Reimagining Infrastructure: how is marginalised people's food and nutrition security shaped by a continuum of urban infrastructure assemblages

Lead Research Organisation: Institute of Development Studies
Department Name: Research Department

Abstract

This research is designed to help improve the lives of the poorest residents of cities in Africa and Asia by focusing on how they are meeting their basic needs and accessing infrastructure, particularly when they are living 'off-grid'. The research is led by a consortium including experts in urban research from Africa and Asia, brought together by the Institute of Development Studies. We will focus on five cities which represent different types of urban environment: Tamale, Ghana, Mossel Bay, South Africa, Epworth, Zimbabwe, Bangalore, India and Colombo, Sri Lanka. They were chosen because, while planning and infrastructure design and provision is improving for some parts of these cities, such provision is not expanding fast enough to keep up with urban growth and provision is not evenly distributed for all. We focus on five main types of infrastructure - water, sanitation, energy, transport and communications. In most poor neighbourhoods people meet their needs in a variety of ways - informal access to formal grids such as illegal energy hook ups; 'off-grid' forms such as latrines or bore-wells; hybrid forms such as reliance on water trucks when urban supplies run dry; or local vehicles providing 'last-mile' connections to public transport. A particular concern in these cities is whether such critical infrastructure is sufficiently robust and stable to weather the multitude of human/political and environmental shocks and stresses facing cities, ranging from droughts and floods to political and financial crises which can literally 'turn off the lights'.

In order to gain a better understanding of these systemic urban issues and how they are affecting the poorest and most marginalised, we focus our research on one key way of measuring whether basic needs are being met - whether people have stable access and availability of sufficient, diverse and nutritious diets - their 'Food and Nutrition Security'. This provides us with a way of researching how these various infrastructures combine at multiple levels, in order to achieve a more 'systemic' understanding of infrastructure provision and the implications for people's lives. This has been little researched to date, but is critically important to understand for urban planners and infrastructure providers. For example, water, energy and sanitation are essential for safe food preparation and disposal of human waste and also have a role to play in urban markets, alongside transport and communication. Inadequacies in access and supply can thus undermine the ability to safely cook, clean, store, supply, manufacture and grow food and add to the vulnerability of people to suffer consequences to their health, wellbeing, livelihoods and ability to care for others.

Our research starts at a city level to identify the most marginal and vulnerable settlements and how planning is envisioned in city-wide processes. At a neighbourhood level, we will pursue statistically robust ways of capturing people's food and infrastructure interactions as well as capture deep and rich testimony of their lives through their own photographs and follow-up interviews. We will also train members of each settlement to 'audit' their own infrastructure provision and present these results for discussion with local officials and providers. A further stage will then 'follow the food' by tracing how food reaches people, e.g. via street and municipal markets, or transport and warehousing, mapping the market infrastructure at each point. Ultimately, our research will contribute to better decisions around infrastructure provision that can facilitate forms of infrastructure access. We will achieve this by engaging directly with urban professionals and infrastructure practitioners, such as engineers and city planners, as well as, importantly, those training the future generation of planners needed for African and Asian cities.

Planned Impact

This project will enhance knowledge and capacity to enable city and national policymakers, urban residents and other key stakeholders to devise and implement strategies to tackle important aspects of vulnerability and marginalisation in contexts of rapid urbanisation. Building understanding of how urban infrastructures, inequity and malnutrition interact will inform practices, policies and innovations to shape more food and nutrition secure cities.

Specifically, through interdisciplinary research partnerships and targeted impact strategies, this project will:

# reframe new concepts on infrastructure interactions which draw on critical literatures on urban infrastructure, socio-material assemblages, informality and food and nutrition governance.

# Pursue research at multiple spatial scales, using flows of food to understand infrastructure interactions in food provision, retail, storage, preparation and consumption as well as design, planning, management and governance.

# Build and enhance multi-stakeholder processes to collaboratively identify and respond to issues affecting poor, vulnerable and marginalised people in five cities.

# Strengthen the knowledge of policymakers, planners, engineers, private actors, and communities on the key drivers of urban vulnerability and marginalisation, and how different infrastructure limitations can increase vulnerability and marginalisation.

# Inform more appropriate and effective policies and interventions around infrastructure which help deliver food and nutrition security for urban poor people.

Through participation in meetings, training, further networking activities and specific targeted products such as training curricula throughout the 3 year project cycle, this project will benefit stakeholders within and beyond a number of cities in Africa and Asia who can contribute to changes that improve the lives of the urban poor:

# City government officials. Mayors, heads of planning, health, housing and other departments, and city development agencies.

# Officials from national and sub-national government concerned with urban policies, including India's Ministries of Urban and Home Affairs, South Africa's National Planning Commission and Ghana's Regional Coordinating Councils.

# Municipal development partnerships, comprising senior local government officials and development partners, aimed at improving government capacities, such as the Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa.

# Regional policymakers from bodies such as the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States.

# Community and civil society organisations. Groups of city residents set up to deal with local issues, including residents associations in Ghana, and organisations campaigning and acting as intermediaries on issues like access to services, land, tenure rights and affordable housing, such as South Africa's Development Action Group, Sri Lanka's People's Alliance for Right to Land and the National Association of Street Vending India.

# Private sector infrastructure developers, including Arup, Aurecon, Pinsent Masons.

# Professional bodies, including the Engineering Council of South Africa or the Institute of Regional and Urban Planners in Zimbabwe.

# Bilateral donors, multilateral agencies, development banks, and philanthropies working on urban governance, environment, and infrastructure - including the World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, UN FAO, and UN-Habitat.

# International non-governmental organisations, such as Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing and StreetNet, working on urban poverty, infrastructure, local economy, governance and rights.

# Academic departments of planning, architecture, engineering, geography, and politics. Networks including Association of African Planning Schools & African Food Security Urban Network.
 
