Cooking up a storm: Community-led mapping and advocacy with food vendors in Nairobi’s informal settlements

Abstract

Based on participatory research in Nairobi, this paper aims to address the invisibility of vendors in informal settlements and to inform more appropriate, inclusive urban food security strategies.

Full text

Working Paper
June 2015
Urban
Keywords:
Urban food security, enumerations,
informal settlements, urban poverty
Cooking up a storm
Community-led mapping and
advocacy with food vendors in
Nairobi’s informal settlements
Sohel Ahmed, Edwin Simiyu, Grace Githiri,
Alice Sverdlik and Shadrack Mbaka

International Institute for Environment and Development
80-86 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8NH, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 3463 7399
Fax: +44 (0)20 3514 9055
email: info@iied.org
www.iied.org
@iied
www.facebook.com/theIIED
Download more publications at www.iied.org/pubs
About the author
Sohel Ahmed (corresponding author) is a research associate
at the Development Planning Unit (DPU) of University College
London (UCL). sohel.ahmed@ucl.ac.uk
Edwin Simiyu has served as a program officer specialising
in mapping and surveying at Muungano Support Trust (MuST)
since 2010. He holds a Master’s in Geographic Information
Science from the University of Nairobi.
Shadrack Mbaka has served as the Communications
Officer at MuST for 4 years, after earning a B.A. in
communication and media studies at Egerton University.
He is also the editor of Muungano wa Wanavijiji’s blog
( ht t p s //: muunganosupporttrust.wordpress.com)
Grace Githiri was a Graduate Assistant at MuST and a
Research Intern at UN-Habitat. She is presently a Master’s
candidate in Sustainable Urban Development at the University
of Nairobi.
Alice Sverdlik is a PhD student in City and Regional Planning
at UC Berkeley, currently conducting her fieldwork in Nairobi’s
informal settlements. sverdlik@berkeley.edu
Produced by IIED’s Human Settlements
Group
The Human Settlements Group works to reduce poverty and
improve health and housing conditions in the urban centres of
Africa, Asia and Latin America. It seeks to combine this with
promoting good governance and more ecologically sustainable
patterns of urban development and rural-urban linkages.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the outstanding contributions by Muungano
wa Wanavijiji, particularly Julia Wacera, Nancy Njoki, Pauline
Waigumo, Jane Wacera, Jane Wanjiru, Peter Mutunga, Antony
Waweru, Willy Maina, Joseph Muendo, Baba Mark, and national
leaders Rashid Mutua and Joseph Muturi. Their vision and
dedication have been essential in generating all the findings
reported in this paper. Research will continue in additional
informal settlements during 2015, while building upon our past
collaborations with food vendors. Profound thanks are also due
to the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor, People’s Dialogue
for Human Settlements, Irene Karanja, and Jack Makau for
their support since the beginning. We received extremely
valuable support from Professors Julio Davila, Muki Haklay and
Adriana Allen at UCL; Eric Fèvre at the University of Liverpool;
Faith Karanja at the University of Nairobi; and Jason Corburn at
UC Berkeley. Finally, we are deeply grateful to IIED researcher
Cecilia Tacoli for her insights, mentorship, and unwavering
enthusiasm.
The project was made possible by funding from the Department
for International Development (UKAID). We also acknowledge
the Medical Research Council, Natural Environment Research
Council, Economic and Social Research Council, and
Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council for the
funding received for this project through the Environmental and
Social Ecology of Human Infectious Diseases Initiative (ESEI),
Grant Reference: G1100783/1.
Published by IIED, June 2015
Sohel Ahmed, Edwin Simiyu, Grace Githiri, Alice Sverdlik and
Shadrack Mbaka. 2015.
Cooking up a storm: Community-led
mapping and advocacy with food vendors in Nairobi’s informal
settlements.
IIED Working Paper. IIED, London.
http://pubs.iied.org/10734IIED
ISB N 9 78-1-78431-19 6- 4
Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks.

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 3
Food security is rarely prioritised in African cities, and
food vendors are similarly ignored or stigmatised,
despite providing a range of affordable, accessible
meals. Furthermore, past research and urban policies
usually overlook food hawkers selling inside informal
settlements. Based on participatory research in Nairobi,
this paper aims to address the invisibility of vendors in
informal settlements and to inform more appropriate,
inclusive urban food security strategies. Balloon-
mapping and other novel mapping techniques were
combined with focus group discussions to explore
vendors’ practices, challenges, and opportunities
for promoting food safety. Our detailed maps, vivid
narratives, and community-led strategies may cook up
a storm that can create safer foods and more secure
livelihoods, with benefits extending across African
informal settlements.
Contents
Executive summary 4
1 Background 6
1.1 Food vendors and food security in African cities 6
1.2 How this study was initiated and shaped by
residents in African informal settlements 9
2 How did the community do it? Participatory
mapping with and for the community 10
2.1 Federations of the urban poor and
community-led mapping in the global South 10
2.2 Community-led mapping of food, infrastructure
and the environment in Nairobi’s informal
settlements 11
3 What did they find? Local spatial knowledge
on food and environmental health 17
3.1 Narratives on food-vending activities:
Diversity in typology, working hours,
locational benefits and challenges 17
3.2 Rapid mapping of food vendors: Spatial
distribution and linkages with environmental
health and infrastructure provision 20
4 Discussion: Unfolding the opportunities,
challenges and policy/practice gaps 26
4.1 The challenges of food vending in informal
settlements 26
4.2 Opportunities and priorities 28
4.3 Utopian laws on paper vs harsh reality: Wide
gaps between policies and practices 30
5 The journey does not end here: From
discussion and mapping to transformative action 32
6 Conclusions: Key findings and priorities for
action–research and advocacy 34
References 36
Related reading 38

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
4 www.iied.org
Although the 2008 food crises briefly revealed the
importance of promoting urban food security, it is
rarely recognised as a key concern in African cities.
Policy makers usually overlook food security in urban
areas, viewing it as only a rural issue, and urban food
vendors are typically ignored or even stigmatised.
However, these workers offer a wide array of affordable,
accessible meals, which are often a mainstay for
low-income households struggling with rising food
and fuel prices. Food vending is also a vital livelihood
strategy in African cities, especially for female traders
who may have few other income-generating options.
Yet food vendors’ key contributions to African urban
economies and to sustaining households in informal
settlements are usually disregarded by policymakers or
past researchers. Instead, food vendors are frequently
criminalised as a public health nuisance, while previous
studies mainly focus on African food vendors in markets
or the Central Business District (CBD). Existing
research has failed to consider hawkers inside informal
settlements, including their particular challenges in
maintaining food safety and coping with pervasive
environmental hazards.
This paper discusses a participatory mixed-methods
project in Nairobi that seeks to address vendors’
invisibility in African informal settlements and to develop
innovative interventions. Research was conducted in
2013–2014 by the Kenyan Federation of the Urban
Poor, Muungano wa Wanavijiji, assisted by Muungano
Support Trust (MuST), the International Institute
for Environment and Development (IIED) and the
Development Planning Unit (DPU) of University College
London (UCL).
Working closely with residents, the partners mapped
food vendors in three informal settlements and analysed
the associated environmental concerns. A range of novel
mapping techniques were used, including community-
led paper mapping, low-cost aerial photography
(balloon mapping) and a mobile phone application.
Focus group discussions (FGDs) with vendors and
livestock keepers further explored daily practices,
challenges, and opportunities for improving food safety.
Nairobi has approximately 175 informal settlements with
2.5 million residents, representing 60 per cent of the
city’s population but occupying just 6 per cent of the
land. We examined how food vendors are affected by
informal settlements’ physical constraints, such as poor
roads, inadequate water reticulation, minimal sewerage
and congested public spaces.
Our findings reveal the variety of foods sold and their
benefits to residents of Nairobi’s informal settlements,
as well as multiple challenges facing these vendors
and livestock keepers. We highlight the pivotal role
of locational factors, including vendors’ access to
infrastructure, levels of insecurity and proximity to
various hazards. Inadequate infrastructure and services
may pose several threats to food safety and livelihoods,
such as the following concerns:
• Selling foods near uncollected rubbish, without
adequate water and sanitation and with only improper
storage or non-existent refrigeration can all promote
food contamination.
• Some vendors sell near water taps, but they may lack
the money or time to wash their foods, utensils or
hands thoroughly.
• Inadequate public lighting and elevated levels of
insecurity can also prevent vendors from selling
after dark.
Nevertheless, street foods do provide multiple benefits
to customers in terms of affordability and accessibility in
addition to offering key opportunities for female traders.
Although food vendors encompass women or men, old
or young residents, many are female traders who are
more likely to sell fresh produce or certain cooked foods
such as githeri (beans and maize stew). Mothers with
small children are often less able to travel and, more
generally, women may have few livelihood alternatives
due to their limited skills or access to capital. As a result
of these constraints in resources, training, transport
and access to childcare, as well as gender norms that
already link women with cooking, selling food in their
communities can be an especially crucial income-
generating activity. Demonstrating the importance of
food vendors can foster women’s empowerment via
greater recognition of their contributions. Analysing
the gendered or other differences among vendors can
Executive summary

