Using the Systems approach to understand the causes and dynamics of urban food insecurity: a case study of Chitungwiza Zimbabwe

Abstract

Food security research and policy have focused more on the rural poor where the incidence and depth of poverty is more pronounced. However the number of people living in urban areas is increasing and so is the number of the urban poor. Food security is thus an increasingly urban concern. Urban livelihoods are based on a cash income that is vulnerable to socio-economic and political changes. The study used a systems approach to assess the causes and dynamics of the food crisis which include droughts, economic decline and policies such as the Land reform programme and Operation Clean Up. The approach acknowledges that there is need to define the structural, historical and institutional factors that exist in the macro scale in order to understand the household (micro level). To get a better understanding of how households vary and relate to each other the livelihoods analysis was used. Using the systems approach facilitates development that has significant sustainable impacts on poverty reduction. Three main findings of the study are that firstly, poor urban households adopt multiple livelihood strategies for them to survive. Secondly, the results document that there are peculiar urban dynamics that make it difficult to separate food security, HIV/AIDS and urban poverty. Lastly the Millennium Development Goals are unlikely to be realised if the drivers and conditions of urban poverty, are not resolved. If such factors are not addressed it will be difficult to meet the food security targets set for 2015. This research seeks to improve the understanding of urban households short and long term livelihood strategies in the context of wider social, political and economic changes. This can also enable sustainability of policies aimed at supporting poor urban people¿s efforts to develop their assets and capabilities