Description 1. Societal and economic impact on DAC list country/countries. We have reported multiple non-academic impacts to report as we have worked with local communities and other key stakeholders throughout the research in order to maximise social and economic impact. Communities have been closely involved from the outset. In Colombo, Sri Lanka, for example, we have worked with representatives of local community development councils and local public health co-ordinators, meeting recently with the Chie Medical Officer of Public health at Colombo Municipal Council to discuss taking forward findings from the LOGIC research into adapting public health guidance. In Mossel Bay, South Africa, we have met with local community centre leaders, the municipality and local community development experts to help design the research. In India, in partnership with United Nation Development Program (UNDP), IIHS organised a workshop on urban employment guarantee programmes that have been emerging in multiple states as a response to the issue of urban employment distress. One key recommendation as part of the urban employment program is to incorporate works associated with creation and service delivery associated with food infrastructure such as community kitchens, canteens, food vending, etc. as part of the program. States are now re-thinking on expanding their list of works. IIHS has also drawn on its findings from the project in advising the Rajasthan state government on urban informal economy and food security; and off-grid service delivery. In South Africa, project partners have sat on important local advisory bodies - such as those advising the municipal government on the response to the ongoing food and energy crises - and have used project findings on local precarity in relation to municipal services and food access, to advocate for policy change. In particular, the team have highlighted the important of transport infrastructure to food security and have worked to try to resolve issues with local port infrastructure. Project findings have also fed in to local consultations on food systems with the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership and the city of Worcester and have been presented to landscape architects and designers. In 2024, we have participated in crisis meetings to support local officials in response to events including food crises caused by the Ukraine war and local transport strikes. ACC also led a multi-stakeholder group to contribute to the new urban design strategy, stressing in particular the often ignored connections between the built environment, infrastructure and nutrition and food security. The South African team have been particularly active in translating findings to the broader public through local and international media (including, e.g. BBC World Service)., podcasts and print journalism In Sri Lanka, various members of the Colombo team drew on the research to inform their articles in prominent national newspapers. This included an analysis of the national budget in Sri Lanka, recommendations for supporting urban poor communities amidst the economic crisis and a 3 part article series that looks at the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) tariff hikes and how these have impacted the urban poor in Colombo, particularly women. Project findings will feed into discussions this month with the Public Health Department officials of the Colombo Municipal Council on creating new content for their existing health awareness campaigns with urban poor communities on how to meet their nutritional needs taking into account the devastation caused by the ongoing economic crisis. In Dzivareasekwa Extension outside Harare, Zimbabwe, engagement has brought sections of the community to consider engaging utilities more. Some participants in the focus group discussions are now mobilizing the community to approach the national power utility the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) to lobby for more equitable bearing of the load-shedding burden. It emerged in the discussions that the power utility may be targeting the poor community more than affluent areas of the city. There were indications that whilst richer areas get shorter power cuts, in this area they suffered power cuts for between 12 and 18 hours a day. Following engagements, individuals are asking the community to be better organized so that they can have a stronger voice when they approach the utility and possibly other areas of the off-griddedness. In Tamale, Ghana, the execution of the project has enabled empowered citizenship in several ways. First, through engagement in the research, some participants have seen their work around advocacy for access to basic urban services like water, sanitation and roads gain more visibility both among the city's population and within the local government circles. Secondly, our media (traditional and social media) monitoring activities have given validation to the local media programmes that create platforms for citizens to vent their frustration and anger about the lack of basic urban services and infrastructure. Thus, the implementation of the project has facilitated dialogue among the local government authorities, the media and the citizens on matters of access to urban services and infrastructure. These processes have led to improved water governance in one of the communities with the least access to water in Tamale, Datooyili. For this community their only source of water to see them through the dry season is a pond that used to dry up two or three months after the rains. Another community has formed a community development association and has been engaging with the chiefs and local government authorities to have their neighbourhood connected by access roads that are motorable throughout the year. The research team members are playing various advisory roles in these micro-processes to connect the research with community development in meaningful ways. 2. Report on how the award has addressed any of the Sustainable Development Goals. Our research focus in on the challenges of addressing zero hunger, health and wellbeing, and fostering sustainable cities and communities - all of which have significant bearing both on national growth and wider welfare. Our project is thus centrally focused on the intersection between the poverty, hunger, food and nutrition goals and sustainable cities goals of of SDG 1, SDG 2 and SDG11, as well as broader goals on health and well being (SDG3) and water and sanitation (SDG6). Including the perspectives of marginalised people is key to achieving more accountable and inclusive institutions and is also important to develop their visibility and citizen voice as part of social development. City level processes have been convened to engage policy makers and civil society actors and to present synthesis findings to assist city actors in their processes to identify alternative, equitable and more sustainable infrastructure transitions, thus directly contributing to SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities. Research findings also have relevance to local, municipal, national and international policy with regard to the intersection between multiple SDGs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 and 16 (goals on poverty, hunger, health and well-being, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, industry, innovation and infrastructure, sustainable cities and communities and responsible consumption and production). 3. Provide details of any impacts related to gender that your award has had. Our research has taken a meaningful and proportionate consideration to gender, including to women's empowerment and reducing gender inequality, as required under the International Development Gender Equality Act. The project follows gender responsive research and innovation approach - where gender is consistently taken into account throughout the entire research and innovation cycle, from the proposal formulation and design of the project, to its future implementation, and impact pathways. fBy focusing on how gender intersects with other forms of exclusion and marginalisation in poor urban neighbourhoods we have been sensitive to gender issues through the research design, data collection, analysis and dissemination periods. Across the project teams, we have also paid attention to gender dynamics and to supporting younger or early career researchers (particularly, but not limited to early career women. We have also ensured and maintained a gender balance in the senior project governance - PI Nisbett has worked closely by a senior team of experienced researchers which includes Hayley MacGregor (IDS), who has shared the leadership of the project to date - and Jane Battersby (ACC/UCT) and Sudeshna Mitra (IHIS). Additionally, seven of the 10 co-Is are female. We have also had a policy of actively target women, among one of our vulnerable groups for data collection, ensuring their voices and perspectives are heard during data collection and associated academic and impact activities, which will also employ gender impersonal language where appropriate. In designing the questionnaire for the household surveys in Sri Lanka, for example, we included questions that would capture the care work and unpaid household work carried out by women in urban poor settlements. By asking questions around household chores - specific to food purchasing, preparation and consumption - and who carries them out we were able to understand the gender dynamics in household work. When analysing and writing the findings from the household interviews, the Colombo Urban Lab (CUL) team did additional follow up interviews that were focussed on the impact of various infrastructure shocks and Sri Lanka's ongoing economic crisis on women in 2021 and 2022. These articles - looking at the impact of energy crisis on women, impact of the economic crisis on urban poor households and women's time poverty, a discussion piece responding to home gardening as a way to mitigate the food crisis and cautioning about the additional burden this may fall on women - added an important layer to the reporting around the economic crisis in particular. Currently, the CUL are in discussion with the Colombo municipal council to take these findings into account in designing public health interventions. The research undertaken in Bengaluru was designed keeping in mind that the burden of infrastructure provisioning and food preparation at the household scale and division of labour in urban food market systems are often gendered. The research therefore incorporated a gender-sensitive approach to sample selection, data collection and community engagements. For example, community leaders identified for key person interviews included both male and female representatives of active social groups in the neighbourhood. This was done in order to recognize not only the role of local leadership in infrastructure and food system practices in the neighbourhood but also to recognise that decision-making processes through political and social networks incorporate gendered differences also. The research ensured to integrate these voices and perspectives in the final research outcomes of the project. Similarly, the neighbourhood level retail study sampling included both male and female- run food businesses and the gendered patterns of food retail typologies were an integral part of understanding the local- level food market system. At the household scale, the research findings highlighted that women carried a disproportionately high burden of both infrastructure provisioning and food preparation. As such, special attention was focused on collecting narratives from women, regarding their role, their time burden, and their perspectives on urban infrastructure provisioning and food access. As a part of the research process a set of young women from the community were brought together, who were interested in learning research skills to enhance their career opportunities and they were given training in research methods, and recruited as community enumerators. They were trained in research ethics, qualitative interview techniques, survey techniques using KOBO, and had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the use of tablets and basic levels of data cleanup. These women helped the research team select households to be surveyed in the neighbourhood and undertook the detailed conversations with women respondents about their intra- household roles and decisions regarding infrastructure and food access. These community enumerators brought a lot of value to the project as they held shared, tacit knowledge about the social (including gender) dynamics of the neighbourhood, as well as the concerns regarding infrastructure and food. In Mossel Bay, South Africa, researchers have discussed at length together and with local community representatives about how inconsistent access to infrastructure is distinctively gendered. This is particularly acute in times of crisis or stress. In Dzivareasekwa Extension outside Harare, Zimbabwe, research has raised the profile of issues such as dealing with excess rain and flooding. Here, even buying food becomes a challenge and patriarchy expects women to still play their food provider role, despite significant other challenges, such as energy blackouts, additional child care as roads become unsafe and schools close, etc. and others that often create potential for GBV and just increased stress. In Tamale researchers from University of Ghana are preparing research findings on the fact that food provision is seen as a women's role (with different wives often having different duties) and men feel that they have no food role but men are responsible for most infrastructure related issues, other than collecting water and fuelwood. A number of women reported saving face for their husbands when the husbands can't provide by also taking over infrastructure provision, but doing so in ways that most time, does not undermine the husband in terms of the provider of that infrastructure, saying its their husband's money, etc. These are early findings on gender and stem from our approach to embed gender throughout our research design and gender sensitive methodologies, examples of which we have provide above. As we conclude the programme over the next couple of years, we will focus on these issues further in our outputs and wider impact activities.
First Year Of Impact 2023
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Energy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Economic

