REPORTS

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Improving Health, Wellbeing and Nutrition: What Limits or Enables the Uptake of Healthy Diets in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements?

Samuel Owuor, Lilian Otiso, Veronica Mwangi and Inviolata Njoroge

2024

ACRC Working Paper 2024-08, African Cities Research Consortium

Citation: Owuor, S., Otiso, L., Mwangi, V., and Njoroge, I. (2024). Improving Health, Wellbeing and Nutrition: What Limits or Enables the Uptake of Healthy Diets in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements? ACRC Working Paper 2024-08, African Cities Research Consortium, University of Manchester, Manchester.

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Current patterns of urban population growth, poverty, food insecurity, and poor health and nutrition are becoming increasingly urban challenges, with those living in informal settlements being the most affected. Although health and nutrition conditions are relatively better in Kenya’s urban centres, the situation is worse among low-income urban populations living in informal settlements. High levels of stunting, wasting, underweight and micronutrient deficiencies, especially among children, are common in urban informal settlements and are manifestations of malnutrition, largely associated with socioeconomic inequalities, inadequate hygiene and dietary risk factors. Furthermore, there is an increased clustering of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among residents of low socioeconomic status, especially due to health inequalities and diet-related diseases. This working paper presents the findings from an investigation into the state of health, wellbeing and nutrition (HWN) in Nairobi, Kenya, with a particular focus on what factors enable or limit the uptake of healthy diets in low-income and marginalised urban populations in Nairobi City. The concept of “healthy diets” is gaining currency among policymakers, who are becoming increasingly aware of the crucial importance of health and nutrition for wellbeing, both for individuals and for wider society. The findings in this working paper will contribute to our knowledge of health, wellbeing and nutrition in Nairobi’s low-income settlements and will help to inform wider debates and initiatives in the city.

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Windhoek: State of City Food System

Jonathan Crush, Ndeyapo Nickanor and Tobias Shinyemba

2024

Cape Town, South Africa: AfriFOODlinks Project

Citation: Crush, J., Ndeyapo Nickanor and Tobias Shinyemba. (2024). State of City Food System report, Windhoek, Namibia. AfriFOODlinks Project, Cape Town South Africa.

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Rapid urbanization in Africa has been accompanied by a major transformation in national and local food systems. Food systems changes however, differ across contexts. None more so than in African cities. Different cities reflect different stages of urban and food systems transformation. Further, seldom do policy actors, or urban food systems researchers, actively seek to understand urban food systems transformation at the same time as considering urban transformations. This report actively locates Windhoek’s urban food systems change as this intersects with the multiple changes taking place across the city. Not only is Windhoek experiencing significant in-migration and high levels of urbanisation, the city’s food system reflects the significant inequities of such urban transitions. The food system of Windhoek offers a unique lens to both the urban challenges faced in Windhoek, but also, the associated nutrition, health and development challenges experienced in the City.

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The Seychelles: Labour Migration Review

Jonathan Crush and Vincent Williams

2024

Pretoria: ILO

Citation: Crush, Jonathan and Vincent Williams (2024). The Seychelles: Labour Migration Review. Southern African Migration Management (SAMM) Project, ILO, Pretoria.

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As the economy has expanded in the last two decades, labour migration to Seychelles has been driven by growth in the tourism, construction sectors as well as in fish processing industries. Poulain and Herm (2014: 37) note the steady increase in the numbers of migrant workers in Seychelles between the two previous census datapoints of 2002 and 2010 but that after 2010, the increase was even more pronounced. Growing dependence on labour migration has prompted debate about the need for labour market reform and the introduction of a labour localization regulatory framework (Thompson et al., 2019). Section 2 of this labour migration overview first summarizes the main pillars of the 2019 National Labour Migration Plan (NLMP). Section 3 examines various data sources for assessing the volumes, age and sex profile, countries of origin, and employment sectors of migrant workers in Seychelles. Sections 4 to 11 examine the labour migration policy framework and Section 12 outlines the NLMP strategy for improved social protection for migrant workers.

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Mauritius: Labour Migration Review

Jonathan Crush and Vincent Williams

2024

Pretoria: ILO

Citation: Crush, Jonathan and Vincent Williams (2024). Mauritius: Labour Migration Review. Southern African Migration Management (SAMM) Project, ILO, Pretoria.

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Mauritius has shown considerable commitment to global policies reflecting interest in ensuring international migration becomes as a triple win situation-in countries of origin, transit and destination. Patterns of labour migration to Mauritius are unique amongst Southern African countries in that the vast majority of migrants come from outside the region. This review of labour migration to Mauritius first presents the statistical evidence for these trends and then summarizes the legal and regulatory framework governing immigration to the country and the employment of labour migrants.

