Development planning for urban food and nutrition security: The need for ‘food sensitive’ planning in the City of Cape Town (CoCT)

Abstract

Food security along with poverty is often framed as a rural challenge requiring interventions on agricultural production to ensure that food is available for the country‟s households. This framing effectively neglects urban food and nutrition security and thus exonerates municipalities from following up on their responsibilities as enshrined in RSA constitution. With over 30% of South Africa‟s severely hungry population residing in the City of Cape Town, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni it is surprising to see that municipalities are yet to include „food-sensitive‟ policies in their development planning. The study‟s focus on urban planning, food policy governance and urban food systems importantly makes the case for distinct urban planning by municipalities, which will efficiently enable local authorities to better regulate and govern food systems within metropolitan areas. Thus, ensuring that food is not just available, but is also accessible to all people and is of adequate nutritional value. This study investigates and explores urban food security strategies like Urban Agriculture, which are excised by City of Cape Town urban planners to deal with the developmental challenge of urban food and nutrition insecurity. With the use of comprehensive desktop research on CoCT food related policies, this research is able to ascertain how food and nutrition of urban dwellers is understood and thus championed by development planners in the City.