Policy & public services
 
Description Active participation as key advisors in anticipatory strategic planning activities
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Some of the actions suggested from the research are: Short term: • Leverage respective mandates towards a common goal; • Urgently optimise Western Cape and Cape Town assets including resolving port management and operations. Medium to long term: • Accelerate informal sector support to enable its essential role; • Prioritise support and development of social infrastructure (especially civil society and community-based organisations) to improve responsiveness in times of crisis; • Draw on applicable existing research and identify knowledge gaps for knowledge building;
 
Description Active participation as key advisors in anticipatory strategic planning activities
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description City of Cape Town Food Systems Research Community of Practice
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Convening on policy design and implementation of urban employment programs
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Engagement with City of Cape Town Food Systems working group on crisis response
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Engagement with City of Cape Town Food Systems working group on crisis response
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Engagement with the Economic Transformation Advisory Council of a State Government in India
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Rajasthan has announced an Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme in the state.
 
Description Engagement with the Economic Transformation Advisory Council of a State Government in India. Presentation.
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Information/policy brief series
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://consumingurbanpoverty.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/1-its-contribution-to-food-security.pdf
 
Description Information/policy brief series
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://consumingurbanpoverty.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/2-its-contribution-to-the-economy.pdf
 
Description Information/policy brief series focusing on informal vendors and urban policy: Enhancing Food System Viability Through Spatial Planning - Activating Informal Food Trading Consuming Urban Poverty Information Brief #4. June 2021
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://consumingurbanpoverty.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/4-enhancing-food-system-viability-through-...
 
Description Information/policy brief series focusing on informal vendors and urban policy: Enhancing Food System Viability Through Spatial Planning - Activating Informal Food Trading Consuming Urban Poverty Information Brief #4. June 2021
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://consumingurbanpoverty.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/4-enhancing-food-system-viability-through-...
 
Description Information/policy brieif series
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://consumingurbanpoverty.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/3-urban-infrastructure-and-informal-trader...
 
Description Learning Journey Participation and inputs: Breede Valley
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact The 'Learning Lab' journeys revealed Worcester's local food system by deepening participants' understandings of two particular corridors in different parts of the town by enabling them to experience the physical space as well as people's lived experience of that system through conversation.
URL https://wcedp.co.za/understanding-worcesters-food-system-through-learning-journeys/
 
Description Local government call for comments response - Municipal Spatial Development Framework
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/City%20strategies%2C%20plans%20and%20frame...
 
