Background
The downsides of rapidly urbanising populations are well known. The number of inhabitants grows faster than the cities’ infrastructure and provision of basic utilities can cope with, leading to overcrowded mega-poles. Especially, food security among urban people living in poverty is daunting. Benin is a case in point, expansion of cities urgently demands sustainable solutions that empower people living in poverty to take food and nutrition security in their own hands. This project addresses this concern by planning and developing allotment gardens in peri-urban areas of Benin.
Objectives
This project aims to improve food security of urban people living in poverty by developing allotment gardens in urban and peri-urban areas of Benin. This objective is supported by three research questions:
- What linkages exist between urbanisation and food security?
- How to achieve optimal allocation of allotment gardens?
- Which institutions ensure proper development of allotment gardens in urban areas?
Approach
The project conducted a randomised control trial to measure the impact of urban gardening on food security. Jointly with urban garden associations a transdisciplinary study assessed the appropriate organisation and incentive structures for successful cooperative garden management. A developed site selection tool optimises allocation of urban gardens, accounting for water availability, fertile soils, vicinity to markets and safety entrances for women, the gardens’ principal custodians.
Athena’s role
Jointly with the Amsterdam Centre for World Food Studies (ACWFS) the Athena Institute developed a transdisciplinary approach that tapped from available local knowledge and expertise to find an optimal organisation structure to manage the common grounds in allotment gardens. ACWFS and Athena jointly developed the site allocation tool.
Lessons and outcomes
The project identified urban people living in poverty and determined the factors that explain their food security. Urban people living in poverty are willing to engage in allotment gardens as an opportunity to produce fresh foods for self-consumption with surplus that can be sold in the markets. Both formal and informal cooperative structures are needed to manage the common interests of allotment gardeners. Introduction of the spatial allocation tool was welcomed by local and national authorities who indicated the usefulness of the tool in contributing to their decision making framework in expanding allotment gardens initiatives in urban areas.