AFSUN Policy Brief: Lusaka

With an urban population approaching 40%, Zambia is one
of the most urbanized countries in SADC. Lusaka, the capital
city of Zambia, is urbanizing rapidly and accounts for
approximately 32% of the country’s total urban population.
The city has grown considerably since 2000 when the census
recorded a population of just over one million. Most of this
growth has been informal in character, posing significant
problems of access to adequate social and physical services
for an increasing proportion of urban citizens. Under these
challenging conditions of urban growth and poor economic
performance, poverty and associated food insecurity are
important development challenges for Lusaka and Zambia as
a whole. The Urban Food Security Baseline Survey was
undertaken in the second half of 2008 to establish the levels
of food insecurity amongst poor urban households in the
city. Using a randomised approach, the survey deliberately
drew its sample of 400 households and 1,978 individuals
from lower socio-economic areas of the city. The findings
show that the urban poor in Lusaka are facing dire
circumstances of poverty and food and nutrition insecurity.