Description Local government call for comments response - Urban Design Policy
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://www.capetown.gov.za/Departments/Urban%20Planning%20and%20Design%20Department
 
Description Local government call for comments response - Urban Design Policy
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://www.capetown.gov.za/Departments/Urban%20Planning%20and%20Design%20Department
 
Description Meeting with City of Cape Town on Research agenda for urban food
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Meeting with the Western Cape Government Food Systems Working Group engaging childhood nutrition in urban contexts
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://www.westerncape.gov.za/assets/food_security_web.pdf
 
Description Meetings with the Chief Medical Officer of Public Health at the Colombo Municipal Council
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description National Government Review of National Policy on Food and Nutrition Security
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
 
Description Pilot Course run on urbanising food systems governance - in Kisumu Kenya (FAO funded)
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
 
Description Presentation to South African Western Cape Government Environmental Affairs And Development Planning Department on concept of Food Sensitive Planning and specifically used project site as case study
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
URL https://foodsecurity.ac.za/publications/food-sensitive-planning-and-urban-design/
 
Description Tamale media monitoring impact
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact These processes have led to improved water governance in one of the communities with the least access to water in Tamale, Datooyili, such that there are prospects for their only source of water, a pond, that used to dry up two or three months after the rains, to see them through the dry season.
 
Title Food Plate recording and links to infrastructure 
Description While food plate photo elucidation is a common practice, we used this to not only have engagements on food, but took this further to use the photos of the weekly food plate to engage questions of and relationships between food and infrastructure. This is currently being drafted as a published paper. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We developed a sense that the linked between food and infrastructure were not as evident and questions pertaining to food were not yielding the depth of responses on food that we had hoped for, despite seeing this. We used this method as a tool to deepen our work and enable a broadening of engagement in the context of a normalisation of food poverty. 
 
Title Research training of women community enumerators in Bangalore 
Description The methodology adopted for the research project allowed the research team at IIHS to hire and train women community enumerators. The selected women enumerators were trained on research as practice, research ethics, research methodologies, qualitative interviews and the survey tool KOBO. The enumerators went through a rigorous training to understand the process of semi-structured interviews and use KOBO effectively as part of their research. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact The enumerators went through a rigorous training to understand the process of semi-structured interviews and use KOBO effectively as part of their research. 
 
Title Tamale social media monitoring 
Description Monitoring of traditional and social media activities in Tamale. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Our media (traditional and social media) monitoring activities have given validation to the local media programmes that create platforms for citizens to vent their frustration and anger about the lack of basic urban services and infrastructure. Thus, the implementation of the project has facilitated dialogue among the local government authorities, the media and the citizens on matters of access to urban services and infrastructure. These processes have led to improved water governance in one of the communities with the least access to water in Tamale, Datooyili, such that there are prospects for their only source of water, a pond, that used to dry up two or three months after the rains, to see them through the dry season 
 
Description Active participation in and content forumaltion role in Nationla Dialogues on food security in collaboration with ICLEI-Africa 
Organisation ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability - Africa
Country South Africa 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Requested to support the ICLEI Africa team as part of a wider on-going engagement with ICLEI africa to supoprt urban food related proceses
Collaborator Contribution Input into key farming approaches, specificaly the role of loal government and the importance of infrastrucutre and the grid in these processes
Impact First was that through this partnership a Horizon 2030 bid was successful. In terms influence, this is indirect but a clear change n language, pre release edits and other factors allowed for the charting of an agenda informed by the emerging outcomes from the Off Grid City work
Start Year 2022
 
Description City of Cape Town Food Systems Working Group 
Organisation City of Cape Town
Country South Africa 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Direct policy and advisory input provided to key city officals working to address challenges encountered in the urbna food system of the City of Cape Town.
Collaborator Contribution Direct input, invitiations to actively participate on internal reviews of key policy documents - such as district planning documents. Also, during COVID19 played a key role advising and providing information that aided citywide food system response to crises and resultant impact of lcokdown processes.
Impact Direct imapct in terms of active engagement in policy processes and assistance in the devlopment of both response plans and future food system related planning at the city scale
Start Year 2020
 
Description ICOLMA/Gareth: Validating Cascading Effects on Marginalised Groups (Dortmund) 
Organisation Technical University of Dortmund
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The project was focused on tracking the infrastrucutral connections with food and through our engagement we were able to nuance their engagement from a linear flows position to enable a far wider engagement with multiple infrastrucutral grids. Gareth Haysom of UCT was the member of the research team to work on this collaboration.
Collaborator Contribution Sharing of information from the LOGIC proejct and shifting the discussion on food.
Impact None to report.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Polimi University Milan - Food and Urban Planning Course 
Organisation Polytechnic University of Milan
Country Italy 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Gareth Haysom participated as a course partner in the delivery of key modules on urban food systems and food sensitive planning and urban design - engaging an international group of planning post graduate students. The ability to reframe LOGIC materials and lessons to serve the course content offered significant space ofr engagement and reflection.
Collaborator Contribution The course gave a space to share and engage/debate positions - test assumptions and learning from our own research.
Impact No other outputs outside of being invovled in the course and bringing LOGIC research into it.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Provinicial Government Food and Nutrition Security Strategic Working Group 
Organisation Western Cape Government
Country South Africa 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Two of only four invited participants in the process, offering direct stretegic advice to key senior officials form all departments and ministries seeking to establish and impliment a cross sectoral food and nutrtion strategy.
Collaborator Contribution Direct input in terms of key policy actions integrated into the process and support to specific government ofcials, specifically from Department of the Premier and Department of Agriculture.
Impact Direct impact in terms of firstly being in the room in shich key policies are being discussed, and being there because we have been asked to assist in shifting existing perspectives. Secondly, being able to offer input and evidence. Also being able ot use particpation in this process whne engaging at project research sites.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Western Cape Food and Nutriton System Community of Practice 
Organisation University of the Western Cape
Country South Africa 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Intelectual input, training and presenations, engagement with a wide variety of food system actors in collaborative manner - focused on policy influence
Collaborator Contribution Direct engagement over time with city and regional food system and related policy actors, Safe space to engage conversations that might not take place through formal bureauucratic channels
Impact Primary impact is the ability and space ot engage a wider group fo food systme actors, specifically those in government in a safe space. The role is not an influancing body but more a site in which conversations that cannot take place elsewhere take place.
Start Year 2019
 