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 5
also inform strategies to reduce poverty and promote
gender-equitable initiatives.
Vendors are deeply embedded in informal settlements,
but we suggest that the very advantages of convenience
and proximity to their fellow residents can also generate
health risks that will require holistic interventions. Future
initiatives to promote food security will need to be
tailored to diverse food vendors and should reflect the
contextual specificities of their informal settlements.
Vendors’ needs may differ significantly based on food
type, such as cooked meals, fresh produce, packaged
goods, and dried beans or cereals. Other differences
may include sellers’ levels of mobility and methods of
display: some are mobile hawkers while others sell
items on the ground or from fixed sites (kiosks). Traders’
interactions with livestock keepers and other residents
are again highly complex, requiring careful consideration
when proposing any future initiatives. During our FGDs,
residents often prioritised the following interventions:
• Adequate water, sanitation, drainage and regular
rubbish collection
• Offering sheds and adequate storage, in order to
promote food safety as well as allowing vendors to
continue operating along the streets
• Vendors, livestock keepers and other residents can
also help to develop appropriate designs for markets,
waste disposal points and other community-led
solutions to transform public spaces.
Via mapping, advocacy, and newly-established
vendor groups, residents gained in confidence and
demonstrated that food vending is a major lifeline in their
settlements. In 2013, the project led to the creation of a
pioneering Food Vendors’ Association (FVA), comprised
of traders working across Nairobi’s informal settlements.
The FVA has sought to improve local environments and
to forge an advocacy platform, thereby overcoming
vendors’ long-standing invisibility and isolation. Several
participants themselves recognised the significant
potential of using mapping tools to transform vendors’
status and increase their public profile.
Additionally, our discussion indicates that existing
Kenyan laws and policies are highly inappropriate
and exclusionary to vendors and livestock keepers.
City governments usually ignore vendors or blame
them for unsafe foods, rather than recognising the
systematic failure to provide services or to ameliorate
living conditions. Food vendors in these settlements
are also invisible in official statistics, much as informal
settlements and informal workers more generally are
often marginalised. Without sound housing and land
tenure policies, as well as improved incomes, services
and infrastructure, the urban poor will remain at elevated
risk of food insecurity.
Although vendors in informal settlements are often
overlooked, we argue that they can provide a
central entry point for equitable food policy, practice
and action–research in African cities. The close
interrelations between vendors, environmental hazards
and service deficits in informal settlements, as well
as food’s multiple links to community well-being,
together make it critical to support this previously
hidden trade. Our innovative mapping and vivid local
narratives may provide the foundation for interventions
that can recognise and support street foods in informal
settlements. These community-led strategies may cook
up a storm that could create safer foods and more
secure livelihoods, with benefits extending across
African informal settlements.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
6 www.iied.org
1
Background
1.1 Food vendors and food
security in African cities
Food insecurity is a constant concern for the urban poor
and demands a range of innovative, multi-dimensional
solutions and greater political will in African cities.
Multiple pressures are converging to threaten food
security, which is defined as “… when all people, at
all times, have physical, social and economic access
to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their
dietary needs and food preferences for an active and
healthy life” (FAO 2010: 8). Nowhere is the challenge
more acute than in African cities, with widespread
poverty, unresponsive local governance and insecure
informal livelihoods that contribute to endemic food
insecurity. Following Structural Adjustment Programmes
(SAPs) in African cities, food insecurity became “…
a chronic problem experienced mainly by the poor,
rather than a series of short-term acute crises” (Maxwell
1999: 1950). Interventions are especially vital in light
of the recent increases in food and fuel prices as well
as the threat of climate change, all of which may only
exacerbate existing inequalities (Ruel et al. 2010 , Tacoli
et al. 2013). This paper discusses the findings from a
participatory action–research project with food vendors
in Nairobi’s informal settlements, which can promote
food security and motivate holistic interventions in
African cities.
National and local leaders often overlook urban food
security, thus missing the transformative potential
of creating inclusive, equitable urban food systems.
Municipal policy makers in African and other cities
usually neglect the importance of urban food security,
although Dar es Salaam is an exception.1 Viewing food
security as only a rural issue, national decision makers
typically focus on rural food production, food stocks
and macroeconomic interventions (Cohen and Garrett
2010). But facile divisions between rural/urban food
systems are misplaced, and food security is a challenge
that transcends geographic scales and sectoral divides
(Godfray et al. 2010, Misselhorn et al. 2012). Urban
food systems have “… profound effects on a host of
other sectors”, such as public health, energy, water,
transport and economic development (Morgan 2009:
341). Promoting urban food security can also reconnect
cities “… socially, economically and environmentally
with their surrounding regions” (Sonnino 2009: 434).
Using multi-sectoral approaches and recognising rural–
urban linkages, policies to improve urban food security
can thus bolster health, support rural livelihoods and
undergird holistic city planning measures.
In Nairobi and other cities of the global South, the urban
poor often face entrenched food insecurity, malnutrition
and overwhelming food expenditure. A study of 20
low- and middle-income countries found extremely
high levels of food expenditure among the urban poor,
ranging from 48 per cent of household expenditure
in Guatemala to 74 per cent in Tajikistan (Cohen
and Garrett 2010: 469). These findings are echoed
in Nairobi, where low-income households typically
devote most of their expenditure to food but are often
1 Officials in Dar es Salaam have supported urban agriculture and offered farmers suppor t such as training and marketing assistance (Sonnino 200 9: 430–431).
See the overview on urban food security by Sonnino (200 9) as well as a review focusing on the food, fuel and financial crises in poor households (Ruel et al.
2010) .

