How the Urban Poor Define and Measure Food Insecurity and Nutrition

低收入国家的城市化既带来机遇，也带来巨大挑战。随着城市中心的迅速发展，住房不足和缺乏基本的基础设施和服务影响到其人口中越来越大的比例。关于城市贫困及其与环境危害的联系也有越来越多的证据。然而，对于这些挑战如何影响城市贫困居民获得粮食和确保健康营养饮食的方式，人们了解有限。对于不同形式的冲突/脆弱性如何影响城市贫民的粮食安全和营养，人们的理解也很有限。贫困社区通常没有什么发言权，但对其背景和行动重点有大量深入的了解。虽然低收入国家的地方政府在减少贫困和提高环境可持续性方面发挥着关键作用，但它们通常资源不足，无法在城市增长和自然资源侵蚀重叠并可能导致冲突的快速变化环境中收集足够、及时和可靠的数据。该项目与柬埔寨和尼泊尔城市中由妇女领导的贫困社区组织合作，让穷人自己定义和衡量粮食安全和营养，使用的方法和工具包括使用创新但负担得起的技术。数据的收集和分析为将城市贫困人口的基层组织、地方政府和其他利益相关者聚集在一起进行对话奠定了基础。这反过来又为共同制定满足当地低收入社区需求的解决方案奠定了基础。与此同时，所开发的知识为解决可能导致冲突的贫困、环境可持续性和体制脆弱性之间的交叉问题的全球政策辩论提供了信息。

Urbanisation in low-income nations presents both opportunities and immense challenges. As urban centres grow rapidly, inadequate housing and the lack of basic infrastructure and services affect a large and growing proportion of their population. There is also a growing body of evidence on urban poverty and its links with environmental hazards. There is, however, limited knowledge of how these challenges affect the ways in which poor urban residents gain access to food and secure healthy and nutritious diets. There is also limited understanding of how different forms of conflict/fragility affect food security and nutrition of the urban poor. Poor communities usually have little voice but enormous and in-depth knowledge of their contexts, and of the priorities for action. And while local governments in low-income nations have a key role in reducing poverty and increasing environmental sustainability, they are typically under-resourced and unable to gather sufficient, timely and reliable data on rapidly changing contexts where urban growth and the erosion of natural resources overlap and can lead to conflict. Working with poor community organisations led by women in cities in Cambodia and Nepal, this project lets the poor themselves define and measure food security and nutrition using methods and tools that include the use of innovative but affordable technology. The collection of data and their analysis provides the groundwork for a dialogue that brings together grassroots organisations of the urban poor, local governments and other stakeholders. This, in turn, sets the basis for the co-production of solutions that respond to the needs of local low-income communities. At the same time, the knowledge developed informs global debates on policy that addresses the intersection of poverty, environmental sustainability and institutional fragility that can lead to conflict.