Download or read book Rapid Urbanization, Spatial Complexity, and Urban Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa written by Jordan Paul Blekking and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two significant and interrelated challenges loom for sub-Saharan African (SSA) policymakers: widespread food insecurity and rapid urbanization. Regional rates of moderate and severe food insecurity have increased since 2014. Compounding this problem is urbanization - the urban population of SSA is expected to increase by nearly 800 million people by 2050. Rapid urban growth can strain urban food systems and challenge their ability to equitably meet the food security needs of a growing population. In my dissertation I examine how urbanization trends variably contribute to food security across space at the household- and food systems level. In the first chapter of my dissertation, I investigate the methodological challenges associated with measuring urban food security. I identify why the spatial dimensions of urban food security are critical for understanding urban food security, and how spatial dimensions of food security influence food-related behaviors. In the second chapter I provide an overview of food systems research in SSA, detailing how urbanization and climate change individually and jointly affect food production, distribution, and consumption. I then describe the pathways through which climate change and urbanization impact food retailers in SSA. In the third chapter I expand on the notion that evaluating the development of retailers over space and time is critical to improving our understanding of urban food security and food systems. I compare the growth of the supermarket sector with the development of public markets in Lusaka, Zambia, from 2004 to 2020. I find that supermarkets have substantially increased during the study period, while public markets have increased less. Fewer supermarkets are developed in high-density residential areas, where low-income households reside. As a result, the continual development of supermarkets without parallel development of public markets will likely not ameliorate food access inequalities in Lusaka.