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 7
food-insecure and malnourished. Food expenditure
accounted for 52 per cent of total household income
and 40 per cent of total expenditure in Nairobi’s informal
settlements of Korogocho, Mukuru, Viwandani and
Dandora (Amendah et al. 2014). In Mukuru, as much
as 60 per cent of monthly household expenditure went
on food and cooking fuel (University of Nairobi 2012:
27).2 Malnutrition remains prevalent in Mukuru, as more
than 40 per cent of 160 children surveyed in 2007
were stunted and 30 per cent were underweight (Muoki
et al. 2008: 393). Similarly, survey data in Korogocho
found that an estimated 64 per cent of households were
severely food insecure in 2011, while fewer than 8 per
cent were food secure (Kimani-Murage et al. 2 014:
6). Combating such widespread food insecurity will
require equitable, inclusive strategies, including greater
recognition of urban food vendors who are often the
mainstay of poor households.
Vended foods differ widely, but can offer major benefits
to low-income consumers who may lack the time, money
and facilities to cook for themselves. Street foods can
be classified by type of meal, as single food items or
beverages, by level of processing, and by cooking
method (Steyn et al. 2014). These goods can “…
contribute significantly” to local diets, especially among
the urban poor, since street foods “… are convenient,
cheap and easily accessible” (Steyn et al. 2014: 1372).
Their convenience and affordability are reflected in the
widespread, frequent consumption of street foods in
African cities. A 2001 report showed that in Korogocho,
Nairobi, almost 70 per cent of men, 86 per cent of
women and 86 per cent of children consumed street
foods as their main source of non-home prepared foods
(Van’t Riet et al. 2001: 517). Households in Kumasi,
Ghana, often buy small amounts of street foods, thereby
reducing the pressure on mothers who cannot cook as
frequently for their children (Clark 2013: 736). Selling
patterns can also change throughout the day, as some
vendors prepare lunches for workers in Nairobi’s
industrial area, while others mainly sell in the mornings
or evenings (Mwangi et al. 2001). Our research sought
to capture these complex temporal patterns and variety
of food types, as well as comparing the challenges
facing vendors in three of Nairobi’s informal settlements,
as discussed later.
Street foods are a critical element of informal urban
economies – especially for female traders – but it is
also essential to capture the many differences between
these workers. Street food-related activities generate an
estimated US$100 million in Accra, Ghana (Shapouri
et al. 2009) and may account for 40 per cent of food
purchases among low-income families (Cohen and
Garrett 2010). Food vendors are predominantly female
in African and Asian cities, with women involved in 90
per cent of Filipino street food business, 81 per cent
in Zimbabwe, 67 per cent in Nigeria and 53 per cent
in Senegal (Proietti et al. 2014: 144). Although food
vending is especially common among women, there is
also a gendered hierarchy among food vendors. Women
in southern and western African cities, “… albeit crucial
to urban food supply, mostly occupy the least lucrative
niches” of these food trades (Porter et al. 2007: 119).
Furthermore, food vendors may vary in their access to
credit or other inputs, their level of education or training,
their participation in trader organizations, and their
level of cooperation with or antagonism towards urban
authorities and the police. As analysed below, other
axes of difference in Nairobi’s informal settlements may
include mobile vs stationary vendors, proximity to water
points or other infrastructure, vulnerability to floods or
other hazards, and method of display (on the ground,
kiosks or small restaurants called ‘hotels’).
We will explore vendors’ contributions and challenges
in three Nairobi settlements (see Box 1) and propose
interventions to help overcome past neglect of food
vending in informal settlements. While there has been
extensive research on African food hawkers in markets
or Central Business Districts (Brown et al. 2006,
Porter et al. 2007, Hansen et al. 2013), few studies
have examined food traders inside informal settlements.
African food vendors rarely receive policy recognition,
and Kenya’s existing policies and legislation are often
inappropriate or overlook vendors in informal settlements
altogether (see Section 5). Our analysis highlights
these vendors’ particular concerns, such as how to
ensure food safety and livelihoods in the face of major
environmental hazards. We also provide new insights
by exploring hawkers’ spatio-temporal patterns over
the day and tracing their relations with local livestock
keepers. We thus fill existing gaps in the literature on
urban food security and vendors, in addition to utilising
participatory, mixed-methods approaches to collaborate
with Nairobi residents and develop new initiatives.
2 In Mukuru k wa Njenga, rent averaged 20 per cent of monthly expenditure , water 9 per cent and electricity 4 per cent; cooking fuel accounted for 20 per cent
and food and clothes totalled Ksh. 3,550 or 47 per cent of monthly household expenditure (University of Nairobi 2012: 27).

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
8 www.iied.org
BOX 1: CASE STUDY SITES:
MATHARE, KIBERA AND
MUKURU
Nairobi has approximately 175 informal settlements,
comprising 2.5 million residents, representing 60 per cent
of the city’s population but occupying just 6 per cent of the
land. The main informal settlements include Mathare, Kibera
and Mukuru, which were the study sites for this research.
Mathare
Mathare is Nairobi’s second-largest informal settlement
(after Kibera), with an estimated population of 200,000
residents, who struggle with highly inadequate provision
for water, sanitation, healthcare and education. Mathare
Valley occupies just 0.89km2 of land and is located about
5 kilometres northeast of Nairobi’s city centre. Prior to the
1950s, the valley was largely settled by an Asian population
and was used as a stone quarry for building blocks. In the
1950s, a demographic shift occurred as it was overrun by
anti-imperial Mau Mau rebels and used as a location to hide
weapons. Although Mathare remained sparsely populated
until Kenyan independence in 1963, its population grew
rapidly as Kenya underwent a major rural–urban migration
that has continued almost unabated.
Today, Mathare is comprised of 13 villages (Mashimoni,
Mabatini, Village No 10, Village 2, Kosovo, 3A (Bondeni),
3B, 3C, 4A, 4B, Gitathuru, Kiamutisya and Kwa Kariuki)
located along the Mathare and Nairobi rivers. The food
safety study was conducted in 11 villages of Kosovo, Village
2, 3B, Bondeni, 3C, 4B, Kiamutisya, Mashimoni, Village
No.10, Mabatini and Gitathuru.
Kibera
Located about five kilometres from the city centre, Kibera
is the largest informal settlement in Nairobi and is often
called the largest in Africa. The 2009 Kenyan census
reported Kibera’s population as just 170,070, contrary to
previous estimates of one or two million people. Based on
Muungano’s profiles carried out in late 2013, Kibera has an
estimated population of 341,493 residents. The settlement
is made up of 14 autonomous villages (Soweto East, Laini
Saba, Mashimoni, Silanga, Lindi, Kambi Muru, Kisumu
Ndogo, Gatwekera, Raila, Soweto West, Kianda, Makina,
Makongeni and D.C. Village), and the food safety study was
conducted in the villages of Soweto East, Mashimoni, and
Laini Saba.
Mukuru
Mukuru is located in Nairobi’s industrial area and is
bisected by the railway, with Mukuru kwa Reuben to the
west and Mukuru kwa Njenga to the east. Recent research
by Muungano and the University of Nairobi suggests that
Mukuru’s population is nearly 200,000 (AMT et al. 2014).
‘Mukuru’ literally means ‘dumpsite’ in Kiswahili and is the
site of an old quarry; it subsequently served as the main
source of stones used in the construction of the surrounding
factories. Parts of the area later became a dumpsite for
industrial as well as household wastes. The settlement
pre-dates Kenya’s independence and can be traced back
to Reuben, a white farmer who used to keep livestock in the
area and after whom Mukuru kwa Reuben is named. Reuben
employed a few Kenyan workers, including Cucu Gatope,
who built shelters on the land with her three daughters.
The village of Gatope (or Gatoto) in Mukuru kwa Reuben is
named after her, and as the area grew, other villages were
formed with their particular histories. The food safety study
was conducted in the four villages of Simba Cool, Rurie,
Feed the Children and Gatope.

