Food for the Cities: UN SCN

UNSCN draft Statement for the World Urban Forum 6 (WUF 6) - Nutrition Security of Urban Populations Needs Multisectoral Attention

Please send comments to the UN SCN secretariat ([email protected]) before 24 August 2012. A revised and endorsed version of the statement will be provided by 2 September 2012, prior to the WUF event.

Malnutrition and food insecurity in urban environments is becoming an increasingly important matter. In 2008 more than half of the world's population was living in cities for the first time in history, and it is expected that 60% of the world's population, almost 5 billion people, will be living in cities by 2030. By 2020 the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America will be home to approximately 75% of urban dwellers. Not only are the numbers growing; cities are increasingly becoming home to the world's poor. In 2002, approximately one third of people living in urban areas in developing countries were below the poverty line of $2/day, and 13% were living below the poverty line of $1/day. By 2020 it is expected that 85% of the poor in Latin America and about 40-45% of the poor in Africa and Asia will be concentrated in towns and cities. Additionally, one third of city dwellers live in slums, where there is limited access to income, employment and sanitation, all of which can result in food insecurity, poor nutritional status and high levels of disease morbidity.

Unlike rural residents, city dwellers have limited opportunities to grow their own food and thus must purchase their food. Disadvantaged urban households allocate an extremely high proportion of their disposable income to food, between 54 percent and 76 percent in Sub-Saharan capital cities. Since local food prices have increased in more than 38 developing countries since June 2010, the urban poor are particularly susceptible to food insecurity, subsequently working longer hours to increase income, and reducing food consumption and quality. Food aid is a short term solution to these problems, but governments must invest in sustainable strategies that target the poorest households. In Brazil, where 30% of the population faces daily food insecurity, the government implemented the world's largest conditional cash transfer programme, a school meal programme and a pillar to strengthen family agriculture, thus promoting food security.

Women in cities are more likely to work outside the home than rural women, which makes caring for children and optimal feeding practices difficult. Urban women tend to breastfeed two to three months less than rural women, leaving children poorly nourished and lacking immunity to disease. Additionally, violence against women, stress and subsequent mental health issues are not uncommon in urban areas, and studies show that stressed mothers can cease to lactate, potentially contributing to stunting. In fact, one quarter to one-third of urban children in low-income nations are stunted. In order to promote breastfeeding among urban women, the Philippines created the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009. The aim is to increase awareness of the advantages of breast milk by installing lactation stations at work, managing breast milk donations, and providing breastfeeding education.

While they continue to face undernutrition, cities are now experiencing a double burden of malnutrition with the additional presence of overnutrition and obesity, which is associated with noncommunicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. People who move to cities may have limited time for shopping and cooking, and therefore rely on processed and convenience foods, which are widely available in urban environments. This signifies less fiber, minerals and vitamins, and more sugar, salt and fat. These problems are only exacerbated by changes in the built environment that reduce levels of daily activity, such as mechanized transportation and little space for physical activity. In an attempt to manage unhealthy foods, the UK Department of Health made a commitment to reduce salt content of processed food by collaborating with all sectors of the food industry. In Aquitaine, France, the Program for Nutrition, Prevention and Health of Children and Adolescents aims to reduce childhood obesity by improving the availability of healthy food at school, implementing health promotion, and training health and education professionals on obesity prevention.

Fresh foods come mostly from rural areas, and as cities expand, so does the length of the rural-urban supply chain, causing food to travel over greater distances. This is challenging since fresh foods must be handled with care and in appropriate conditions to preserve quality and safety. In developing countries, almost 65 percent of losses happen at the production, post harvest and processing stages. The Save Food Initiative attempts to cut down on food losses by advocating for new technologies, better practices, coordination and investments in infrastructure. Such a campaign is important for cities that require enhanced rural-urban linkages to bring increasing quantities of good, healthy and affordable food to consumers.

As a result of this expanding urbanization and food supply chain, urban food deserts are becoming apparent. These are areas within city centres with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, causing people to rely on small grocery or convenience stores that are more expensive and lack all foods needed for a healthy diet. This forces them to either spend more time and money on transportation costs to access appropriate supermarkets, or to go without fresh healthy foods, increasing the risk of chronic disease. In the US, 23.5 million people live in food deserts, and more than half are low income. In the US, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, a partnership between the Treasury Department, Health and Human Services and the Agriculture Department (USDA), has created a food desert locator to identify the areas that need intervention, and is working to bring them more healthy food sources. Another way to confront food deserts is through zoning policies which can encourage the development of large grocery stores and farmers markets in underserved areas. Zoning can also be used to promote healthy nutrition by reducing the density of fast food restaurants in particular areas, such as around schools, and can promote food security by creating areas for urban and peri-urban food production.

Finally, with increased populations in urban areas there is increased vulnerability and risk of humanitarian crisis. Cities may be affected by natural disasters, climate change or political conflict, and can even be affected by disasters that occur elsewhere due to a high dependence on food produced elsewhere and the influx of refugees and Internally Displaced People. This further challenges the capacity of the city's infrastructure and economy to feed the fast growing population. It is important for governments to mobilize emergency responses in urban areas during disasters, and the existence of UPA could supplement emergency food aid.

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is a source of employment and income, has the potential to improve nutrition and food security in disadvantaged urban residents, and significantly contributes to the urban fresh food supply chain. Furthermore, UPA allows for saving on energy at various levels of the food chain including packaging, transport, storage and distribution that will affect the final retail price of the food commodities. UPA is still an informal sector that has yet to be integrated into urban planning, but should become a key component within national food security programmes, agricultural policy and development strategies.

Malnutrition in all its forms creates a burden on cities and national health systems as well as on the lives and wellbeing of humans. Both undernutrition and overnutrition are rooted in poverty, and are increasingly coinciding in the expanding urban environment. To tackle these issues, it is essential to ensure that healthy food choices in cities are accessible, affordable and safe. Capacity building and awareness within the public sector, the private sector and civil society can help to address these issues by promoting the right to adequate food, ultimately leading to health and nutrition for all.