Description Working alongside Imperial College colleagues on Wellcome Trust funded project in Tamale titled 'Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities Project' 
Organisation Imperial College London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The team at Imperial working on the project invited Issahaka Fuseini to give a talk at one of their project/stakeholder meetings in Tamale, and the Tamale team have stayed in touch sharing ideas and insights from our Off-Grid work
Collaborator Contribution We are not exactly sharing our data with them, but the sharing of insights has been very useful in shaping the focus of their work so as to avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts. The key area of our conversation has been access to water and water access points in Tamale.
Impact None as of yet given that focus is on avoiding unnecessary duplication of efforts
Start Year 2022
 
Description ACC Conference Presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation of the projects work by Sudeshna Mitra, Iromi Perera and Nick Nisbett at the African Centre for Cities conference on African Infrastructures Futures in Cape Town, November 2022. The presentation was titled Griddedness and the food and infrastructure intersection - concepts, assumptions, and challenges. This was followed by a question and answer session where members of the audience showed interest in the themes of the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/programme/african-infrastructure-futures-conference/
 
Description ACC Conference Presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Mercy Brown Luthango and Mntungwa Gubevu gave a presentation at the ACC conference on African Infrastructures Futures in Cape Town, November 2022. The presentation was titled Informality and griddedness: Infrastructure deficits and impacts on social processes - the case of Mossel Bay. Again this was followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/programme/african-infrastructure-futures-conference/
 
Description ACC Conference Presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Sudeshna Mitra gave a presentation at the ACC conference on African Infrastructures Futures in Cape Town, November 2022. The presentation was titled Unpacking adoption and adaptation in infrastructure assemblages: A comparison between greater Harare and Bangalore.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description ACC Conference Presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Issahaka Fuseini, Ibrahim Yakubu and Carlos Abdul-Latif Adam gave a presentation at the ACC conference on African Infrastructures Futures in Cape Town, November 2022. The presentation was titled Alternative infrastructure governance arrangements in Tamale, Ghana.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/programme/african-infrastructure-futures-conference/
 
Description ACC Presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Iromi Perera of CUL presented findings from LOGIC to colleagues at the African Centre for Cities where she spoke about how the crises over the last years, specifically infrastructural shocks have affected the food plates of working class communities in Colombo
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description AMALI Welcome meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a welcome event at the start of an African Mayoral Academy meeting. Gareth Haysom and Mercy Brown Luthango met with mayors and African Development Bank Officials engaging on infrastructure finance and the links to urban food systems.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/programme/amali/
 
Description Agri4D 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Anisha Gooneratne presented at Agri4D 2023: Building resilient food systems in uncertain times : Modernity, markets and human centric solutions to improve food access in the city of Colombo.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.slu.se/en/collaboration/international/slu-global/agri4d-2023/
 
Description Applying secondary city typologies as a means to engage urban food governance and planning in African cities,  in 20 + years of RUAF. UA38 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact An article in the anniversary edition of the RUAF Urban Agriculture Magazine highlighting the importance of food systems work in secondary cities (all African Off Grid partnership cities are secondary cities).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL http://www.ruaf.org
 
Description Article published by IDR 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Article from IIHS titled 'Prioritising repair in India's cities'.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://idronline.org/article/urban/prioritising-repair-in-indias-cities/
 
Description Article to support talk on urban food security 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Haysom, G. (2020). We all need to be concerned about urban food insecurity - and we all have a role to play: New forms of urban food security governance are long overdue In Barends, Z. and Drimie, S. (eds) Challenging False Narratives in a Global Crisis Reflections on Human Rights, Inequality and Securing Food Systems. Community Chest World Hunger Day 2020 special publication. 20 - 22
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://issuu.com/eltena/docs/world_hunger_2020_final_02062020
 
Description BBC World Service on Food Banks in Africa 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Participation in BBC World Service programme. Gareth Haysom's input focuses specifically on LOGIC work where actively called for systemic approaches and a need to understand the drivers of hunger and food and nutrition security - challenging perspectives that charity, despite its need, was a solution, calling for direct alignment with the evidence emerging fro the LOGIC project
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct38p6?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
 
Description Blog focusing on hunger and food insecurity in South Africa 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Haysom, G. (2020). When "Slow Violence" Collides with Visceral Hunger: COVID-19 and the Current and Future Food System of Cape Town, South Africa. BoasBlog Witnessing Corona blog post. This article was simultaneously published on the Blog Medical Anthropology / Medizinethnologie. Witnessing Corona is a joint blog series by the Blog Medical Anthropology / Medizinethnologie, Curare: Journal of Medical Anthropology, the Global South Studies Center Cologne, and boasblogs. June 29, 2020. Concept of Slow Violence was then used by many others, including the wife of president of South Africa when lobbying for child health focus.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://boasblogs.org/witnessingcorona/when-slow-violence-collides-with-visceral-hunger/
 
Description Blog post on Research units website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Discussion blog on the complexity at the heart of urban food systems targeting mostly academics but also policy makers and those generally interested in African cities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/spilling-the-beans-revealing-the-complexity-at-the-heart-of-u...
 
Description CFS Blog Dirty Business: Reading modernity in Colombo's fish markets 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Meghal Perera of the CUL produced a blog for the Centre for a smart Future titled 'Dirty Business: Reading modernity in Colombo's fish markets'. The piece looked at the rationale behind the idea of the filthy fish market and ideas behind trying to mitigate this idea of the dirty fish market.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.csf-asia.org/dirty-business-reading-modernity-in-colombos-fish-markets/
 
Description CSF Blog A research methodology to understand stories of development and displacement in two of Colombo's markets 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Anisha Gooneratne of CUL wrote an article for CSF Asia titled 'A research methodology to understand stories of development and displacement in two of Colombo's markets'. They looked at how much of Colombo's post-war development has prioritised the aesthetics of the city over the functionality of the city, with an emphasis on turning the capital into a 'world class' city. Anisha highlighted how two of Colombo's main vegetable and fruit whole sale and retail markets have been impacted by this development approach.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.csf-asia.org/a-research-methodology-to-understand-stories-of-development-and-displacemen...
 