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 9
1.2 How this study was
initiated and shaped
by residents in African
informal settlements
The roots of this research project trace back to 2012,
when an exchange visit was held in Accra between
members of the Kenyan and Ghanaian urban poor
federations. Its goal was to reflect on urban food
security, including whether and how to develop future
initiatives in their communities. During the first session,
participants discussed the rising food prices, their
desire for government subsidies and their aim to
secure land for urban agriculture activities. But these
goals were abandoned because of the major practical
obstacles, and reflections shifted to food vendors, who
were perceived as highly exploitative of their customers.
However, this view changed radically when several
women, initially timidly and then quickly more confidently,
said that they were street vendors (some of them full-
time, others part-time) and declared that food vending
was a vital income-generating activity for women in
informal settlements across Accra and Nairobi.
Following these discussions, food vendors realised the
need for additional data to help transform the negative
perceptions they encountered. In particular, female food
traders wanted to lead and engage in these discussions
and mapping activities. They decided that mapping
informal settlements’ food consumption spaces, tracing
vendors’ interactions with the local environment and
exploring their access to infrastructure would be the
major entry points to increasing urban food safety.
Vendors realised that such grounded explorations
could help in a recognition of food vending as a viable,
significant livelihood opportunity and a source of
affordable, accessible meals. These initial conversations
also helped to highlight hawkers’ roles in improving local
environments, such as daily practices of cleaning kiosks
or nearby drains. Some vendors were already members
of the Kenyan Federation of the Urban Poor (Muungano
wa Wanavijiji), while other traders subsequently joined
the federation during the research project. In turn,
the study aimed to emphasise vendors’ agency and
organise these workers in advocating for community-led
infrastructure upgrading.
The mixed-methods project combined participatory
mapping with qualitative research, both of which
employed strong community inputs. Research was
spearheaded by Muungano wa Wanavijiji with support
from the Muungano Support Trust (MuST),3 the
International Institute for Environment and Development
(IIED) and the Development Planning Unit (DPU) of
University College London (UCL).
This study was also supported by the ongoing Urban
Zoo project, and findings are informing the Urban Zoo’s
research activities, methodologies and data collection.4
Research was conducted in 11 villages in Mathare,
four villages in Mukuru and two villages in Kibera (see
Box 1). Community-led mapping activities helped to
uncover vendors’ selling locations, spatial patterns
and the environmental hazards they encounter. Focus
group discussions (FGDs) further explored how food
vendors are affected by the physical constraints in
informal settlements, such as poor roads, inadequate
water reticulation, minimal or non-existent sewerage
and congested public spaces. These constraints can
also lead to major food safety challenges such as
contamination, inadequate hygiene and poor food-
handling practices (Simiyu 2014).
The project’s findings and participatory approaches
were critical in helping residents to identify priorities for
further action by both the community and government.
Key findings from the FGDs with vendors and livestock
keepers are synthesised, as well as a range of innovative
mapping techniques (see Sections 2 and 3). The
discussion and recommendations seek to generate
appropriate, inclusive and integrated strategies that
can promote food safety and food security in informal
settlements (see Sections 4 and 5). Findings indicate
that food vendors play several vital roles in Nairobi’s
informal settlements, while also struggling with
broader challenges such as inadequate infrastructure
and services. By working in informal settlements,
hawkers can reduce their daily transport costs and
more easily combine their livelihoods with childcare
(especially important for working mothers). They are also
physically close to their customers, who may value the
convenience of buying from a nearby kiosk or mobile
vendor. With a thriving array of vendors, residents
may enjoy enhanced access to food throughout the
day or night. But just like other residents of informal
settlements, food hawkers are strongly affected by
prevailing insecurity, poor infrastructure and inadequate
services. A study of food vending can help to reveal
deeper challenges in informal settlements, while we
argue in our conclusions that future interventions can
create benefits for vendors and consumers alike.
3 http: //www.mustkenya.or.ke/
4 Funded primarily by the Medical Research Council (MRC–UK), other UK research councils and the UK government’s Living With Environmental Change
Initiative, this is a 5-year research programme on the ‘Epidemiology, ecology and socioeconomics of disease emergence in Nairobi’ (short title: Urban Zoo). The
Urban Zoo project is led by Professor Eric Fèvre from the Institute of Infection and Global Health (IGH) at the University of Liverpool, who is also currently jointly
based at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya. The project is organised around 12 partner institutions in the UK and Kenya
(for more details, see the project website: http://www.zoonotic-diseases.org/home/research/urbanzoonoses). Its overall objective is to underst and the
mechanisms that may lead to the introduction of pathogens into urban populations and their subsequent spread in Nairobi. The focus is on livestock as sources of
these pathogens through the close interactions between livestock, their products and re sidents of informal settlements.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
10 www.iied.org
2
How did the
community do it?
Participatory mapping
with and for the
community
2.1 Federations of the
urban poor and community-
led mapping in the
global South
Despite being the majority in cities of the global South,
low-income households and informal settlements are
mostly ‘invisible’ in city plans and policies, thus invariably
excluded from infrastructure or service provision (Patel
et al. 2012, Appadurai 2001). To challenge this long-
standing state failure and indifference, a network of
urban poor federations known as Slum/Shack Dwellers
International (SDI) was formed in 1996 and is currently
active in 33 countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa,
although the journey started with India’s National
Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) in 1974 (Patel et al.
2012). The Kenyan affiliate Muungano wa Wanavijiji has
adopted SDI’s key rituals of daily savings, livelihood or
shelter loans, community-led upgrading, and ongoing
advocacy for enhanced recognition and inclusion of the
urban poor.
Inspired by the motto of ‘When in doubt, count!’, SDI
has also developed innovative and highly detailed
enumerations of informal settlements at citywide
scale. Enumerations include community-led settlement
profiling, vacant land surveys, mapping of infrastructure,
housing and services, and extensive household-level
demographic data collection. Furthermore, residents
have collected oral narratives exploring community
histories, population dynamics and past struggles, as
well as up-to-date mapping of settlement boundaries
and structure maps (Patel et al. 2012, Karanja 2010,
Makau et al. 2012). Partly thanks to Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) in the form of ubiquitous
GPS-enabled mobile phones and satellite images,
SDI affiliates have gained legitimacy and traction
in their negotiations with local governments. Using
extensive data to bolster their demands to halt evictions,
improve service delivery and implement upgrading
or resettlement projects, SDI groups are promoting
more responsive and accountable urban governance.

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 11
Moreover, mapping and enumerations increase
residents’ confidence and self-awareness, as well as
creating locally verified datasets that can be regularly
updated (Makau et al. 2012, Patel et al. 2012).
SDI’s mapping efforts have parallels with what is
classically known as participatory or community-led
mapping in cities of the global North or South. This is
similar to Participatory GIS (PGIS),5 and a discussion by
WaterAid (2005) helps highlight its main features and
goals:
“Community mapping is [a] process carried
out by the community for the community. [I]t
enables communities to map details of where
they live and surrounding infrastructure. It
is a way of encouraging and empowering
communities to take action for themselves …
It not only puts them in a strong position to
represent themselves with NGOs, local and
national governments, but the very process
itself can skill and build capacity within the
community. That enables the community to
establish for itself what problems it faces, and
to begin to look for and implement solutions.”
(WaterAid 2005: 4–5)
In sum, SDI’s processes inspire residents to map
and identify their major concerns, which provide an
important aid to community discussions about the
magnitude of these issues, their locations and how
much they can tackle themselves before seeking state
or NGO support. Mapping the unmapped – capturing
formerly invisible places and marginalised people –
has significantly amplified poor households’ voices in
challenging the unequal politics of urban development in
the global South.
Accurate, up-to-date maps rarely exist for informal
settlements in Kenya, but Muungano has already
profiled and mapped 174 settlements in Nairobi and
enumerated more than 50,000 inhabitants (Karanja
2010, MuST 2014). With support from MuST and SDI,
such initiatives have allowed them to negotiate with local
governments and promote successful pilot projects to
enhance service delivery. For example, after gathering
data in Mathare’s village of Kosovo, Nairobi City Water
and Sewerage Company established individual water
connections (Karanja 2010: 221). Such enumeration
and mapping data also helped prevent the eviction
of households from an unrealistic 30-metre riparian
reserve in Nairobi (Karanja 2010: 223, Figure 2) and
the eviction of 229 market traders from Aoko Road
(Karanja 2010). These successes have boosted the
confidence of community mappers, who can act as
guardians and demonstrate local expertise, as explained
by a mapper during our focus group discussion in
Mathare: “In Mathare, we’ve become a community
of technicians! We would rather focus on the know-
how and not rubber-stamp studies that did not involve
the community.”
2.2 Community-
led mapping of food,
infrastructure and the
environment in Nairobi’s
informal settlements
In the settlements of Mathare, Kibera and Mukuru, the
team combined focus group discussions (FGDs) with
community-led paper and digital-mapping techniques.
These included low-cost aerial photography (balloon
mapping) to capture food vendors and to update maps
of infrastructure (for example, footpaths and roads,
electricity sources, public and private toilets) and
environmental hazards (for example, steep slopes,
flood-prone areas, open sewers and dumpsites). The
mapping procedures and community processes are
briefly discussed below.
2.2.1 Brainstorming and consensus
building to decide on the key issues to be
covered and the villages to be studied
The process started with a community brainstorming
session exploring: ‘what’ was already known; ‘who’ to
include; ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘where’ to map (i.e., which
villages to select in Mathare, Kibera and Mukuru);
and ‘what’ tools and techniques were available. Such
workshops also set out the need for and importance of
data collection processes, as well as offering reflections
on food vendors’ conditions in each village. Another
outcome of these meetings was to identify and train
community teams on data collection methods, which
equipped them with the necessary skills and tools.
In a subsequent community workshop, we verified
key information from the initial session and planned
how to harness local knowledge in a participatory
way. Food vendors, customers and livestock keepers
5 Participator y GIS (PGIS or GIS–P) has gained wider acceptance and was derived but deviated from Public Participation GIS (PPGIS), originally in the global
North, which did not consistently use GIS tools for the disadvantaged. PGIS has community involvement at its hear t, in order to facilitate participation and enrich
data collection that the community deems appropriate, thus embedding practical and appropriate GIS tools and outputs with Participator y Action Research (PAR)
(Sieber 20 06, Rambaldi et a l. 2006 , Johnson 2007).

