Urban Food Systems Resilience Under Climate Change Conditions - Algeria - Kenya - South Africa

Rapid urbanization and economic development of African cities may cause food insecurity and poor nutrition with severe health and development impacts. This challenge especially holds true for secondary cities and periurban areas: these are growing at the fastest rate and see strong transitions in food systems from rural and subsistence food systems to those targeted at more convenience oriented diets. At the same time, climate change and internationalized value chains challenge the production of food in the hinterlands of these cities, with impacts trickling down through the food system for urban food security and nutrition. Timely interventions based on a full understanding of the food system can help guide these food system transformations in directions that foster better and more sustained food security and nutrition in a context of climate change. Urban-FOSC project leverages partners in the Netherlands, France, Algeria, Kenya, and South Africa to assess urban food system transformations under climate change and increased production for international value chains. Using systems analysis and modelling, the project aims to co-design, with stakeholders in government, the private sector and civil society, possible interventions and governance processes that contribute to improved urban nutrition and a higher resilience of urban food systems to climate change.

My task will be to evaluate ex-ante potential changes operated by farmers in their farming systems under different plausible scenarios of climate changes. I intend to use a contingent behavior approach.