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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.

Image credit: Nate Hovee
Challenges

Multi-stakeholder governance

Supply chains

Climate change and extreme weather events

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

 

"The vendors were involved in the design of the food stalls. They wanted supermarket-style stalls with vertical layouts so that more products could be displayed. Storage compartments underneath provided a place to keep produce and facilitated customer interaction" - Peter Businda (Rikolto Coordinator)

Resources

Book

Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities

January, 2019

VIDEO

A taste of food systems ideas across African cities through dialogue​

October, 2023

NEWS

Embracing a new approach to familiar challenges

May, 2023