Climate Change and Food Security in Southern African Cities

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.

This paper explores the links between climate change and food security within the context of the urban transition taking place in Southern Africa. Researchers, planners and policymakers in Southern African cities are already focusing on the impacts of increasingly severe changes in weather associated with climate change. Key issues include how climate science knowledge is used at the level of the city and how the impacts of climate change might affect city functioning at the metropolitan and household scales. What has not been addressed in any detail is the extent to which climate change will affect the food security of the city and its inhabitants, especially within the context of high levels of poverty and widespread food and nutrition insecurity. It is therefore important to understand the linkages between climate change and food security in Southern African cities so that policies and practices can start to ameliorate the negative impacts
through pro-active – rather than reactive –planning and programming.