Understanding urban food provisioning in West Africa and its effects on urban food system sustainability

西非城市的快速增长正在从根本上改变粮食系统，导致城市对粮食的需求不断增加，对市场销售的粮食的依赖程度更高，饮食也在发生变化。这些变化扩大了粮食消费和生产之间的空间差距，影响了粮食到达城市的方式。然而，人们对西非城市从哪里获得食物以及哪些因素决定着食物供应和分配模式知之甚少。UrbanFoodPlus项目下的先前研究允许收集2013年至2017年四个西非城市不同季节城市粮食流动的经验数据，但没有提供有关这些流动对粮食系统的原因和影响的信息。该项目超越了描述性案例研究，旨在评估当前粮食供应和分配模式的基本机制及其对城市粮食系统可持续性的影响。拟议的研究有三个主要目标：第一，它旨在确定解释粮食供应模式的因素，并将一般模式推广到该次区域的其他城市中心。其次，它将评估当前粮食供应制度对城市粮食系统可持续性和复原力的影响。第三，这项研究将评估关于西非粮食系统的现行政策，并在考虑到未来情况的情况下，为制定政策建议作出贡献。不列颠哥伦比亚省（加拿大温哥华）的资源、环境和可持续性研究所将支持目标1和2的实施，而目标3将由萨赫勒和西非俱乐部（法国巴黎）处理。拟议项目将采用统计和空间分析方法，并采取系统观点。它将考虑城市粮食系统及其从生产到消费的活动，以及它们与其他系统的（远程耦合）相互作用。它将连接不同的空间尺度，并将科学与政策联系起来。因此，它将有助于加强我们对西非城市粮食系统的了解，该地区的数据短缺是一个主要问题。

West Africa’s rapid urban growth is fundamentally changing food systems, resulting in a growing urban demand for food, a stronger reliance on marketed food, and changing diets. These changes widen the spatial gap between food consumption and production and influence the ways in which food reaches cities. However, very little is known about where cities in West Africa get their food from and which factors govern food supply and distribution patterns. Previous research under the UrbanFoodPlus project has allowed the collection of empirical data from 2013 to 2017 on urban food flows in four West African cities for different seasons but does not provide information on the causes for and effects of these flows on food systems. By moving beyond descriptive case studies, this project aims at assessing the underlying mechanisms for current food supply and distribution patterns and their effects on urban food system sustainability. The proposed research has three key objectives: First, it aims at identifying factors explaining food supply patterns and at up-scaling general patterns to other urban centres in the sub-region. Second, it will assess the impact of the current food supply regime on urban food system sustainability and resilience. Third, the study will assess existing policies on West African food systems and contribute to the formulation of policy recommendations taking into consideration future scenarios. The Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) will support the implementation of objectives 1 and 2, while objective 3 will be handled at the SWAC (The Sahel and West Africa Club) (Paris, France). The proposed project will employ statistical and spatial analysis methods and take a system perspective. It will consider urban food systems and their activities from production to consumption, as well as their (telecoupled) interactions with other systems. It will bridge different spatial scales, and link science with policy. As such, it will contribute to enhancing our understanding of urban food systems in West Africa, a region, where data scarcity is a major problem.