Urban household food security in China and Mozambique: a gender-based comparative approach

ABSTRACT

International comparison of development indicators is a perennial challenge in global development studies. The challenge is especially difficult when measuring urban household food security using experience-based metrics that are influenced by countless contextual factors. This article presents a gender-based analysis of household food security surveys conducted in Nanjing, China and Maputo, Mozambique. The analysis demonstrates the value of a gender lens for understanding the intersecting household characteristics associated with urban food insecurity. While Maputo had much higher food insecurity overall, our analysis leads to nuanced insights into shared and divergent connections between gender inequality and food insecurity in both cities.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender and diversity
• Environment (built and natural) – Food security
• Methods
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• East Asia

Acknowledgements

The research was jointly funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the International Development Research Centre through the International Partnership for Sustainable Societies-funded project, the Hungry Cities Partnership. In addition to the funders, the authors acknowledge the support of Dr. Jonathan Crush, Dr. Ines Raimundo, Dr. Taiyang Zhong, Dr. Cameron McCordic, and Hungry Cities Partnership institutions Eduardo Mondiane University (Maputo), and Nanjing University (Nanjing).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Liam Riley is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. His primary research areas are urban food security, gender and development, urban governance, and child poverty, with a geographical focus on Southern Africa.

Mary Caesar is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. Her primary research areas are public health, urban food security, urban governance, gender and race in South and Southern Africa.