Dick Foeken

Do street food vendors sell a sufficient variety of foods for a healthful diet? The case of Nairobi.

This study examined whether street food vendors sell a sufficient variety of foods for a healthful diet. It was hypothesized that vendors sold only low-cost food groups to enable the buyer to afford the food while the vendor also made a profit. A structured questionnaire was administered to 580 vendors in three selected locations. Data included product names, ingredients, methods of preparation, and the sex of the vendor. A little more than half of the vendors (53%) sold food of only one group; 44% sold cereals. Overall, 36% of vendors, mostly men, sold only carbohydrate products. the percentage of vendors selling foods of more than one group was higher in the working area (53%) than in the slum area (43%, p < .05), and it was higher in both of these areas taken together than in the lower-middle income area (21%, p < .001). Micronutrient and mixed-nutrient products were associated with female vendors. Although a slight majority of all street vendors sell foods of only one group, women vendors are capable of supplying a sufficient variety of food groups that consumers can afford. It appears that consumer purchasing power dictates the food groups provided by vendors, especially cereal-based-foods. A policy on micronutrient fortification of cereal flours and fats used in popular street food preparation needs to be considered. This could be coupled with consumer and vendor education programs focusing on the importance of healthful diets.

The ecology of street foods in Nairobi

Very little is known about street foods in sub‐Sahara Africa. We investigated the scope of the street food phenomenon in Nairobi, both in the past and present, with the aim of establishing circumstances surrounding its practice and its function in the urban food supply. We found that street food vending and consumption in Nairobi rapidly increased during the previous two decades, instigated by the need for affordable food among low‐income urban dwellers and the need for employment. It is an expanding and thriving phenomenon, especially among the urban poor, and climbs up the socio‐economic ladder due to increasing monetary demands. In addition to being a food supply channel for the urban poor, street food vending in Nairobi provides employment opportunities to a labour force that would otherwise be unemployed. There is need to legitimize the sector with simple regulations that make the food safe but not expensive.

From self-help group to water company: the Wandiege Community Water Supply Project (Kisumu, Kenya)

Water services in urban Africa are generally in a bad state and low-income neighbourhoods are not usually connected to the municipal water supply and infrastructure. The Kenyan government attempted to address these problems with its Water Act of 2002 and by creating water and sewerage companies. This chapter recounts how this idea was adopted and transformed by people in the Wandiege neighbourhood of Kisumu town who improved their local water and sanitation situation by setting up their own water supply system in an innovative way. It finally describes how this innovation was transformed in one low-income neighbourhood in Kisumu in two major steps: (i) by creating a local water supply system that was developed, constructed and managed by the community itself; and (ii) by transforming this project into an officially registered water and sewerage company at neighbourhood level. Keywords: Kenyan government; Kisumu town; sewerage company; Wandiege neighbourhood; Water Act of 2002; water company; water-sector reforms

Nutrition in Agricultural Development : Land settlement in Coast Province, Kenya

n Coast Province is the third area of population concentration in Kenya with more than 1.8 million people at the time of the census in 1989. The region is economically underdeveloped relative to central and western Kenya. In response to a great demand for land, the government of Kenya has since 1963 parcelled out tracts of land in Coast Province among smallholder tenants. This paper reviews the settlement of land in the province during 1960-70 and the effects upon later household income, food production, and nutrition. Findings are based upon information gathered from 300 tenant households surveyed between August 1985 and September 1986 in the Ukunda, Mtwapa, and Roka-East schemes respectively established in 1962, 1968, and 1969, and 150 households in rural comparison locations visited during the same period. In all aspects studied, including living conditions, household resources and income, food self-sufficiency and consumption, and nutritional status of children, the settlement tenants were better off than the rural population. Further analysis determined that the relatively better nutritional status of tenant households is only partly due to increases in food production and agricultural income. Income from employment was also higher than that of the rural comparison population. Households with large farms generally realized larger incomes, but they also had much larger families and food consumption, and the nutritional status of young children was lower among those households.n

Digging deeper: inside Africa's agricultural, food and nutrition dynamics

This volume attempts to dig deeper into what is currently happening in Africas agricultural and rural sector and to convince policymakers and others that it is important to look at the current African rural dynamics in ways that connect metropolitan demands for food with value chain improvements and agro-food cluster innovations. It is essential to go beyond a development bureaucracy and a state-based approach to rural transformation, such as the one that often dominates policy debate in African government circles, organizations like the African Union and the UN, and donor agencies.

Development and Equity—Introduction to the Lustrum Conference of the Prince Claus Chair in Development and Equity

According to Prince Clauss own convictions, it is important to make a distinction between the notions of development and equity in order to arrive at a full understanding of the conflation of both words. Development is usually considered as an intentional acceleration of modernization, consisting of transitions of the economy, the state and the political system, as well as society. Explicit attention to equity brings to the fore that development is often a process with winners and losers, those included and excluded from the process itself and the gains from it and who are hidden behind average targets and average results. Equity highlights fairness and social justice. An important contribution to the equity debate was made by Leventhal. He observed that the way in which any social system deals with questions of allocating resources, punishments and rewards has a great impact on the satisfaction of its members. Keywords: economics equity; Lustrum Conference; Prince Claus

Seasons and Nutrition at the Kenya Coast

This monograph reports on the seasonal fluctuations in food and nutrition that occur in Coast Province, Kenya, on the basis of data gathered during five survey rounds held in selected locations in Kwale and Kilifi districts between mid 1985 and late 1986. The study population seems to have developed fairly successful strategies to cope with diminishing food stocks at the end of the agricultural year, despite the fact that household income levels are generally low, a large number of households fall below poverty levels, household energy intake is not more than that of peasant smallholders elsewhere in Kenya and the nutritional status of children is below that in other districts. The implications of the findings are reviewed against the background of the changes in livelihood that have occurred in rural Africa; in respect of resource management and diversification strategies; and in relation to existing theories of child growth. The contribution of climate, productive organization, household income and individual characteristics in determining the extent to which the adverse effects of seasonality are felt and the types of coping mechanisms that are used is considered. Finally, the implications for development and policy are discussed.