Food Insecurity in Informal Settlements in Lilongwe, Malawi
2017
Although there is widespread food availability in urban areas across
the Global South, it is not correlated with universal access to adequate
amounts of nutritious foods. In Southern Africa, empirical research has
uncovered extensive food insecurity at the household scale in cities with
an abundance of food.1
An urban household food security baseline survey
was administered by AFSUN in 2008 in a peri-urban community
within the boundaries of Blantyre City which, due to its low population
density and distance from the city centre, included many agricultural
households.2 In many other Southern African cities, the AFSUN research
was conducted in informal settlements. As a result, Blantyre’s findings
appeared anomalous, with lower levels of food insecurity and much higher
rates of participation in urban agriculture. However, most of Malawi’s
urban poor households reside in high-density informal settlements and,
therefore, this type of urban environment needs to be surveyed to see if it
conforms to broader regional patterns.3
This report is based on a household survey conducted in six low-income
informal areas in Lilongwe, where three-quarters of the population live
in informal settlements.4
According to the former chief executive of
the Lilongwe City Council, “the rapid population growth rate [4% per
annum] is almost synonymous with the growth of informal settlements.”5
Understanding the dimensions of household food insecurity in these
neighbourhoods is critical to sustainable and inclusive growth in Malawi’s
capital city.
Region: Africa
Coverage: Malawi
Areas of focus: Sustainable diets and nutrition, Food supply and distribution