Description CSF Blog Valuing the Catch of the Day: Towards a more Humanised Food Value Chain 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Channaka Jayasinghe of CUL wrote a piece titled 'Valuing the Catch of the Day: Towards a more Humanised Food Value Chain' for the CSF. His article looked at the Peliyagoda Fish Market, where fishermen and fish supplier's were interviewed to understand the food value chains in the fish market in Colombo. Channaka argued for a more humanised food value chain that looks beyond what is easily quantifiable and described merely in terms of the value of the product.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.csf-asia.org/valuing-the-catch-of-the-day-towards-a-more-humanised-food-value-chain/
 
Description City of Cape Town Ukraine-Russia Conflict Impact on Cape Town's Food System Scenario Analysis 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Internal report that captures our ongoing work with the City and Province in response to the Ukraine invasion and its impact on Cape Town's food systems. Some of the actions suggested from the research report are:
Short term:
• Leverage respective mandates towards a common goal;
• Urgently optimise Western Cape and Cape Town assets including resolving port management and operations.
Medium to long term:
• Accelerate informal sector support to enable its essential role;
• Prioritise support and development of social infrastructure (especially civil society and community-based organisations)
to improve responsiveness in times of crisis;
• Draw on applicable existing research and identify knowledge gaps for knowledge building;
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Feeding Intermediary Cities - Intermediary cities as essential actors in Africa's urban, and food system, transformations 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote presentation by Gareth Haysom at an FAO hosted event in Kisumu Kenya for around 100 people titled Feeding Intermediary Cities: Intermediary cities as essential actors in Africa's urban, and food system, transformations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Flow/Overflow/Shortage Online Symposium 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Anisha Gooneratne presented at Flow/ Overflow/ Shortage Online Symposium. Feeding the city: exploring the role of food infrastructure in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://4sonline.org/news_manager.php?page=32125
 
Description Food Dialogues Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact An opening event of a two-week food systems engagement process along various themes. Haysom assisted in framing and part curation of overall event. Participated in open conversation at opening event.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://foodindaba.org
 
Description Food Dialogues Conference - Speaker 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Haysom participated in a discussion on the changing nature of the food system, the intersection between the food system and the urban system, and the roles of different actors in this process.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.quicket.co.za/events/220720-conference-polycrises-and-the-food-system/#/
 
Description ICES Films and debate 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Third sector organisations
Results and Impact Anisha Gooneratne of CUL facilitated the showing of two films that looked at informal settlements in Colombo and the lives of those who reside there. This was followed by a question and answer session with the two filmmakers. CUL invited an audience of interested parties to watch the videos and respond.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description IDS Blog 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Blog by Iromi Perera on the crisis facing urban poor families in Colombo and how they are struggling to make ends meet. Iromi suggests possible policies that could address the impact of the crisis, especially on women.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/making-ends-meet-in-sri-lanka-urban-poor-families-in-crisis-in-colomb...
 
Description IDS Blog Shaping water access through benevolence and solidarity in Tamale, Ghana 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Blog from the Tamale team that looks at water access in Tamale, titled 'Shaping water access through benevolence and solidarity in Tamale, Ghana'.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/shaping-water-access-through-benevolence-and-solidarity-in-tamale-gha...
 
Description IIHS Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Meghal Perera of the Colombo Urban Lab gave a presentation of the projects work at the IIHS conference titled: Cooking through crisis: Navigating energy breakdowns in Colombo.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://iihs.co.in/research/conferences/urban-arc-2023/
 
Description India Development Review publication of 'Strengthening repair cycles in urban infrastructure' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Three members of the IIHS LOGIC Team published an article in the Indian Development Review (IDR) online which looked at prioritising repair in India's cities. The piece used research taken from the project. IDR is one of the leading online newspapers, with the article reaching more than 10,000 people from various different professions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://idronline.org/article/urban/prioritising-repair-in-indias-cities/
 
Description Johns Hopkins webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Nick Nisbett gave a presentation titled 'Towards an Infrastructure of Nurture', which includes a focus on the political economy of infrastructure, drawing on LOGIC's work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://youtu.be/kT9bnx6TOi0?si=dD85rAor_QD7zAAn
 
Description Keynote address at annual African Landscape Architecture and Design conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation to landscape architects and designers, deliberately focusing on shifting notion of landscape to focus on entire urban landscape. Talk was titled: Haysom, G. (2021). The state of food and nutrition security in African cities - a case for food sensitive planning. Presentation at the Institute of Landscape Architects of South Africa/International Federation of Landscape Architects Conference (15 October 2021).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://app.swapcard.com/event/health-and-vitality/planning/UGxhbm5pbmdfNzA0MTU4)
 
Description LOGIC Panel organized with all partner countries at the Annual Conference at IIHS | Urban Arc 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The panel brought together the work being done as a part of LOGIC. It discussed the empirical, methodological, conceptual and pedagogical implications of this multi- sited research, and explored new knowledge and pathways of impact that have emerged from the work, which speaks across concerns of urban health and nutrition, food systems, urban studies, planning, governance, policy studies and urban sociology. Hayley McGregor (IDS) presented an Introduction to the project based on the LOGIC paper, "Bringing together urban systems and food systems theory and research is overdue: understanding the relationships between food and nutrition infrastructures along a continuum of contested and hybrid access". Post which, Gareth Haysom (ACC) elaborated on the 'Role of food planning in urban planning'. Iromi Perera (CUL) presented on the implications on food plate due to a crisis situation. Vrashali Khandelwal (IIHS) and Herry Gulabani (IIHS) discussed the role of repair in urban infrastructure. Sudeshna Mitra (IIHS) and Jodie Thorpe (IDS) then presented on 'Global South perspectives on studying food market systems'. The panel was concluded by Dolf de Lintelo (IDS) as the discussant on the panel and concluding the key arguments.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://iihs.co.in/research/conferences/urban-arc-2024/
 
Description Meeting re Chicago Council 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Meeting with the urban lead at the Chicago Council for Global Affairs to engage the gaps in the programming where food was reported in a rural production manner and urban was reported without food.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Meeting with Food System aligned officials from Cape Town and Nairobi 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Collaboration event and workshop to engage themes relating to infrastructure and food systems, with specific reference to informal vendors and governance aspects. Gareth Haysom's specific input was on megatrends impacting African cities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://assets.ctfassets.net/rrirl83ijfda/3FFS9TgUDQgYo5jjNP941A/7dffa273fae921eda57f3e6e7ae86c1e/23...
 
