Covid-19 has introduced significant disruptions in the extent to which households can access to basic services and resources in cities around the world. Previous studies have indicated a predictive relationship between the consistency of resource access and food access among urban households. These investigations, however, have predominantly been isolated to Southern Africa and have not accounted for other dimensions of food security. To test whether these results are observable outside Southern Africa and with a more multidimensional measure of food security, this investigation proposes a method for building an index of urban household food access, utilization and stability. The scores for the constructed index are then compared across household survey samples collected from five cities in the Global South. The investigation then assesses the predictive relationship between the consistency of household resource access and this more multidimensional index of food insecurity. While the general trend of inconsistent resource access predicting food insecurity is confirmed, there are geographic differences in the strength and quality of this relationship. These findings suggest that the resource access disruptions inflicted by Covid-19 will likely have a heterogeneous impact on urban food security dependent upon the affected resource and the city in which a given household resides.
About the speaker:
Cameron McCordic is an Assistant Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development (SEED) at the University of Waterloo. Cameron’s research interests focus on sustainable urban development, urban food security, and social vulnerability within cities. In particular, Cameron is interested in the systems that give rise to sustainable development and compounding vulnerability within cities. In pursuit of this research focus, Cameron has collaborated with communities, private enterprises, municipal leaders and academics to find innovative research methods that can be used to investigate urban issues through a community-based research framework.
MiFOOD is hosting a series of webinars on various topics about migration and food security that highlight the progress of the project. These webinars include conceptual discussion, empirical findings and policy analysis. Through these webinars, we intend to build a community with various stakeholders for knowledge sharing, deepen the understanding of the complex intersections between migration and food security, and facilitate the discussion of effective policy interventions. Follow the MiFOOD Twitter (Moving on Empty), Like the MiFOOD Facebook page to be notified about upcoming webinars.
