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Food Security in African Cities - The Role of Food Supply and Distribution Systems

Food supply and distribution in francophone African Towns

Year of publication 1997

Author Martine Padilla;Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 9252042059

Series title Food Into Cities Collection

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) This paper examines the relationship between food security and the Food Supply and Distribution Systems (FSDS) in Francophone African towns, against the background of a steeply rising urban demand, in a fluctuating social and economic environment. It also provides input for the preparation of policies to develop urban FSDS to improve the food security of the people in the countries of Africa undergoing economic stabilization programmes. Looking back and at different countries one can see t hat FSDS are highly dependent on the concept of general policy, which itself swings according to convictions currently in vogue. FSDS can only be viewed in terms of social objectives, which are an essential prerequisite to defining policy. After reviewing the major challenges facing urban Africa today and tomorrow, the paper examines the particular context of the structural adjustment programmes and their impacts on different constituent elements of food security: meeting need in terms of quantity and quality, access and risk. This is followed by a consideration of the political options for the future: should priority go to supplying the towns, using national, regional or international resources? What role should government and the institutions, including the financial institutions, play? How can employment be fostered, and under what conditions? How should the information needed to ensure the proper operation of a free market system be managed? A number of indispensable issues b efore defining FSDS development policies are then developed: clear objectives must be pursued by government, a methodological framework adopted with a ulti-disciplinary focus, a food security monitoring system instituted, and the policies adopted must be evaluated.

Language English

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    The issue of supplying food to African towns will remain a major challenge in the coming years in view of the steep urban growth, the small increase in extensive agricultural production and the risks of bottlenecks in the supply and distribution circuits. Yet it is very difficult to summarize this issue for French-speaking Africa. The situations vary widely and are reversible. Information systems are rather unreliable. Any analysis of supplies to Sub-Saharan African towns ra ises problems for the inquirer in terms of measurement, the scale of the phenomena being investigated and the time scale.
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    This study is an overview intended to help develop an approach to food supply and distribution systems (FSDSs) focusing on the consumer as autonomous actor. Following a brief discussion of the lack of attention to African urban consumers in policies, programmes and research on African FSDSs, Chapter 1 offers an analytical framework that takes into account the variety of cultural, sociological and economic affecting the urban consumer in French-speaking West Africa. In Chapter 2, the consumer is considered in relation to some features of households and consumption models. Factors governing the shopping behaviour of the various urban social categories are then reviewed in Chapter 3: on the one hand, factors related to physical availability and financial accessibility of food and, on the other,those bound up with relations between consumers and traders. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to discussing the impact of urban consumer behaviour on FSDSs, as well as likely future changes in urban life and their effects on the attitudes of the urban population. The concluding chapter deals with four aspects of the issue: improving knowledge of consumers as actors, strengthening consumer associations, the need for hygiene and nutrition education for consumers and traders and improving state quality control services.
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