IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i21p5999-d281167.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food Security and Dietary Quality in African Slums

Author

Listed:
  • Rosina Wanyama

    (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Goettingen, Platz der Goettinger Sieben 5, 37073 Goettingen, Germany)

  • Theda Gödecke

    (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Goettingen, Platz der Goettinger Sieben 5, 37073 Goettingen, Germany)

  • Matin Qaim

    (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Goettingen, Platz der Goettinger Sieben 5, 37073 Goettingen, Germany)

Abstract

More than half of Africa’s urban population lives in slums. Little is known about their nutritional situation, as slums are often underrepresented in standard surveys. This study analyzes issues of food security and dietary quality in East African slums using household-level and individual-level data collected in Nairobi and Kampala. The household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS) is used as a subjective measure of food security. Moreover, calorie availability and different dietary diversity scores are calculated based on 7-day food consumption recalls at the household level and 24-h dietary recalls at the individual level. The large majority of the slum households are food insecure and suffer from low dietary quality. Rates of undernourishment are considerably higher than what country-level statistics report, suggesting that slum dwellers deserve more explicit attention in initiatives to improve nutrition. Household-level indicators are significantly correlated with individual-level indicators for women and children. This means that household-level data, which are easier to collect, can proxy for individual nutrition up to a certain extent when individual-level data are unavailable. Regression models show that household income is one of the main factors explaining dietary patterns. Hence, facilitating access to lucrative employment is an important entry point for improving nutrition in slums.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosina Wanyama & Theda Gödecke & Matin Qaim, 2019. "Food Security and Dietary Quality in African Slums," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-17, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:21:p:5999-:d:281167
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/21/5999/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/21/5999/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kibrom T. Sibhatu & Matin Qaim, 2018. "Farm production diversity and dietary quality: linkages and measurement issues," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(1), pages 47-59, February.
    2. de Haen, Hartwig & Klasen, Stephan & Qaim, Matin, 2011. "What do we really know? Metrics for food insecurity and undernutrition," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 760-769.
    3. S. Sharaunga & M. Mudhara & A. Bogale, 2016. "Effects of ‘women empowerment’ on household food security in rural KwaZulu-Natal province," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(2), pages 223-252, March.
    4. Tiwari, Sailesh & Skoufias, Emmanuel & Sherpa, Maya, 2013. "Shorter, cheaper, quicker, better : linking measures of household food security to nutritional outcomes in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Uganda, and Tanzania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6584, The World Bank.
    5. Derek D. Headey, 2013. "The Impact of the Global Food Crisis on Self-Assessed Food Security," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 27(1), pages 1-27.
    6. Rosina Wanyama & Theda Gödecke & Christine G. K. Chege & Matin Qaim, 2019. "How important are supermarkets for the diets of the urban poor in Africa?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(6), pages 1339-1353, December.
    7. Dorothee Bühler & Rebecca Hartje & Ulrike Grote, 2018. "Matching food security and malnutrition indicators: evidence from Southeast Asia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(4), pages 481-495, July.
    8. Meredith J. Greif & F. Nii-Amoo Dodoo & Anuja Jayaraman, 2011. "Urbanisation, Poverty and Sexual Behaviour," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(5), pages 947-957, April.
    9. FAYE Ousmane & BASCHIERI Angela & FALKINGHAM Jane & MUINDI Kanyiva, 2010. "Hunger and Food Insecurity in Nairobi's Slums: An assessment using IRT models'," LISER Working Paper Series 2010-33, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    10. Zezza, Alberto & Carletto, Calogero & Fiedler, John L. & Gennari, Pietro & Jolliffe, Dean, 2017. "Food counts. Measuring food consumption and expenditures in household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES). Introduction to the special issue," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-6.
    11. Headey, Derek D. & Ecker, Olivier, 2012. "Improving the measurement of food security:," IFPRI discussion papers 1225, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Zezza, Alberto & Carletto, Gero & Fiedler, John L & Gennari, Pietro & Jolliffe, Dean M, 2017. "Food Counts. Measuring Food Consumption And Expenditures In Household Consumption And Expenditure Surveys (HCES)," 2017 International Congress, August 28-September 1, 2017, Parma, Italy 260886, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Haruna Sekabira & Shamim Nalunga & Yves Didier Umwungerimwiza & Lydia Nazziwa & Stanley Peter Ddungu, 2021. "Household Farm Production Diversity and Micronutrient Intake: Where Are the Linkages? Panel Data Evidence from Uganda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-21, April.