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
12 www.iied.org
were identified as the settlements’ major food players,
who were all affected by the food–environment nexus.
Vendors were further disaggregated into those selling
cooked foods, uncooked foods, vegetables and fruit.
Participants also selected the 15 villages that would be
mapped and investigated further in the research project.
We aimed to create holistic narratives around food
safety and access, as well as explore the links between
vendors and environmental concerns in Nairobi’s
informal settlements. Our criteria led us to select areas
that were most affected by flooding, that had various
food-vending and livestock activities, and had greater
exposure to environmental hazards.
2.2.2 Harnessing local knowledge
through participatory techniques (focus
group discussions+)
For several reasons, we decided to conduct focus
group discussions (FGDs) rather than surveys with food
vendors. Unlike surveys, which have limited space for
exploring in-depth opinions, FGDs provide an open,
inclusive setting for residents to develop their stories,
explain their challenges or successes and identify key
priorities for change. Focus groups can also explore
shared concerns, such as ensuring food safety and
improving access to public spaces, infrastructure and
services in Nairobi’s informal settlements.
To thoroughly investigate street foods and to encourage
community control of the research, we introduced ‘focus
group discussions plus’ (FGDs+), which combined
traditional FGDs with indoor mental mapping exercises
(see Figure 1). During the FGD+ sessions, participants
located themselves and community facilities on paper
and digital maps, indicating where street vendors
were concentrated and dispersed in each village. We
involved vendors, consumers and livestock keepers for
two reasons: first, to gather rich narratives about these
actors’ relations, food-vending practices and challenges,
and people–place linkages; and second, to identify
major issues for our subsequent mapping research
(discussed below). Mental mapping was also used to
select 15 villages for data collection, reflecting where
residents had highlighted issues of greatest concern
to them.
Reflections from vendors, customers and livestock
keepers in the FGD+ sessions helped to capture the
complex environment in which these groups operate.
Food vendors discussed their livelihood activities
and the ongoing challenges with poor infrastructure
Figure 1: A mental mapping exercise held in Bondeni, Mathare, w it h representatives from the other vi llages

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 13
or various environmental constraints (see Section 3
for these findings). Livestock keepers shared their
experiences with food traders, including the use of
vendors’ wastes, such as vegetable scraps or other by-
products. They also discussed the challenges in raising
livestock as a result of insufficient pasture and space in
Nairobi’s dense informal settlements. Customers offered
their opinions and feedback on food safety, as well as
their typical food-purchasing patterns.
We subsequently conducted a short FGD+ with
livestock keepers and vendors selling various categories
of foods across the mapped villages, which helped
to triangulate the findings of the individual group
discussions. The FGD+s also explored the food types
sold in these settlements, vendors’ opening and closing
hours and the food safety situation, such as past
cases of contaminated foods or disease outbreaks (as
discussed in Section 3). Consequently, such narratives
of everyday experiences guided the community to
focus more on the food safety issues that required
immediate attention.
2.2.3 Hybrid mapping on-the-ground
After the indoor mental/cognitive mapping exercises,
we used community-led digital and paper-mapping
tools outdoors to ground the claims and investigate
competing uses of public spaces. For instance, main
streets or paths are simultaneously used as playgrounds
by children and spaces for livestock rearing, as well
as for pedestrian traffic and other vendors’ kiosks. We
analysed their relations to food vendors (with attention
to the type of food offered) and their proximity to
infrastructure or dumpsites. Subsequently, we partnered
with residents to map and survey the villages, using
several methods. These included a mobile phone survey
application that captured vending locations, food-
vending types accompanied by a photo, observations
on food safety in relation to vendors’ practices (such as
whether foods are covered or other handling issues),
and aerial photography from cameras suspended from
helium balloons. Balloon mapping (see Box 2) helped
to create current, bird’s-eye views of the local built
environment for selected sites and along our transect
walk.6 Training was provided whenever community
mappers sought to use these tools and, stitched
together, these photographs created an innovative, low-
cost alternative to satellite imagery. Further details on
the mapping procedures are discussed below.
2.2.3.1 Paper maps
These consisted of both satellite and hard copy maps,
which were prepared and printed for all the villages.
Paper maps included the villages’ basic facilities, as
captured in prior community mapping processes by
Muungano and MuST. Satellite imagery was also useful
to orient the residents, who easily located themselves
within the villages, and to interpret their settlements’
features. These maps captured key features such as
roads, existing sewer lines, manholes and drains, water
lines and water points, power lines and power points,
sanitation blocks and village boundaries (see Figure 2).
2.2.3.2 Mobile phone application for digital
mapping
With the help of Android smartphones, we used a data
collection application called Epicollect.7 This application
helped create a rapid scan of vending activities in every
village, using a short questionnaire on food typology,
demographic data and visible food safety issues.
Paper notes also accompanied both the paper and
mobile mapping walks. Community research assistants
were trained on how to gather these data using
smartphones. Mobile phone use was complemented
by a note, where the code given for every food vendor
was recorded and also marked in the paper map. The
notebooks also captured the information not captured in
the questionnaire.
2.2.3.3 Balloon mapping
“I’m struck by how successfully a balloon can
take an aerial map of my settlement. I am aware
there is a hidden camera in the balloon, this is
a noble innovation.” Community observer of the
balloon-mapping process in Bondeni, Mathare
Although satellite images are now ubiquitous in daily
life (for example, for directions to unknown places
and locating sites using Google Maps or similar web-
based services), freely available maps are usually at
least a couple of years old and informal settlements
are obscured by clouds. Corporate or government
6
“A transect walk is a systematic walk along a defined path (transect) across the community/project area together with the local people to explore the water
and sanitation conditions by obser ving, asking, listening, looking and producing a transect diagram. The transect walk is normally conducted during the initial
phase of the fieldwork. It is best to walk a route [that] will cover the greatest diversity in terms of water resources and sanitation infrastructure. The transect
walk is conducted by the research team and community members. The information collected during the walk is used to draw a diagram or map, based on which
discussions are held amongst the participants.”
(Keller 2014).
7 Epicollect is a free, open-source application developed by Imperial College London for data collection purposes (with funding from the Wellcome Trust). It
provides a web and mobile application to generate forms (questionnaires) and freely hosted project websites for data collection. Data are collected (including
GPS and media) using multiple phones and all data can be viewed centrally using Google Maps, tables or charts (Aanensen et al. 2009). For more information on
using Epicollect, see http://www.epicollect.net/

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
14 www.iied.org
interests do not concern themselves with compiling
information on informal settlements, as noted above, let
alone with collecting high-resolution, timely aerial views
of such contentious places. Meanwhile, conventional
data collection technologies can be highly unaffordable
to these poor communities. Therefore, we decided
that aerial photos with balloon mapping would be of
enormous value in raising the visibility and public profile
of Nairobi’s informal settlements. Balloon mapping has
produced accurate, up-to-date images of a part of the
city that is not only terra incognita on official documents,
but that is also rarely updated by corporate imagery
services such as Google (see Box 2).
2.2.4 Sharing and triangulating the
findings with the community
Following the community-led mapping and data
collection sessions, the project team discussed,
analysed and synthesised the information, after which
there was an immediate reflection and knowledge
consolidation session with the community. This well-
attended discussion with livestock keepers and food
vendors helped define residents’ priorities and rank
them by importance (discussed further in Section 4).
Participants found our multiple tools not only very
engaging but also extremely useful in updating the
existing maps’ features (for example, sewer lines, drains,
water points, footpaths and dumpsites) and in mapping
food-vending activities that can be affected by such
infrastructure or local environmental hazards.
Figure 2: The paper map use d for col lec ting and updating data on key features in B ondeni , Mathare.

