Migration and urban food accessibility in Mumbwa, a tertiary city of Zambia

ABSTRACT

Urbanization is occurring across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), both from migration and natural growth, and often without urban planning, which can hamper the ability of households to obtain affordable, accessible food. Through stratified random sampling, we collected data from 135 households in Mumbwa, Zambia, to examine the relationship between migration and food accessibility in a small tertiary city. We investigate the relationship between socio-economic characteristics and food access of households that migrated or were more established in Mumbwa, and the spatial characteristics of food access. We find recent migrant households have significantly better food access than non-migrant households and those that migrated earlier. Results from a negative binomial regression suggest that recent migrant households tend to have better existing household wealth, labor assets, and smaller household size. Using spatial analysis we identify a cluster of households with lower food accessibility in an unplanned area of the city with limited basic services. We find non-migrant and migrant households in this cluster, which suggests informal settlements in this size city are settled by both household types alike. These results illustrate the challenge policymakers face in addressing urban food accessibility for all residents, due to the spatial, economic, and social heterogeneity of the phenomenon.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban food security
• food access
• migration
• Zambia
• sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Marksman Foloko, Brenda Kaniini, and Glenda Mweni for their assistance during data collection efforts. We would also like to thank the Mumbwa City Council Planning Department for their help in identifying areas to survey and answering our numerous questions. Most importantly, we wish to thank the respondents who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jordan Blekking

Jordan Blekking is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at Indiana University. His research interests lie within human environmental interactions and governance of food systems; specifically, Jordan studies urban food systems and food security in Southern Africa and how governance of informal food suppliers affects household food access. Previously, Jordan served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia for nearly three and a half years.

Kurt B. Waldman

Kurt B. Waldman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Indiana University. His research applies behavioral economics and decision science to understand socioenvironmental problems. His areas of interest include perceptions, judgment and decision making related to environmental change and agricultural sustainability.

Sara Lopus

Sara Lopus is an assistant professor in Cal Poly’s Department of Social Sciences. A demographer by training, she studies factors that influence decisions across the life course such as when and whom to marry, whether to migrate, and how much to invest in co-residing children. In addition to her work as a family scholar, she also performs research at the intersection of population, environment, and agriculture. Sara has extensive experience conducting fieldwork in East Africa, particularly in rural Mozambique.

Stacey Giroux

Stacey Giroux is an associate research scientist at Indiana University, where she is part of an interdisciplinary research team focused on sustainable food systems dynamics. Current research projects include cross-cultural investigations of farmer adaptation to climate change, social networks and food provisioning, and urban food security in sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Florida, with an emphasis in research methods.