Food Waste and Loss and the Sustainability of Urban Food Systems in Developing Countries: Evidence from Addis Ababa

Last changed: 21 December 2020

By 2050, the global food system must feed nine billion people, out of which around eight billions would be in developing countries. This implies the need for a major transformation in food systems- particularly in developing countries, if the global community is to achieve Sustainable Development Goal #2 to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030.

The project had two main objectives.

First, we aimed to develop a research network with selected Ethiopian research institutions and stakeholders in areas of food waste management, urban planning, food systems, food security and nutrition, and sustainable development. In the long-run, this research network is envisaged to provide a platform to collaborate with these institutions in submitting grant applications on topics related to food waste and food system sustainability in urbanizing environments in developing countries for relevant funding calls by Swedish and EU funding agencies.

Second, the project aimed to conduct an exploratory study to investigate the interlinkages between food waste and food security in urban and peri-urban areas of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

Outcomes

The implementation of the above mentioned activities has resulted in the following outcomes:

  • Building a research consortium for grant applications: Throughout the project activities, we established a research network with three Ethiopian research institutions, namely: KMU, Wolayita Sodo University (WSU) and Wachemo University (WCU). Currently, Assem and Wondmagegn together with representatives from these three Ethiopian universities are planning to submit a proposal to the annual Development Research Call of the Swedish Research (VR). Moreover, the members of this network aim to expand their collaboration to include higher education and mobility activities through submitting a proposal to the next round of the Erasmus+ KA107 call (Higher education student and staff mobility between Programme and Partner Countries). Moreover, the ‘consortium’ will continue to explore future collaboration opportunities in relation to urban sustainability.
  • Writing and submitting manuscripts: After entering and cleaning the data that have been collected from urban and peri-urban households in Addis Ababa (n=698 questionnaires), the members of project team will create a data management plan and guidelines for co-authorship. We anticipate that these data will lead- at least- to two manuscripts that will be submitted to relevant peer-reviewed journals (e.g. Waste Management, Urbanization and Environment, Environment and Behavior, Food Security) and academic conferences. 
  • Organizing a joint writing workshop: Implementation of this project generated a spillover effect on another ongoing project at the Department of Economics, entitled: ‘‘Livestock Systems in Urbanizing Environments in Developed Countries’’, funded by SLU AgriFose, and co-led by Assem and Carl-Johan. Specifically, the co-leader of AgriFose project will jointly organize a writing workshop in collaboration with KMU in May/June, 2020 in Addis Ababa. 
  • Developing staff and student exchange program: During the project workshop in Addis Ababa, the partner institutions in Ethiopia expressed interest in launching staff and student exchange program with SLU.
  • Other outcomes: the implementation of the project stimulated the interest of the SLU team in food loss and waste issues in developing countries, including and beyond Ethiopia. An outcome of this increased interest is a new project that Carl-Johan and Assem are initiating with Dr Andrés Silva from the Central University of Chile (Universidad Central de Chile). The project will be funded by a local Chilean research fund and it will capitalize on the knowledge and materials developed in the framework of our Urban Futures project. This will generate synergy effects between the two projects and allow us compare variations between urbanization dynamics, agronomic systems, socioeconomic characteristics and food waste behavior and management practices in two developing countries, Ethiopia and Chile.

Facts:

Background

One of these challenges that will have major implications for food systems in developing countries is urbanization. In the next few decades, major regions in these countries will undergo substantial and rapid urban transformation that will pose significant threats to the capacity of food systems to foster food security and nutrition. Food systems will undergo significant adjustment processes as the demand for urban food will grow and as cities will exert greater influence on peri-urban and rural livelihoods and environments.

Within a sustainability framing, the task of building and strengthening the capacity of food systems to respond to risks arising from urban sprawl is arguably urgent for developing countries. To accomplish this, it is essential for developing countries to adopt a holistic and integrated approaches that consider all the elements and activities of the food chain relating both to supply and demand sides including the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, and the output of these activities. Food waste presents one of the demand side components of the food system that received little attention by both research and policy in addressing issues related to urbanization, food systems, food security and sustainable development. It is estimated that at least 21% of all food produced in Sub-Saharan African countries is wasted. Preventing, reducing and managing food waste along the food value chains in these countries can lessen pressures on fragile food systems, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance food security and nutrition.

Selection of Ethiopia as a partner

The selection of Ethiopia as a partner for our research network and as a case study for the exploratory study is justified by the fact that urbanization, food loss and waste, food insecurity, and undernutrition are ubiquitous. Specifically, urbanization is accelerating rapidly, and it is projected that the urban population will triple to 42.3 million by 2040, growing at 3.8% a year. Food security remains a critical issue in the country, which has one of the highest levels of chronic undernutrition in the world. In the same time, significant proportions of food gets lost or wasted various stages of the food chains from production to consumption. Together, these characteristics makes Ethiopia a good case for studying the interplay between urbanization, food waste and loss, and food security.

More information on the outcome of the writing workshop

Abu Hatab A., et al. 2019. Urban Sprawl, Food Security & Agricultural Systems in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Cities, 94: 129-142.

Badreldin N., Abu Hatab A. and Lagerkvist C.L. 2019. Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Urbanization and Cropland in the Nile Delta of Egypt Using Machine Learning and Satellite Big Data: Implications for Sustainable Development. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2019(191):767-790.

Abu Hatab A., Cavinato M. and Lagerkvist C.L. 2019. Urbanization, livestock systems and food security in developing countries: A systematic review of the literature. Food Security, Springer, 11(2): 279-299.

ECSA (Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency). Population Statistics. 2017. ECSA: Addis Ababa

Tesfaye W. and Tirivayi N. 2018. The impacts of postharvest storage innovations on food security and welfare in Ethiopia. Food Policy, 75: 52-67.