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 15
BOX 2: BALLOON MAPPING
In response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, members of the non-profit American organization Public
Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS) partnered with concerned citizens to monitor coastlines
during and after the oil spill. About 100,000 photos were taken using the balloon-mapping technique, utilising a
cheap (typically, second-hand) digital camera, a large helium balloon and some string. Since then, international
examples of balloon mapping for environmental and other community concerns have proliferated (Shubert
2014, Barry 2014). As a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) part of a wider citizen science movement, balloon mapping can
be constantly updated and improved by PLOTS. It fits the ethos of participatory or community mapping more
generally: let residents decide if the pictures taken by high-altitude balloons can be used in community maps; if
yes, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘how’.
Required materials: the ‘how’ part benefits largely from easy-to-follow illustrated manuals that come with
the balloon kit. The essential elements include: a weather balloon (available from all-weather departments in
any country); a point-and-shoot cheap camera that can take ‘continuous shots’ when slung from the balloon
during the flight; high-strength string (similar to fishing line) with a reel (similar to kite reel); rubber bands; any
1–2 litre empty plastic bottle; zip ties; and tape. Except for the helium that is needed to inflate the balloon, all the
materials in the balloon-mapping kits that can be bought from the PLOTS website for around US$100 can be
locally sourced, and mostly aim to (re)use customer goods such as water bottles and second-hand cameras for
a definite (re)purpose.
However, our partnership aimed to take the tool to a different scale – extending beyond a small village or
community – and entirely for the causes appropriated by residents of Nairobi’s informal settlements. With
a downward-facing camera slung beneath it, the balloon on a string had a maximum 90-minute flight over
Mathare, creating 5,400 images. The team could then stich the finest images together digitally to create a
cheap replica of a satellite map. In turn, it enabled community members to show on maps where ‘danger and
dining meet’. These are images that can communicate complex settings at a scale conceivable by residents,
yet beyond the limits of conventional cartographic maps and satellite images. This is grassroots mapping at its
heart and we can call these ‘community satellite images’, as they can be tailored and re-used to create high-
quality, affordable, real-time images for and by the community.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
16 www.iied.org
Residents regarded this consolidated, updated
knowledge base as a spur for further deliberation and
dialogue (for example, opportunities for updating the
Mathare Zonal Plan8). It also provided a platform for
advocacy and policy action, which will help residents
negotiate with public authorities for infrastructure
planning and improved public spaces.
Figure 3: Key stages of the commu nity-mapping process
8 The Zonal Development Plan (2011) is a Mathare-wide participatory upgrading project, spearheaded by Muungano and city planning students from the
University of Nairobi and UC Berkeley. For more information, see the SDI website: http://www.sdinet.org/media/upload/documents/Mathare_Zonal_
Plan_25_06_2012_low_res-2.pdf

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 17
3
What did they
find? Local spatial
knowledge on food
and environmental
health
“The way we eat in informal settlements has
changed over time; this is because we lack
adequate cooking spaces in our shanties
and more so we are prone to fire outbreaks.
This is why we prefer ready-cooked food.”
(Respondent, focus group discussion, Mathare)
This section focuses on the results obtained in our
participatory study. We explore the types of food sold
by vendors and illustrate their spatial distribution,
as captured during the mapping process. We also
discuss key physical constraints to food safety and
livestock keeping, and identify significant opportunities
to improve food security in conjunction with enhanced
infrastructure, services and governance.
3.1 Narratives on food-
vending activities: Diversity
in typology, working hours,
locational benefits and
challenges
Vendors’ main food categories include uncooked foods
(cereals, vegetables, fruit, raw meat, omena, milk), hot
beverages (coffee, porridge, tea) and cooked foods
(githeri, ugali, rice, roast meat and meat products,
beans, chips, chapatti, mandazi).9 As shown in Figure 4,
for the 660 vendors identified, green groceries and
cooked foods accounted for three-quarters of the food
sold in the three settlements, while meat products
represented 12 per cent.
9
Githeri
is a stew made of maize and beans; ugali is a staple starch made of maize flour;
mandazi
is a fried triangular doughnut; and
omena
is a type of fish.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
18 www.iied.org
3.1.1 Selling patterns, locational factors
and security
Although most vendors operate between 5am and
10pm, their schedules may differ based on the level of
security, street lighting, available stock and customer
flows in their particular villages. For instance, Mathare’s
villages of Kosovo and Village 4B are considered the
safest, and vendors operate until approximately 11pm.
Location also plays a key role in street food sales;
vendors on major streets are safer and have greater c
ustomer flows compared to hawkers who operate in the
inner, narrow streets. Furthermore, ethnic composition
can affect levels of security and food-vending patterns.
Village 4B is safe for food vendors as it is composed
mainly of one tribe; youth groups operating in the area
are acquainted with these vendors and will provide
security against any external aggression. However,
outsiders who enter Village 4B may become victims of
these youth groups, and their safety after 9pm is not
guaranteed. Thanks to good reticulation of electricity
and street lights, Kosovo offers a safe environment for
food vendors and they can operate even after 11pm. In
Mukuru’s village of Simba Cool, vendors again sell late
at night, especially chapatti vendors who operate 24
hours a day.
Competition for spaces is especially high along the
main roads, since the greater volumes of people there
help to increase sales of street foods. This results in
conflicts among food vendors and also with owners of
formal shops (if vendors sell in front of these shops). In
Mathare, food vendors located in front of other shops
must pay a monthly fee and conflicts may also erupt with
livestock keepers who leave their animals to roam. In
Kibera, spatial conflicts also occur between new and old
vendors: every seller already has a vending site, leaving
no space for newcomers. The spaces with sheds are
protected through daily payments to youths, who guard
the sheds at night. Failure to pay results in destruction
or confiscation of the shed or structure.
3.1.2 Food safety and health concerns
FGD+ participants reported cases of food
contamination and unsafe foods, commonly resulting
in diarrhoea, stomach aches and vomiting. They also
reported previous disease outbreaks – especially
cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea – and diarrhoea is
particularly lethal for children under the age of five. The
causes of food contamination include the settlements’
hazardous selling environments (characterized by open
drains, open sewers, dumpsites, inadequate water
and sanitation, etc.), poor hygiene by food vendors,
and a lack of adequate storage facilities. As a result of
Figure 4: Settlement-wide food t ypologies
FOOD TYPES IN MATHARE, MUKURU AND KIBERA
Meat products
12%
Uncooked food
7%
Cooked food
34%
Multiple products
5%
Green groceries
42%

