Rural-Urban Food Transfers in Namibia. What has Changed in 30 Years? A Case Study of Northern Namibia

The project takes a political economy lens to examine the informal cross-border trade of staple food items from southern Angola into Namibia, examining the activities of small-scale food traders and vendors in three dominant informal food markets at Oshikango, Oshakati and Windhoek in Namibia. The study has three research objectives: (1) to explore the political economy dynamics that contributed to the rise of informal cross-border food trade between southern Angola and northern Namibia; (2) to investigate informal food traders’ experiences selling food items in Namibia, including the role that family and ethnic ties play in facilitating their trading activities and migration; and (3) to assess how existing regulatory mechanisms shape the trade flow and activities of informal food, and what measures are needed to support this sector to help realize its full potential to contribute to household food security in northern Namibia and beyond. The project uses mixed methods, including 300 surveys with food traders in three informal food markets in Oshikango, Oshakati, and Windhoek, 20 key informant interviews with people who have in-depth knowledge about cross-border food trade, or work to regulate or support food traders to explore the political economic dynamics of the sector and how it is governed, and 20 semi-structured interviews with traders.