Description Meeting with Mossel Bay municipal officials to discuss informal settlements and resettlement 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Eight members of the LOGIC team met with two municipal officials in Mossel Bay to discuss the resettlement of people from informal to formal housing in the research site at Mossel Bay. Both officials explained how the resettlement schemes worked and answered questions from the research team. There was interest for a follow up as part of a UCT training that is a planned output of the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Meeting with lead of the Thusong center Mossel Bay 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Eight members of the LOGIC team met with the lead of the Thusong Center in Mossel Bay to discuss how the center operates within the informal settlement. There was interest in a follow up as part of the UCT training project output. The Thusong center has helped to facilitate research activities for the project in Mossel Bay.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Meeting with the Zutari lead for the resettlement programme in Mossel Bay 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Eight members of the LOGIC team met with the Zutari lead on carrying out the resettlements in the Mossel Bay informal settlement. The Zutari employee described how resettlement worked within the community and the issues that had been faced in enforcing the scheme. There was interest from the individual in being involved in the training course planned by UCT.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description On Think Tanks Article 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Anisha Gooneratne of the CUL wrote an article for On Think Tanks titled; Research methodologies: context and ethical considerations amid COVID-19. The article discussed how the Colombo team carried out fieldwork for the LOGIC project during the pandemic.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://onthinktanks.org/articles/research-methodologies-context-and-ethical-considerations-amid-cov...
 
Description Online symposium: Flow/Overflow/Shortage (measuring and managing extreme urban conditions) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Anisha Gooneratne of CUL gave a talk titled 'Feeding the city: exploring the role of food infrastructure in Colombo, Sri Lanka'. Meghal Perera of CUL gave a talk titled 'Back to biomass: crisis and Colombo's disrupted energy flows'.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Panelist on "Thinking through Marginalities" panel at the Annual Conference at IIHS | Urban Arc 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation by Sudeshna Mitra on the off-grid nature of infrastructure or the city of Bengaluru as part of the panel on 'Thinking though Marginalities'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://iihs.co.in/research/conferences/urban-arc-2024/
 
Description Participation in internal UCT Research Symposium event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact This was an internal academic study symposium - key activity was to actively engage across disciplines of engineering, health, economics and geography to discuss LOGIC project and the connections with our research to the work of these other disciplines.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Peripheries Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Engaged a collection of academics working on the specific thematic of peripheries, challenging the notion of peripheries, using the LOGIC work to argue that even for those within a city, they are still made peripheral through their infrastructure access.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Podcast on Addressing food environments in an urbanizing Africa - Jane Battersby 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Podcast on Health360 linking health to urban design related issues by Jane Battersby - insights from her research in lower-income communities in Cape Town, South Africa, looking at the intersection of urban governance, poverty, and food systems.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://urbanhealth360.org/podcast/addressing-food-environments-in-an-urbanizing-africa/
 
Description Podcast series on Food and Urban Planning Intersections 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Planning for Food Secure African Cities Podcast. This is a podcast series designed to help African planning scholars and urbanists to think through how and why food can be incorporated in urban planning and governance. Targeting mostly African planners and policy makers, the podcast series has been engaged by a far wider audience, even used in tertiary education teaching and policy discussions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/programme/planning-for-food-secure-african-cities-podcast/
 
Description Presentation at Ostrom Colloquium. Focus on food security and measurement deficiencies given grid nature 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Largely academic audience but with deliberate focus on the work of Elanor Ostrom so seeking out ways to engage commons and policy issues. Talk was titled: Haysom, G. & Blekking, J. (2021). Socio-material 'griddedness' and its role in driving food system outcomes in African cities. Presentation at the Ostrom Colloquium 25 October 2021.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2UjF35rrrY)
 
Description Presentation linking urban systems to food system 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Presentation by Gareth Haysom titled: Haysom, G. (2021). On the table: Designing food security solutions for South Africa. Presentation and panel as part of the Craft and Design Institute/Dutch CoCreate creative exchange festival 02 June 2021. The talk targeted the general public, businesses, the international community (namely Dutch development agencies), city officials and the media.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOsH8alxQ-k)
 
Description Quoted in This Week in Asia article 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Iromi Perera was quoted by a journalist in This Week in Asia for a piece on community kitchens in Sri Lanka, and how they are helping malnourished children.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3195152/crisis-hit-sri-lanka-community-kitchens-are-di...
 
Description Rebuilding cities: Better planning for better health. The Nourished Child Blog Post: 07 April, 2021 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Blog post highlighting importance of child centred food and nutrition approaches in contexts of informality.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/rebuilding-cities-better-planning-for-better-health/
 
Description Research Site Visit in Colombo for Undergraduate Students 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact The Colombo based team took Undergraduate students to our LOGIC research sites and explained the history of the settlements, and Colombo and how the communities have gained access to the grid over the years.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Reviewer and panelist at the Urban Studies Foundation Convening Workshop on 'Intersections on the Periphery: The Good City in a time of Crisis' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Sudeshna Mitra was a reviewer and panelist speaker for the Urban Studies Foundation Convening workshop on 'Intersections on the Periphery: The Good City in a time of Crisis', organized at IIHS, Bangalore. The workshop focused on deepening the theoretical and conceptual ways of linking peripheral urbanisation, climate change, and inequalities, and what these mean for our ideas about the 'good city', and what we can do about it. Sudeshna highlighted the importance of widening notions of infrastructure in the Southern city, beyond grids, in the lexicon of the 'good city' and in urban practices that are anticipatory of the challenges posed by increased climate change risks and deepening spatio- temporal forms of urban inequalities, as a panelist.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/intersections-on-the-periphery-the-good-city-in-a-time-of-cri...
 
