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Informal vendors are a critical source of food security for urban residents in African cities. However, the livelihoods of these traders, and the governance constraints they encounter, are not well-understood outside of the region's capital and primate cities. This study focuses on two distinct secondary cities in Nigeria, Calabar in the South-South geopolitical zone of the country and Minna in the Middle Belt region. Interviews were collected with local and state officials in each city on the legal, institutional, and oversight functions they provide within the informal food sector. This was complemented with a survey of approximately 1097 traders across the two cities to assess their demographic profile, contributions to food security, key challenges they face for profitability, engagement with government actors, and degree of access to services in the markets. The analysis highlights two main findings. First, informal traders report less harassment by government actors than has been observed in larger Nigerian cities. At the same time, however, the enabling environment is characterized by benign neglect whereby government-mandated oversight functions are not comprehensively implemented and service delivery gaps remain a major hindrance to food safety. Second, there are important differences in the needs of traders across cities, suggesting that policies focused on food safety and improving the livelihoods of this constituency more broadly need to be properly nuanced even at the subnational level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex dynamics of the informal food sector in urban Africa are poorly understood. Urban informal food systems are beginning to receive attention from scholars and policymakers, but the notable absence of detailed empirical information and necessary theoretical engagement with their emergence, structure, and operation has thus far limited efforts to understand the central role that they play in urban development processes. This Special Issue brings together a diverse collection of case studies from seven countries across the Global South—China, Jamaica, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda—to explore these dynamics by placing Africa's urban informal food sector in comparative international context. This introduction provides an overview of how this Special Issue contributes to debates about the origins of informal food economies in cities in the Global South, the potential of the informal food sector to contribute to inclusive urban development, the relationship between informal food vendors and the state, and interactions between formal and informal food systems, all of which have important implications for theorizing urban governance and development in Africa and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, the informal sector, including food vending, is either criminalized or ignored. This is despite the fact that it plays an important role in the economy in terms of employment, income generation, food distribution and livelihoods for the urban poor. This paper assesses the nature, operations, strategies and challenges of the informal food sector in Cape Town. Data was collected through a survey of over 1000 informal food vendors in the city. Most of the enterprises were single-owner businesses, financed from personal savings and started by owners seeking employment, independence and improved financial security for their families. Most businesses had little or no access to finance from government agencies, banks and micro-finance lenders. Entrepreneurs faced various challenges ranging from insufficient sales, competition, changing consumer food needs and rising stock prices. To survive in a challenging economic environment, they adopt various innovative strategies including changing the types of foods they sell, increasing food stock variety, monitoring formal food retailing prices and negotiating with suppliers for favourable stock prices. Despite the various challenges being experienced, the informal food sector has become an integral and indispensable component of the food system of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on urban food systems has focused on supermarket expansion and their ability to reach urban consumers. However, the current pace of urbanisation and rising urban poverty has been accompanied by a major upsurge in informality and a growing role for the informal food sector. One of the persistent arguments in the supermarkets literature is that the expansion of modern retail undermines the informal food sector. Critics of this argument suggest that there are two conditions under which this may not occur: first, when there is spatial differentiation with supermarkets servicing higher income areas and the informal sector targeting low-income areas. And second, when there is market segmentation when the formal and informal sectors focus on the sale of different product types. This paper examines the case of Windhoek, Namibia, which has undergone a major supermarket revolution in the last two decades. It suggests that the informal food sector is vibrant and growing but that neither explanation fully accounts for its resilience and survival. Instead, by examining the strategies of vendors, it suggests the concept of cohabitation as an alternative explanation. Cohabitation may be a pertinent factor in other supermarket cities as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]