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Covid-19 Impact on Internal Migration, Labour Markets and Urbanization: South Africa Case Study

Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Maria Salamone and Zack Ahmed

2023

Washington, DC: World Bank

Citation: Crush, Jonathan, Godfrey Tawodzera, Maria Salamone and Zack Ahmed (2023). Covid-19 Impact on Internal Migration, Labour Markets and Urbanization: South Africa Case Study. KNOMAD, World Bank. Washington, DC 20433.

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The COVID-19 pandemic created large-scale distress and disruption of the labour market that resulted in economic turmoil worldwide and in most economies. Lockdowns and shutdown of economic activities caused loss of income for many migrant workers and were especially difficult for those whose livelihoods depend on daily wages and employment and self-employment in the informal economy. In South Africa, considerable attention has been paid to the social and economic consequences of the pandemic for international migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees in the country.3 Research has shed light on issues such as the disruptive impact of pandemic-related unemployment and income shocks;4 mobility constraints and return migration to countries of origin;5 pandemic precarity and increased food insecurity;6 the shift from cross-border informal to digital remittance channels;7 and the exclusion of migrants from government pandemic relief measures.8 In sharp contrast to the growing body of research on the plight of international migrants during the pandemic, there has been very little research to date on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the millions of internal migrants in South African cities.

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Pandemic Remittance Shocks and Resilience in the South Africa-Zimbabwe Corridor

Jonathan Crush and Godfrey Tawodzera

2023

SAMP Migration Policy Series No. 86, Cape Town

Citation: Crush, Jonathan and Godfrey Tawodzera (2023). Pandemic Remittance Shocks and Resilience in the South Africa-Zimbabwe Corridor. SAMP Migration Policy Series No. 86, Cape Town.

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During the first year of COVID-19, international organizations and migration experts confidently predicted that the pandemic would lead to a significant decline in remittances, a result of migrant layoffs and unemployment, return migration and disrupted remittance channels. Remittance pessimism vanished during the second year of the pandemic as data indicated that remittances had not suffered the predicted collapse.
In testing the conflicting global and local narratives about the impact of the COVID19 crisis on remittance flows in the South Africa-Zimbabwe migration corridor, the authors draw on findings of a 2021 survey they conducted of Zimbabwean migrant households in South Africa. This, and surveys in other countries, showed depressed earning and remitting capacity and behaviour of migrants during the pandemic. Given these findings, there was no obvious explanation as to why remittances had not plunged in 2020.
With this paradox of stable or increased migrant remittances and decreased migrant capacity to remit, a narrative emerged that emphasized the distinction between formal (recorded) remittances, which are captured in IMF and World Bank data, and informal (unrecorded) remittances, which are not.
In many parts of the Global South, including in the South Africa-Zimbabwe migration corridor, informal remittance channels and volumes have been more important than formal ones. Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa continued to use informal channels after COVID-19 hit, but border closures and mobility restrictions partially blocked these channels for much of 2020 and 2021. Migrants responded by increasing their use of formal channels and there was a significant shift towards digital remittance services.
The pandemic-related increase in remittances captured by the reserve banks was, at least in part, a product of a shift from informal to formal remitting behaviour. Whether the COVID-19 crisis has been a permanent boon to formal money transfer operators and digital remittance service providers or whether migrants will revert to informal channels post-pandemic remains to be seen.

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Labour Migration in the Southern African Region: A Stocktaking

Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams, Anil Dhakal, Sujata Ramachandran

2022

Rome: International Labour Organization

Citation: Crush, Jonathan, Vincent Williams, Anil Dhakal and Sujata Ramachandran. (2022). Labour Migration in the Southern African Region: A Stocktaking. Rome: International Labour Organization.

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The report “Labour Migration in the Southern African Region: a Stocktaking” includes information on the evolving labour migration landscape in the Southern African region, with the aim of informing on-going labour migration policy development and implementation. The report covers a range of major themes in this landscape, such as labour migration governance and the role of global, continental and sub-regional policy frameworks; social protection of migrant workers; qualification frameworks; and labour migration statistics. The report is one of the outputs of the Southern African Migration Management Project (SAMM 1 ), and the project broadly supports the conclusions and recommendations included in its final chapter. In line with the project objectives, the SAMM project funded by the European Union, hopes that this stocktaking report will help improve labour migration governance in the Southern African region.