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 19
inadequate storage, vendors often experienced food
spoilage and others complained of rodents (especially
rats, which may eat food that is left in houses with
inadequate storage facilities).
Vendors have also developed coping mechanisms
to deal with poor storage, and these vary according
to location and the type of food sold. For example, in
Kibera and Mukuru, leftover githeri (a maize and bean
stew) is boiled, dried and sold first on the following
day. Similarly in Mathare, githeri is boiled and dried,
but some also add pepper to it to hide the smell that
leftovers may still have. When it spoils, vendors sell it to
those who cannot judge the quality, or give it away to
livestock keepers. Vegetable sellers store their leftover
produce in crates or on top of sacks overnight. Fish and
meat vendors usually buy their produce from outside the
settlement in small quantities so as to sell it all, as the
margin of loss is greater for these items. Fish vendors
in Kibera deep-fry around half the fish and store it in
buckets or cartons at night to ensure it lasts longer.
Additives such as soda ash (‘Magadi soda’) are used
particularly when preparing githeri and beans, in order
to preserve foods and speed up their cooking times.10
Githeri vendors in Kibera use other additives, such
as aspirin and peroxide; milk vendors will add water,
peroxide, Blue Band margarine and baking powder to
increase volume and thus increase profits. Although
residents were unsure about the health impacts of
such practices, they may have deleterious effects that
deserve closer scrutiny.
3.1.3 Infrastructure conditions and
environmental health challenges
Food vendors typically operate in hazardous areas
alongside open drains, blocked sewers, rodents or other
pests, uncollected rubbish heaps and dusty roads.
These conditions can together create severe challenges
to food safety and to vendors’ livelihoods. Open
drains in informal settlements are frequently clogged
and overflow with solid wastes, causing a nuisance
to customers because of the bad smells. Moreover,
open drains act as breeding sites for mosquitoes and
other disease vectors, which can result in outbreaks of
malaria. Inadequate drainage can attract insects such as
flies, which are also disease vectors, again increasing
the risk of food contamination. Garbage heaps are
another nuisance, attracting insects and rodents,
and these rats may get into foods and contribute to
disease transmission. Poorly maintained sewers may
overflow and discharge wastes onto roads or into other
public spaces (especially during heavy rains), thereby
disrupting sales or jeopardising food safety. These
challenges confirm the FGD+ narratives of multiple
pests and hazardous vending sites, and were also
evident in our mapping exercises (see Section 3.2).
Dusty roads may cause food contamination by carrying
disease vectors, as well as exacerbating the challenges
of inadequate water provision and improper handling
practices. The accumulation of dust on fresh produce
and utensils means that vendors have to buy water
to maintain cleanliness and the food’s attractive
appearance. However, water is relatively costly for low-
income residents in Nairobi, leading food vendors to
use water only sparingly. Unsurprisingly, such decisions
compromise food safety, especially if the food is not
cleaned properly or the containers in which it is sold
and stored are dirty. Furthermore, water kiosks and taps
are distributed unevenly in these settlements (see Figure
5); for instance, food vendors in Mathare typically have
to walk long distances to obtain water. Others opt to
buy from water vendors, which can reduce their profit
margins as well as the quantity of water bought, again
posing risks to food safety. While vendors were well
aware of these hazards, they claimed to be accustomed
to these challenges.
Vending spaces can also be polluted as a result of
inadequate human waste disposal, and hawkers often
struggle to cope with these broader infrastructure
deficits. Especially at night, residents of Nairobi’s
informal settlements may resort to ‘flying toilets’
(plastic bags filled with human excreta). In turn, food
vendors have to clear up these wastes and insanitary
spaces before opening for business every morning.
Vendors themselves often struggle to access sanitation
during their workday, and this may be linked to food
contamination and disease outbreaks (see below for
a discussion on inadequate toilets). Yet vendors are
unfairly blamed for selling unsafe foods, rather than
recognising their understandable inability to tackle
systemic challenges such as inadequate sanitation,
minimal water and the lack of solid waste management
in informal settlements.
10 For a review of the additives, contaminants and other toxicological hazards found in street foods in the global South, see Proietti
et al.
2014.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
20 www.iied.org
3.2 Rapid mapping of food
vendors: Spatial distribution
and linkages with
environmental health and
infrastructure provision
3.2.1 Spatial distribution of food
vendors in public spaces
Figure 5 shows the mapped location of food vendors
(as green dots) in selected villages of Kibera, Mathare
and Mukuru. A total of 660 vending locations were
captured during the mapping process. In Mathare,
318 food vendors were mapped; Mathare 3B had the
largest number of hawkers and Mashimoni had the
lowest. In Kibera, a total of 176 vendors were mapped
with Soweto East having the largest number at 98,
while Laini Saba had just 76 vendors. In Mukuru, Rurie
had the largest number and Feed the Children had the
fewest vendors.
3.2.2 Food-vending types
Across the three settlements, 279 traders sold green
groceries, representing 42 per cent of all food vendors
in these areas, and 223 vendors sold cooked foods,
accounting for about 34 per cent of vendors. Uncooked
foods were the least commonly sold in the three areas,
with only 46 vendors being mapped selling uncooked
items. Some food vendors also sold a variety of
products at the same stall, such as vegetables, cereals
and chips. A total of 35 such locations were mapped in
Mathare, Mukuru and Kibera.
Figure 5: Spatial distribution of vendors in 15 villages in Kibera (a), Mathare (b) and Muk uru (c).
c
a b

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 21
Figure 6: Food types and inf rastructu re provision in Kibera
As indicated in Kibera’s food typology map (see
Figure 6), vended items were categorized into four main
types, namely meat products, cooked foods, uncooked
foods and green groceries. Meat products in this case
included raw meat, cooked meat and roasted meat sold
in the settlement. Cooked foods refer to such items
as githeri, chips, beans, rice, chapatti and mandazi
(fried doughnuts), whereas uncooked foods refer to
such items as sweet potatoes (ngwaci), arrowroot
(nduma) and cereals. Green groceries, on the other
hand, included both vegetables and fruit. In Mathare
(see Figure 7), vendors dealing in green groceries are
the majority, followed by those selling cooked foods,
while those dealing with uncooked foods are the
least common.
3.2.3 Observation and analysis of food
vending and infrastructure provision
In all the study areas, we found a very strong link
between food vending and infrastructure. For instance,
in Kibera, out of the 176 mapped food-vending
locations, 145 lie in close proximity to the road networks
(that is, within five metres of any road segment). This
represents about 82 per cent of all food vendors in
Kibera. In Kibera’s village of Soweto East, vendors
offering cooked foods are most numerous, which is an
atypical result since vendors selling green groceries are
the majority in Mathare and Mukuru. The predominance
of cooked food vendors in Soweto East was explained
by the extensive construction along the Soweto Highrise
side; hence, most customers preferred ready-made
food, as they have limited time to cook. Similar patterns
of vendor proximity to roadside areas in Mathare are
shown in Figure 7, where fresh produce sellers are
the majority. However, in Village 4B, fewer vendors are
evident, and there is just one meat vendor.
Figure 7 also shows the uneven distribution of water
points within a section of the mapped villages in
Mathare. It indicates that Bondeni has the worst water
shortages and thus residents must pay higher water
costs compared to Village 3C, where a number of
food vendors are located close to a water point. Like
Bondeni, Village 4B experiences water scarcity as there
are only three water points located along its boundary.
Most vendors sell within this settlement and must send
someone to fetch water; these vendors’ water costs
must therefore exceed the typical retail prices.
Multi-products
Meat products
Uncooked foods
Cooked foods
Green groceries
Kambi M uru
Study sites
Lindi
Silanga
roads railway

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
22 www.iied.org
More generally, residents of Mathare experience highly
inadequate access to toilets, thus creating challenges
for vendors regarding access to sanitation and posing
further risks to food safety (see Figure 7). For example,
Bondeni village has only one toilet and food vendors
cannot readily use it (especially during peak business
hours, as this would mean leaving their vending kiosks
unattended). Vendors must therefore choose other
sanitation options, which compromise food safety,
particularly in the absence of water and hand-washing
facilities in Nairobi’s informal settlements. We return to
such pressing infrastructure challenges and residents’
priorities for change in Section 4.
Although food vendors are often located near hazardous
sites, which is seen as a nuisance for customers, we
argue that vendors should not be blamed for wider
environmental health concerns that are beyond their
control. For example, large open drains along major
roads such as Juja Road can create multiple threats
to food safety and vendors’ livelihoods, including flood
risks, rats, mosquitoes and other disease vectors (see
Figure 8; also see discussion in Section 4).
3.2.4 Livestock keeping
The main types of livestock found in the three
settlements are cattle, pigs, goats, rabbits, ducks, sheep
and hens, but a lack of space has created challenges
in rearing these animals. For instance, the severe
congestion in Mathare and Kibera has left only extremely
limited areas in which to raise livestock. Where livestock
keeping is observed, these are usually ‘landless’
practices (primarily poultry, such as hens and ducks),
because separate plots of land are not required. Animals
are typically accommodated in residents’ dwellings,
such as below staircases or in very small structures that
adjoin the main shelter. Larger animals such as goats,
sheep, cows or pigs that require separate structures
are, therefore, not prevalent in the settlements (although
they are still viewed as highly desirable). In turn, livestock
keepers often allow larger animals such as goats,
poultry and pigs to roam freely in the settlements, to
seek their own food (see Figure 9).
Figure 7: Food types and i nfrastruc ture provision in Mathare

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 23
However, such practices can expose the animals to
risks of theft, road traffic accidents and electrocution
as a result of illegal electricity connections. Diseases
are also easily spread by roaming livestock, especially
poultry and goats, which were observed eating from
dumpsites and even from open sewers (see Figures 9
and 10).
Figure 8: Pictur es of Mathare 3A from the g round and from the air
Co-existence of open sewer
and cooking space
Co-existence of open sewer,
dumping sites and vending space

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
24 www.iied.org
Figure 9: Livestock keeping and roam ing practices in Matha re, as observed dur ing mapping
Figure 10: Examples of live stock roaming and keeping practices

