MiFOOD partner Dr. Elizabeth Onyango at University of Alberta and her research team have published a new open-access article in PLOS ONE examining how COVID-19 policies affected women informal food vendors in Kisumu, Kenya. The article, “An intersectionality-based policy analysis of COVID-19 measures and women informal food vendors in Kisumu, Kenya,” draws on interviews, focus groups, key informant interviews, and an analysis of national COVID-19 policy documents and examines how gender, socioeconomic position, power relations, and other intersecting factors shaped vendors’ experiences during the pandemic.
The findings show that women informal food vendors were largely excluded from pandemic-related decision-making. This contributed to gender-insensitive policies that overlooked their diverse circumstances and, in some cases, increased their exposure to harassment, extortion, and physical violence. The authors call for more inclusive and gender-responsive policy frameworks that meaningfully involve informal food vendors in emergency planning and urban food governance.
The study speaks directly to MiFOOD’s broader research on urban food security, informal food systems, gender, and the livelihoods of marginalized food-system actors. It highlights the importance of incorporating the lived experiences and knowledge of informal food vendors into policymaking to build more equitable, resilient, and sustainable urban food systems.
The research received support from the MiFOOD Network through its SSHRC Partnership Grant.