As the urban share of Africa’s population increases, it is crucial to understand how food supply in cities is shaped by market institutions. This topic has received little attention from policymakers and researchers, however, despite the implications it has for people’s livelihoods and poverty.

A paper from the Universities of Durham, Middlesex and King’s College London,  all in the UK, looks at the market institutions that make up urban food supply systems, with particular reference to western and southern Africa. The authors discover significant gaps in existing knowledge of market intermediaries, such as traders, and their access to finance, selling spaces in markets, and sources of information on prices and supplies.

The lack of attention to markets in sub-Saharan Africa is surprising, considering their rapid liberalisation over the last twenty years. Given Africa’s equally rapid urbanisation and increasing levels of urban poverty, it is crucial that policymakers understand urban food markets and the networks that link rural producers with urban consumers. Only then can a true pro-poor growth agenda be promoted by making necessary adjustments to market chains.

The authors find there is a lot of literature on the socio-cultural context of market institutions, especially with regard to understanding the role of men and women. For instance, despite their key role in urban food supply chains, women tend to occupy the least lucrative roles.

The authors also summarise the role of other market institutions:

• Traders play a vital role in supplying Africa’s cities, although sometimes they face considerable hostility from the media and government, who accuse them of profiteering.
• Existing market institutions may appear to favour traders, but it is these institutions that allow trade to occur in less than ideal conditions and where the state cannot deliver.
• Market associations play a key role – with both positive and negative reports – in controlling market spaces in urban areas, especially in West Africa.
• Access to information on prices and supplies is crucial for those involved, if often costly; state attempts to introduce market information systems have been mostly unsatisfactory.
• Personalised relationships based on trust and making use of developments in telecommunications are emerging as the most effective way to access such information.
• Similar personal networks underpin many of the financial markets used by traders, as they are usually unable to access loans from formal sources such as banks.

The strongest theme to emerge from the review is that of knowledge gaps, particularly in southern Africa. Most interventions by policymakers are based on guesswork, prejudice or political goals. More research is needed to:

• map current market interactions along chains of individual commodities, taking account of power relations and including a consideration of ethnicity and gender
• identify the relatively rare occurrences of cartel behaviour whereby a group collaborates to artificially control production, competition or prices (at the expense of other groups)
• assess institutional innovation such as trader information groups, by actually trying them out and carefully monitoring their impact (action research).

Source(s):
‘Market Institutions and Urban Food Supply in West and Southern Africa: a Review’, Progress in Development Studies, Vol.7, No.2, pages 115-134, by Gina Porter, Fergus Lyon and Deborah Potts, 2007
‘Market institutions, trust and norms: exploring moral economies in Nigerian food systems’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, by Fergus Lyon and Gina Porter, 2007 doi:10.1093/cje/bem008
‘Trader associations and urban food systems in Ghana: Institutionalist approaches to understanding urban collective action’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27 (1), pages 11-23, by Fergus Lyon, 2003

Funded by: Department for International Development (UK), R8330

id21 Research Highlight: 27 May 2008

Further Information:
Gina Porter
Department of Anthropology
Durham University
43 Old Elvet
Durham, DH1 3HN
UK

Tel: +44 191 3346181
Fax: +44 191 3346101
Contact the contributor: r.e.porter@durham.ac.uk

Durham University, UK

Deborah Potts
Department of Geography
Fourth Floor
King's College London
Strand
London, WC2R 2LS
UK

Tel: +44 20 7848 1572
Fax: +44 20 7848 2287
Contact the contributor: debby.potts@kcl.ac.uk

King's College London, UK

Fergus Lyon
Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research
Middlesex University Business School
The Burroughs
Hendon
London, NW4 4BT
UK

Tel: +44 20 8411 6856
Fax: +44 20 8411 6607
Contact the contributor: f.lyon@mdx.ac.uk

Middlesex University Business School, UK

Other related links:
Nigerian Food Marketing Network

‘Encouraging pro-poor growth in the Nigerian food sector’

'Food insecurity in Zimbabwean households: is gender a factor?'

Further details about this research project ‘Improving market institutions and urban food supplies for the urban poor. A comparative study, Nigeria and Zambia’ can be found on the DFID Research for Development website