The State of Food Insecurity in Johannesburg

This is part of a series of policy and research papers designed to raise the profile of the urban food security issue in Africa by presenting new research findings and policy recommendations.

Little is known about the extent of food insecurity in Southern African cities, making it difficult for development practitioners and policy makers to quantify the challenge and to pro-actively plan to reduce the urban food gap. In order to address this gap, the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN) undertook a baseline urban household food security survey in 11 SADC cities in 2008-9. The University of Witwatersrand’s School of Public Health (a member of AFSUN) undertook the survey in Johannesburg. The survey focused on trying to understand the prevalence of food insecurity and its relationship to poverty in the poorer areas of the city. Three contrasting sites were chosen in different parts of the city: Orange Farm, Alexandra and the inner-city area of Joubert Park. The three areas all have many poor and food insecure households but they also have different geographies, histories and socio-economic and demographic profiles.