Description Stakeholder discussions for event at Planning Department, University for Development Studies in Tamale 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Stakeholder meetings led to an agreement to create and participate in this process of bringing together relevant stakeholders across the city's socio-economic-governance landscape to have dialogue around access to urban services and infrastructure.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
 
Description Sudeshna Mitra invited as a discussant to the Flow/Overflow/Shortage (FOS) research collective 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This project grew out of the "Beyond Splintering Urbanism" workshop held in Autun (France) in March 2022. The research collective features researchers and faculty from Yale University, Queen Mary University, Technische Universität Dortmund, Manchester Metropolitan University, Université Paris Dauphine, and the Politecnico di Torino. The partnership also extends to the Department of Geography at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar and the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies in Mumbai. The central contention of this intellectual endeavor is that overflow and shortage are increasingly pertinent infrastructural problems which usefully call attention to two widespread forms of urban extremes today. Provided feedback for young scholars working on infrastructure in different geographies to reflect on how the measurement and management of extreme flows shapes the contemporary urban condition.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description TMG Cape Town Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Iromi Perera and Anisha Gooneratne of CUL were part of a workshop on women's perspectives on achieving food security. Iromi also made a presentation on the infrastructure- nutrition nexus in Colombo at this workshop, using our findings from LOGIC
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.tmg-thinktank.com/events/systemic-approaches-to-urban-food-transformation
 
Description Talk on Urban Food Security 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Talk given to support a later newspaper-type article as part of a series on World Hunger Day.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Teaching Post Graduate Students - MSc Environmental and Geogrpahic Science 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Mercy Brown Luthango convened and led a course on Urban Food Systems at Mphil level.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://science.uct.ac.za/department-egs/degrees-courses-masters-mphil-degree-environment-society-an...
 
Description Teaching Post Graduate Students Professional Masters (MSUP) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Mercy Brown Luthango Convened and LOGIC partners used evidence from research to support and introduce students (mostly from local government) to LOGIC project findings and work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/programme/ma-sustainable-urban-practice/
 
Description Teaching Post Graduate Students Professional Masters (MSUP) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Mercy Brown Luthango Convened and LOGIC partners used evidence from research to support and introduce students (mostly from local government) to LOGIC project findings and work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/programme/ma-sustainable-urban-practice/
 
Description The Conversation Piece Urban Food Security needs a Fresh Approach 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Gareth Haysom op-ed off a book, setting out how food security in African cities needs a fresh approach. The book titled Handbook on Urban Food Security in the Global South looks at reframing food security and the deepening crisis.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://theconversation.com/food-security-in-african-cities-needs-a-fresh-approach-our-book-sets-out...
 
Description The Morning Newspaper Article 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Iromi Perera drew on research conducted by the Colombo team to inform her article looking at the national budget in Sri Lanka.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2023
URL https://www.themorning.lk/finding-a-place-for-the-citizen-in-the-national-budget/
 
Description This Morning Newspaper article on the crisis in Sri Lanka and impact on food 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The newspaper article from the Colombo Urban Lab team brought the impact of the Sri Lanka crisis on the food situation amongst the working class to the fore, while outlining three ways to help those impacted.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.themorning.lk/crisis-hit-families-in-colombo-from-bad-to-worse/
 
Description This Morning article on tariff hikes and the urban poor 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact The article from the Colombo Urban Lab team looks at the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) tariff hikes and how these are impacted upon the urban poor in Colombo. The article brings in the discussion around how electricity and nutrition can be linked.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.themorning.lk/debt-or-disconnection-cebs-tariff-hikes-and-the-urban-poor/
 
Description This Morning article on the need to prioritise energy justice as part of economic recovery in Sri Lanka. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Article from the Colombo Urban Lab team arguing that revisions in the proposed electricity tariff failed to account for ground realities faced by domestic consumers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.themorning.lk/debt-or-disconnection-prioritising-energy-justice-in-economic-recovery/
 
Description Two page flyer speaking to the need for greater engagement at the intersection of multiple urban systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Drawing from the feeding nosipho video, a short two page document to stress the importance of a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach to child nutrition
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/a-whole-of-government-whole-of-society-approach-to-child-nutr...
 
Description Video depicting the intersection between different food and urban system activities 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Video where key learnings were drawn from a sister UKRI project (the nourished child) but equally informed by the emerging work from the Logic project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.africancentreforcities.net/short-version-feeding-nosipho/
 
Description What's on your plate: The Infrastructure of Eating in Cities (28th Library Exhibition) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Exhibition hosted by IIHS looking at what we eat in cities and how that food reaches our tables, with a reflection on the grid and off-grid infrastructure around food.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://catalogue.iihs.co.in/cgi-bin/koha/opac-shelves.pl?op=view&shelfnumber=46&sortfield=title
 
Description XX ISA World Congress of Sociology presentatio 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The abstract of the paper co authored by the IIHS team on 'Repair as Infrastructure: Case of Bengaluru, India' has been accepted at XX ISA World Congress of Sociology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2023/meetingapp.cgi
 
Description XX ISA World Congress of Sociology presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The abstract of the paper co authored by the IIHS team on 'Unpacking Adoption and Adaptation in Infrastructure Assemblages: Case of Bengaluru, India' has been accepted at XX ISA World Congress of Sociology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2023/meetingapp.cgi
 
Description XX ISA World Congress of Sociology presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Paper presentation by the IIHS team on 'Unpacking Adoption and Adaptation in Infrastructure Assemblages: Case of Bengaluru, India' at XX ISA World Congress of Sociology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/conferences/world-congress/melbourne-2023
 
Description XX ISA World Congress of Sociology presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Paper presentation by the IIHS team on 'Repair as Infrastructure: Case of Bengaluru, India' at XX ISA World Congress of Sociology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/conferences/world-congress/melbourne-2023