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Expanding The Use of Administrative Data Sources and New Data Types for Labour Migration Statistics

Jonathan Crush and Sujata Ramachandran

2022

Report for African Union and Statistics South Africa, Addis Ababa

Citation: Crush, Jonathan and Sujata Ramachandran (2022). Expanding The Use of Administrative Data Sources and New Data Types for Labour Migration Statistics. Report for African Union and Statistics South Africa, Addis Ababa.

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This pilot study is a baseline assessment of new data sources on labour migration in South Africa conducted under the auspices of the AU-ILO-IOM-ECA Joint Programme on Labour Migration Governance for Development and Integration in Africa (JLMP) in coordination with Statistics South Africa. South Africa is the “Southern hub” of international migration in Africa and a principal migrant-receiving country in the African Union. It has long attracted highly skilled, semi and unskilled migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers shaped by a combination of push and pull factors, including employment and business opportunities, education and training systems, crisis related circumstances, and other reasons. These flows are also highly dynamic, transforming over recent decades, involving short and long-term movements through formal and informal channels of individuals with diverse skills and backgrounds from neighbouring countries and beyond. The diversification of migrants’ countries of origin is also increasingly evident. South Africa’s National Development Policy includes a section on “Migration Solutions” which notes that South Africa has done little to increase the benefits of migration or reduce the risks migrants face.3 In pursuit of an immigration policy that facilitates the arrival of scarce skills, the Plan outlines various steps to better facilitate migration including “improving data collection, coordination and analysis as a matter of urgency.” The 2022 Draft National Migration Policy for South Africa also prioritizes labour migration statistics. One of four Key Areas of Intervention (KAI) is Data for evidence-based policy monitoring and evaluation (KAI 2). KAI 2 focuses on “strengthening the collection, comparison, analysis and use of labour migration related data by a range of data users (government officials, social partners, civil society, and the media) for the purposes of policy monitoring and evaluation.”

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Pandemic Food Precarity, Crisis-Living and Translocality: Zimbabwean Migrant Households in South Africa during COVID-19.

Sujata Ramachandran, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Elizabeth Onyango

2022

SAMP Migration Policy Series No. 85, Cape Town

Citation: Ramachandran, Sujata, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera and Elizabeth Onyango (2022). Pandemic Food Precarity, Crisis-Living and Translocality: Zimbabwean Migrant Households in South Africa during COVID-19. SAMP Migration Policy Series No. 85, Cape Town.

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COVID-19 has been a great disrupter of international migration and a social and economic disaster for migrants. Most research attention has focused on the challenges faced by migrants and refugees in destination countries and on return to countries of origin during successive waves of the pandemic. While the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on food security has attracted more attention, most of this research has focused either on national food insecurity or the food insecurity of small samples of rural households. The findings in this report come from a household survey conducted by SAMP in mid-2021. The report argues that years of crisis living in a hyperinflationary environment in Zimbabwe left many households in a pre-pandemic state of food insecurity and vulnerable to the pandemic shock. At the same time, the pandemic reduced the ability of Zimbabwean migrant households in South Africa to assist family back in Zimbabwe. As COVID-19 began to bite, for example, there was increased pressure on migrant households in South Africa to remit more and more often. While most did continue to remit in the first year of the pandemic, their own parlous situation meant that they had to reduce their remittances. Many had lost employment and had a reduction in income, primarily because they worked in sectors that were hard hit by the pandemic, including domestic work, the services and tourist industry, and the informal sector. Although most were working again by the time of the survey, the impact was still being felt, nowhere more so than in household food insecurity. Only 5% of the female-headed households were completely food secure. In the face of rising food prices, most were eating less and consuming cheaper foods with a drop in dietary diversity. As well as contributing to greater awareness of the negative impacts of COVID-19 on migrants and refugees in Southern Africa, this report contributes to the more general discussion on pandemic precarity. First, it applies the concept of pandemic precarity to draw attention to pre-existing forms of socioeconomic insecurity and inequality among migrant households that have been exacerbated by COVID-19 shocks and stressors. Second, it recognizes that migrant households have translocal householding commitments and obligations in their home countries. In the context of COVID-19, both have been negatively affected and need to be considered together to assess the full impact on food security. Finally, the report suggests that female migrants and female-headed households were particularly vulnerable to pandemic impacts. By adopting a gender lens, the report demonstrates that pandemic precarity was a major challenge for female migrants and their dependants. The negative implications of pandemic precarity for translocal households stretched between two or more countries are also clear from this analysis.