MDGs to SDGs – new goals, same gaps: the continued absence of urban food security in the post-2015 global development agenda

Abstract

Hunger and food insecurity have held prominent positions in the framing of both the Millennium Development Goals and the succeeding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper argues, however, that the food goal proposed within the SDGs is flawed in its approach towards achieving food security through its neglect of the urbanization of food insecurity in Africa and of the nutrition transition. The paper argues that these misalignments reflect a limited appreciation of the nature of food and nutrition insecurity in Africa and one that serves the interest of particular sets of development agendas.

Keywords:

• Sustainable Development Goals
• food security
• African urbanization
• development discourse

Acknowledgment

The author would like to acknowledge the support of Vanessa Watson and Gareth Haysom in the development of this paper, and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.