    2. MacTavish, Robert & Bixby, Honor & Cavanaugh, Alicia & Agyei-Mensah, Samuel & Bawah, Ayaga & Owusu, George & Ezzati, Majid & Arku, Raphael & Robinson, Brian & Schmidt, Alexandra M. & Baumgartner, Jill, 2023. "Identifying deprived “slum” neighbourhoods in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area of Ghana using census and remote sensing data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    3. Christine G. Kiria Chege & Rosina Wanyama & Mark Lundy & Wilson Nguru & Matthias Jäger, 2021. "Does Retail Food Diversity in Urban Food Environments Influence Consumer Diets?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Haruna Sekabira & Shamim Nalunga, 2020. "Farm Production Diversity: Is It Important for Dietary Diversity? Panel Data Evidence from Uganda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-21, January.
    5. Sekabira, Haruna & Nalunga, Shamim & Umwungerimwiza, Yves Didier & Nazziwa, Lydia & Ddungu, Stanley Peter, 2021. "Household Farm Production Diversity and Micronutrient Intake: Where Are the Linkages? Panel Data Evidence from Uganda," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315013, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Hang Ren & Wei Guo & Zhenke Zhang & Leonard Musyoka Kisovi & Priyanko Das, 2020. "Population Density and Spatial Patterns of Informal Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-14, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chrisendo, Daniel & Krishna, Vijesh V. & Siregar, Hermanto & Qaim, Matin, 2020. "Land-use change, nutrition, and gender roles in Indonesian farm households," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    2. Rosina Wanyama & Theda Gödecke & Christine G. K. Chege & Matin Qaim, 2019. "How important are supermarkets for the diets of the urban poor in Africa?," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(6), pages 1339-1353, December.
    3. Ameye, Hannah & De Weerdt, Joachim & Gibson, John, 2021. "Measuring macro- and micronutrient consumption in multi-purpose surveys: Evidence from a survey experiment in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    4. Hannah Ameye & Joachim De Weerdt & John Gibson, 2020. "Measuring Macro- and Micronutrient Intake in Multi-Purpose Surveys: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania," LICOS Discussion Papers 42120, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.
    5. Sylvester Ochieng Ogutu & Theda Gödecke & Matin Qaim, 2020. "Agricultural Commercialisation and Nutrition in Smallholder Farm Households," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(2), pages 534-555, June.
    6. Hossain, Marup & Mullally, Conner & Asadullah, M Niaz, 2016. "Measuring household food security in a low income country: A comparative analysis of self-reported and objective indicators," 2016 Annual Meeting, February 6-9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas 230101, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    7. Maurice Mutisya & Moses W. Ngware & Caroline W. Kabiru & Ngianga-bakwin Kandala, 2016. "The effect of education on household food security in two informal urban settlements in Kenya: a longitudinal analysis," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 743-756, August.
    8. Robert Bumbac, 2019. "The European Food Market €“ Increased Consumer Preference Towards Convenience And Healthy Food," Junior Scientific Researcher, SC Research Publishing SRL, vol. 5(2), pages 53-61, November.
    9. Bühler, Dorothee & Hartje, Rebecca & Ulrike Grote, 2017. "Can household food security predict individual undernutrition? Evidence from Cambodia and Lao PDR," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-594, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    10. Andi Syah Putra & Guangji Tong & Didit Okta Pribadi, 2020. "Spatial Analysis of Socio-Economic Driving Factors of Food Expenditure Variation between Provinces in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, February.
    11. Sandoval, Luis & Carpio, Carlos E, 2017. "Measuring Prevalence, Profiling and Evaluating the Potential of Policy Impacts using Two Food Security Indicators in Guatemala," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252715, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    12. John Kamau Gathiaka & Moses Kinyanjui Muriithi, 2017. "An Empirical Analysis of Livelihood Strategies and Food Insecurity in Turkana County, Kenya," Working Papers 338, African Economic Research Consortium, Research Department.
    13. Joachim De Weerdt & Kathleen Beegle & Jed Friedman & John Gibson, 2016. "The Challenge of Measuring Hunger through Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(4), pages 727-758.
    14. Kabunga, Nassul Ssentamu & Ghosh, Shibani & Griffiths, Jeffrey K., 2014. "Can smallholder fruit and vegetable production systems improve household food security and nutritional status of women? Evidence from rural Uganda:," IFPRI discussion papers 1346, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano, 2014. "On the composite indicators for food security: Decisions matter!," MPRA Paper 58955, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Pape,Utz Johann & Wollburg,Philip Randolph, 2019. "Estimation of Poverty in Somalia Using Innovative Methodologies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8735, The World Bank.
    17. Emily Schmidt & Paul Dorosh & Rachel Gilbert, 2021. "Impacts of COVID‐19 induced income and rice price shocks on household welfare in Papua New Guinea: Household model estimates," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(3), pages 391-406, May.
    18. Wollburg, Philip & Tiberti, Marco & Zezza, Alberto, 2021. "Recall length and measurement error in agricultural surveys," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    19. Choudhury, Samira & Headey, Derek D., 2016. "What drives diversification of national food supplies? A cross-country analysis," IFPRI discussion papers 1581, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    20. Evita Pangaribowo & Nicolas Gerber & Maximo Torero, 2013. "Food and Nutrition Security Indicators: A Review," FOODSECURE Working papers 5, LEI Wageningen UR.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    diets; food security; slums; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:21:p:5999-:d:281167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.