Windhoek
Learn more about Windhoek's food system below
City overview
Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, is a vibrant center of politics and economics. Its population has grown to approximately 573,000, thanks to rural-urban migration and recent boundary extensions. To combat food and nutrition insecurity, the Municipal Council of Windhoek has been implementing urban food systems since 2014. These initiatives include community-based gardens that provide surplus vegetables to social projects like homeless shelters and soup kitchens. Despite being a dry country prone to drought, Windhoek has implemented water management mechanisms and relies on reservoirs, dams, and water-efficient methods like rainwater harvesting and solar pumps for irrigation. The city faces challenges such as coordinating stakeholders, establishing off-take markets for produce, and adapting to the arid climate. However, the Council has successfully supplied food to vulnerable communities and witnessed the resilience of households through backyard gardens. Moving forward, the focus is on strengthening stakeholder coordination, expanding urban agriculture, and adopting climate-smart practices to ensure a sustainable and resilient food system. Windhoek remains committed to addressing food insecurity, poverty, and nutrition challenges among its residents, both in urban and rural areas, through innovative and collaborative approaches.
Challenges
Multi-stakeholder governance
Supply chains
Climate change and extreme weather events
Achievements
Food and Nutrition Security
Access to healthy and affordable food
Food-sensitive Infrastructure
What challenges can AfriFOODlinks support with?
• Inclusion of informal food actors in multi-stakeholder processes. The current platform lacks the involvement of the informal food actors who are the main targeted beneficiaries. Effective way to include them in the conversations and ensure their voices are incorporated in decision making.
• Development of a food strategy or a food policy. The existing food pathways are a starting step to developing a food strategy or policy. However, we lack the technical capacity to do this.
• Networking with different cities on how they develop and implement food strategy and policies in an African context