The urban population in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) is expected to expand rapidly from 376 million people in 2015 to more than 1.25 billion people by 2050. Measuring and ensuring food security among urban households will become an increasingly pertinent task for development researchers and practitioners. In this paper we characterize food security among a sample of low- and middle-income residents of Accra, Ghana, using 2017 survey data. We find that households tend to purchase food from traditional markets, local stalls and kiosks, and street hawkers, and rarely from modern supermarkets. We characterize food security using three established metrics: the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS); the Household Food Insecurity Access Prevalence (HFIAP); and the Food Consumption Score (FCS). We then estimate the determinants of food security using general linear models. The food security metrics are not strongly correlated. For example, according to HFIAP, as many as 70 percent of households sampled are food insecure, but only 2 percent fall below acceptable thresholds measured by FCS. Model results show that household education, assets, and dwelling characteristics are significantly associated with food security according to HFIAS and HFIAP, but not with FCS. The poor correlation and weak model agreement between the dietary recall metric, FCS, and the experience-based metrics, HFIAS and HFIAP, call for closer attention to measurement of urban food security. Given Africa’s urban future, our findings highlight the need for an urban-oriented comprehensive approach to the food security of urban households.

This report examines the nature of urban poverty and how it relates to food in-security and malnutrition in Accra, Ghana. By exploring the major determinants of food security and nutritional status, it develops indicators that are appropriate in an urban context, identifies vulnerable groups within the city, and suggests policies and programs to improve the lives of the urban poor. (Adapté du résumé).

Food insecurity remains a serious challenge amid the increasing population, especially in developing countries. Unravelling the determinants of food insecurity will contribute to policy aimed at addressing this menace. The study contributes to addressing SDG goal 2 of zero hunger in Ghana by examining the factors responsible for insecurity and how it can be tackled through policy. The purpose of this research is to examine the determinants of food security across the regions of Ghana. The study employed the Ghana living standard survey (GLSS 7) data. Households' food security was measured using a food consumption score (FCS). The partial proportional odds model (PPO) was employed to analyse the drivers of household food security in Ghana due to the categorical nature of the dependent variable. The results show that being a male, engaging in farming or non-farm employment, and living in rural areas decrease the household's chances of falling into food poverty. However, larger household sizes, as well as increased education raise the odds of falling into consumption poverty at the household level. The study, therefore, concluded that households in Ghana are poor food consumption resulting from several factors amongst other are; education level, employment status, engagement in farming, and the location of the household. Policies that ensure food availability in both urban and rural communities which will improve resilience and improve household food and nutrition security should be a priority to facilitate the country's achievement of the sustainable development goals.

Implications for policy include the need to engage urban planners when designing food policy. Tailoring food programs for urban areas of the developing world such as Accra would be a wise and worthwhile strategy for decision makers, at a time when most of the world is urbanized and when pressure on agricultural resources is intensified.

This study provides an assessment of changes in household income, livelihood sources, food consumption, and diet quality during the first months of the COVID-19 crisis in a sample of households drawn from both urban and rural areas in Ghana. Phone surveys were conducted in June 2020 with 423 urban consumers in Accra and with 369 small-scale crop and fish farmers in rural areas in six regions in middle and southern Ghana. Data was disaggregated by asset quintiles for both the urban and the rural samples. Reduction in incomes were reported by 83 percent of urban households in Accra, mainly due to business closures and lower sales from their trading enterprises. Most households, however, are showing resilience in terms of food consumption, with a majority of urban consumers surveyed maintaining their pre-COVID-19 level of food consumption; only 9 percent of urban consumers reported reductions in food consumption to cope with income loss due to COVID-19. For the respondents in the rural areas in middle and southern Ghana, 76 percent reported income loss, and all reported that their livelihoods had been affected. Thirty-four percent of 2020 minor season crop farmers experienced difficulty in selling their produce, and 43 percent of all sample crop farmers anticipated difficulties in accessing inputs in the 2020 major season, mainly fertilizers and agrochemicals. Of those growing fish, 53 percent experienced difficulty in accessing inputs, mainly feeds; 60 percent reported increased input prices; and 64 percent of those harvesting from March to June 2020 experienced difficulties in selling their fish because of lower demand, lower tilapia prices, and higher transportation costs. Despite farm and nonfarm income losses, a majority of households in the rural sample reported maintaining previous levels of diet diversity and food consumption - only 11 percent reported reducing their food consumption to cope with income loss. Several months into the COVID-19 crisis in Ghana, households in both rural and urban areas showed some resilience in terms of their agricultural production and food consumption. Regular monitoring is needed, however, especially if household savings start to dry up and coping mechanisms become more restrictive.

Existing food insecurity, associated lack of balanced diet and risk of malnutrition in the urban setting specifically among the urban poor is multifaceted and has a complex relationship. Economic factors such as poverty, sources of meals, cultural factors such as taboos and preference to some types of food, food production, and food access are some of the factors that account for the unbalanced diet in the developing world. Even though the urban population have experienced high rates of poverty, financial constrains that limits their access to foods, food security have been examined mainly with reference to rural population giving little attention to the urban poor. This study focuses on the relationship between dietary diversity and household demographic and socio-economic characteristics among the urban poor households in Accra, Ghana.This association may not be causal but can be significant predictors of dietary diversity.

Includes papers and case studies presented at a FAO workshop held in Rome, Italy from 8 to 10 October 2003