to acknowledge the source of ideas or words in my writing. Signature: Date: ____22 May 2018_____________________ III Abstract Food security is becoming increasingly concerning, especially in light of the rapid growth in the world’s population; an issue which is forefront on the global agenda as seen in the newly developed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). This is especially evident within African countries where urbanisation is occurring at an alarming rate and urban food insecurity is increasingly becoming a problem. For much too long the urban crisis of food security has remained in the shadow of rural food insecurity; furthermore, the urban poor and vulnerable often carry the highest brunt of food insecurity within urban areas. In the past, much of Namibia’s food security interventions focused on the rural poor, but it’s been recognised that the urban poor are facing serious challenges in regards to reaching a food secure state. With global and local market prices increasing at an alarming rate, the state of the urban poor’s ability to access these markets need to be investigated, in order to facilitate a process that will lead to problem specific interventions. Household Food Insecurity Access surveys were conducted to assess the state of food security in informal settlements of Windhoek; furthermore dietary diversity and month of adequate food in households were also tested for. Results showed that food insecurity is high (more than 80% across all sites) amongst these households, dietary diversity low and coping strategies severe. Physical and financial access of households to markets were analysed, it was found that market access appears to be hindered mainly by lack of finance. Urban interventions were reviewed to give a scope of the current status amongst informal households in the city, which showed that context specific interventions are few and most unsustainable. This confirms the limited attention the urban poor receive with regards to food security and that much can be done to improve the situation if we are to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. Keywords: urban, food security, markets, food access, interventions. IV Acknowledgements I would first and foremost like to thank my supervisor Prof. Mary Scholes. It was due to her persistence and guidance that I was able to produce this dissertation. Thank you for all the new insight and pushing me beyond my level of knowledge. I would like to thank the NRF for their funding over the past two years; which has allowed me to complete this thesis. I would further like to thank Dr. Danny Simatele and Prof. Coleen Vogel for serving as my committee members and providing very valuable insight into my project. The biggest thanks go to my mom Adeline Black and my sisters Anneline Black, Kamutuua Black and Verona Black who have sacrificed much to see me through to this point in my life. Your love and encouragement has meant more to me that I can explain. Thank you for never giving up on me and for not letting me give up on myself. Furthermore a big thanks to all my friends and fiancé, Suhin Choudhury, for all the emotional support. For those that assisted me in the field, Alexander van Neel and Werner Verishao, you guys are the real champs for working long hours in the hot sun and for that you have my utmost gratitude. A big thank you goes to all the councilors’ constituency offices that provided me with so much aid during my project. To the Namibian Statistic Agency (NSA), a thank you is in order for their provision of data files used in this project. Lastly I would like to give a big thank you to my lab members; you have kept the sunshine in this long journey and always offered a shoulder to cry on when things got tough. V Table of contents Declaration................................................................................................................................... III Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ IV Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... V Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 Conceptual framework of the study ............................................................................................ 2 Figure 1. Conceptual framework of the study. ............................................................................ 4 Aims, objectives and key questions ............................................................................................ 5 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 6 2.1. Food security ........................................................................................................................ 6 2.1.1. Food security definitions, dimensions and concepts ..................................................... 6 2.1.2. A global outlook............................................................................................................. 9 2.1.3. Regional context (Africa) ............................................................................................. 12 2.1.4. Influence of changing climate on food security .......................................................... 13 2.1.5. Vulnerability and risk management ............................................................................. 17 2.3. Urban food security ............................................................................................................ 19 2.4. Economic forces and market influence .............................................................................. 20 2.4.1. Global economy ........................................................................................................... 20 2.4.2. Market influences ........................................................................................................ 21 2.5. Food security policies and institutions ............................................................................... 22 2.6. Interventions ....................................................................................................................... 24 2.7. Food security in Namibia ................................................................................................... 25 2.7.1 Food security interventions .......................................................................................... 27 2.7.2. Windhoek ..................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 3: Material and methods ............................................................................................. 29 VI 3.1. Study site ............................................................................................................................ 29 3.2. Sampling design ................................................................................................................. 31 Objective 1) 1)To assess accessibility of informal households to food and the coping mechanisms households employ to deal with possible food shortages. .................................... 32 The Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale (HFIAS) ................................................. 32 Household Food Insecurity Access Prevalence (HFIAP) ..................................................... 33 The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS).................................................................. 33 Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP) ............................................ 34 Share of Food on total household expenditure ...................................................................... 34 Objective 2) To assess physical accessibility to formal markets and to see the feasibility of informal markets as an alternative to formal markets. ............................................................. 35 Objective 3) To briefly review urban food security interventions of various institutions in, Namibia. .................................................................................................................................... 37 3.3. Data Analysis ....................................................................................................................