1. Urban Food Security &
Nutrition
André Stelder
Head of Project Welthungerhilfe
Monrovia City Hall 14 February 2013

2. Enhancing Urban and Peri Urban
Agriculture for sustainable
livelihoods in Liberia

3. Food Security Definitions
• 1948 Universal Declaration of
human rights
• 1966 Right of everyone to be
free from hunger
• 1991 UN: A houshold is food
secure when it has access to the
food needed for a health life for
all its members (adequate in
terms of quality, quantity, safety
and cultural acceptability) and
when it is not at undue risk of
losing such access.

4. Urbanisation, food security and nutrition
• Rise of urban hunger
and malnutrition and
poverty
• Liberia 41% food
insecure, 13 %
extremely one sided
consumption pattern
• Urban poor very
vulnerable to food
price hikes

5. Monrovia Statistics
Birth rate: 3.5%
Population growth 3.5%
42% below 15 years of age
UPA beneficiaries:
89% experienced food shortages

6. Food Security Statistics

7. Urban Agriculture
• Viable intervention strategy for
urban poor
• response to food insecurity
• provides fresh food to other
segments of population
• fresher, more nutritious food
• leads to more regular food intake

8. The importance of Urban Agriculture
• More than 50% of the project
beneficiaries are women: empowerment
for a food secure life for them and their
family
• 5000 farmers in Greater Monrovia
• 50% of all households are involved in
backyard gardening

9. UA outputs
• Dakar: 60% vegetables
65% poultry
• Dar es Salam: 90% leafy
vegetables
• Accra: 90% of vegetable
consumption
• Monrovia?

10. Urban-Rural relations:
. Address rural-
urban linkages
for
sustainable
livelihoods
and food and
nutrition
security
(Rio+20)

11. Nutrition
• Fresh vegetables &
fruits important
component of
diversified diets
• Urban farmer families
eat more vegetables
than non-farmers
• Local food production
can provide street food
vendors with fresh
healthy ingredients

12. Liberia
Nutrition
• 40% of children
suffer of chronic
malnutrition
• 30% of under-5
deaths are
attributed to
malnutrition

13. Monrovia Nutrition
• 1.2% poor food Dietary Diversity
consumption Low
Medium
• 6.6 % borderline High

14. UPA beneficiaries who at baseline had only
one meal per day, at mid term evaluation
Meals per day
One
Two
Three meals