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 25
Roaming livestock can sometimes consume dangerous
materials like plastic bags, which can result in their
deaths. Also, these roaming animals might eat items
belonging to the food vendors, who respond by hitting
them or even killing them. This clearly indicates the
intense conflicts between food vendors and livestock,
which trace back to land constraints and competing
spatial uses in Nairobi’s informal settlements. However,
practices in Mukuru differ from those in Mathare and
Kibera, since Mukuru is relatively spacious, especially
in areas bordering the Nairobi River. Some Mukuru
residents keep several cows and can source livestock
food from the riverbanks, hotels and food vendors.
Vendors’ leftover food in Mukuru is typically sold:
a bucket costs Ksh.100, while a sack of vegetable
leftovers is sold for Ksh.50 or is exchanged for livestock
products. Residents have constructed shelters in their
neighbourhoods for their animals, which even include
open spaces. Structures are extremely important for
livestock in Mukuru because of the high frequency of
theft and the local authorities’ ban on roaming livestock.
Any animal found roaming in Mukuru is caught and the
owner fined or jailed; however, this ban on roaming was
not observed in Kibera and Mathare.
Animals are usually slaughtered within the settlements,
but during disease outbreaks, everyday practices
are disrupted. Instead, sick animals are slaughtered
just before they die and are sometimes locked inside
owners’ structures for days or weeks. In cases of
disease outbreak, residents do not consult veterinary
experts but, rather, purchase drugs from chemists
and agro-vets. Furthermore, slaughtered livestock are
often improperly disposed of, as their remains or entire
carcasses are typically dumped into rivers or alongside
streets. Minimal veterinary treatment, unsafe foods
consumed by livestock and inadequate disposal of their
remains can all pose major risks to community health, as
investigated further in our partner organizations’ Urban
Zoo project.11
Table 1: Common sites for livesto ck keeping in Kibera, Math are and Mukur u
LIVESTOCK PLACES KEPT
Goats Zero grazing / rented or constructed houses
Ducks Corridor structures
Chickens Rented or constructed houses
Rabbits Outside structures
Pigs Outside structures
11 See Footnote 7 for details on the Urban Zoo project.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
26 www.iied.org
4
Discussion: Unfolding
the opportunities,
challenges and policy/
practice gaps
4.1 The challenges of
food vending in informal
settlements
Food traders in informal settlements are faced with
an array of constraints, including poor physical
infrastructure, environmental hazards and spatial
conflicts. Street vendors must grapple with highly
contested public spaces, as they sell from the same
areas used for livestock grazing, playgrounds and
commuting by large numbers of people. Vendors
often compete for spaces along major streets and
may pay formal businesses to use their frontages. On
the other hand, given the high contestation for private
spaces for shelter and food production or storage,
there is little room available to keep livestock despite
widespread interest in doing so. Many livestock keepers
must enclose their animals because of the prevailing
insecurity in informal settlements, while others have no
choice but to co-habit with livestock due to inadequate
space. Limited private space for cooking and the
high costs of food or fuel have also made vendors’
items more appealing to customers, but such foods
are exposed to various hazards on the street. As
summarised in Table 2, our community-led mapping,
observations and FGDs+ identified several overlapping
threats to food safety and vendors’ livelihoods, including:
• Inadequate solid waste collection, which can attract
rats, mosquitoes or other pests that can all threaten
food safety.
• Food safety is also threatened by informal settlements’
dilapidated, meagre sanitation and expensive,
contaminated or inaccessible sources of water.
• Uncovered, clogged surface drains can contribute to
flooding risks, with associated health burdens.
• Floods can also hamper the transport of food and
prevent vendors from working.
• The regular power cuts and blackouts in informal
settlements can reduce physical security for both
vendors and customers. When power cuts force

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 27
vendors to close, their earning potential is curtailed, as
is their customers’ access to affordable foods.
• Vendors generally lack adequate shelter and storage
facilities, while high humidity and temperatures often
increase food spoilage. Some vendors use food
additives, such as Magadi soda, which could pose
long-term health risks to customers.
• During disease outbreaks, vendors often suffer
evictions or forced closures by city authorities. This
not only threatens traders’ livelihoods, but can also
reduce access to food for the many residents who
depend heavily upon vendors in their settlements.
Additionally, we identified multiple challenges facing
livestock keepers that can have broader impacts upon
community health, spatial conflicts and food vendors’
livelihoods:
• Livestock faeces can contaminate vendors’ foods,
while livestock themselves may eat contaminated
foods.
• Livestock diseases are difficult to control: owners
may administer human drugs, keep their sick animals
indoors, or use alternative remedies such as aloe vera,
pepper and vitamins. Furthermore, sick animals are
often sold or slaughtered before they succumb to their
illnesses.
• Animals are slaughtered in settlements with
inadequate waste disposal – as a result, their remains
or entire carcasses may be dumped into rivers or
alongside streets.
• Social and commercial exchanges in public spaces
can cause conflicts, as food vendors, livestock
keepers, playing children, water vendors, cart
pullers and other residents often jostle to occupy
limited space.
Thus, vended foods in informal settlements may pose
several health risks, which stem largely from the
environmental hazards and infrastructure deficits in
these areas (see Table 2). For low-income food traders,
these shortfalls in services and infrastructure can
severely hamper livelihoods, particularly when combined
with spatial congestion, inadequate storage and flood-
prone vending sites. During our FGDs+, a participant
noted that levels of security in their settlements can
also play a key role in limiting vendors’ selling hours
and profits:
“My security and that of the settlement is
a factor that dictates my vending hours.”
Respondent, focus group discussion in
Mathare
Table 2: Typical challenges identified by FGD+ par ticipants in the three settlements
SETTLEMENT COMMON CHALLENGES
Mathare Relatively high cost of raw materials
Inadequate water: expensive, inaccessible and/or unavailable
Poor sanitation and lack of toilets near vending sites
Open drainage channels and sewers, including near vending sites
Dumping solid wastes in vending spaces, especially at night, and lack of designated
disposal sites for vendors and general residents
Stagnant water and poor solid waste disposal can promote insect and rodent
breeding areas, which also contaminate foods
Risks of fire due to congestion
Spatial conflicts with livestock because some are left to roam; competition for space
and customers among food vendors
Mukuru Flooding of vending areas during the rainy season: wastes are carried by rainwater
and settle in the food-vending spaces
Water contamination due to informal water reticulation along sewer lines
Kibera Flooding of food-vending spaces
Lack of cooperation among vendors, especially regarding the cleanliness of vending
sites
Insect and rodent breeding areas, dirty water, uncollected solid waste and pests can
all contaminate vended foods
Frequent blackouts result in early business closures

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
28 www.iied.org
Vendors’ poverty and inadequate hygiene training may
create further threats to food safety, including the use
of various additives as discussed in Section 3.1.2. Our
FGDs+ discovered other improvised practices, such
as storing vegetables on rooftops or mixing spoiled and
fresh meals together without customers’ knowledge.
Food hawkers have responded to their inadequate
storage facilities and rising prices of inputs by re-using
leftover items (even if they may have spoiled overnight in
the absence of refrigeration), as noted below:
“High food prices have forced vendors
to resort to old-school methods of food
preservation such as smoking and salting
fish, airing vegetables on rooftops and mixing
fresh and spoilt foods (githeri), basically for
fear of making losses.” Community leader in
Kosovo, Mathare
Coping strategies may vary according to the type of
food, as indicated above, but the shared goal is to
preserve costly ingredients as long as possible in order
to eke out a few extra shillings. While these deceptive
practices may threaten the health of other community
residents, we suggest that the deeper causes are
structural and beyond vendors’ control. Their tactics
reflect the underlying challenges of high prices for
food, fuel and other inputs, of inadequate storage
and lack of refrigeration, and of pervasive poverty in
informal settlements.
It is also important to highlight the benefits of street
foods in informal settlements, as well as how seemingly
advantageous vending locations may still threaten
food safety. Street foods in informal settlements can
offer convenience and affordability to consumers;
selling in their settlements is also convenient for the
vendors themselves. Working in informal settlements
can reduce traders’ transport costs or levels of police
harassment compared to vendors in Nairobi’s Central
Business District (CBD). The benefits of working in their
settlements can be particularly important for female
vendors, who may otherwise struggle to combine
their livelihoods with childcare and who appreciate
the flexibility of working near their homes. However,
the associated site hazards and minimal services may
heighten the food safety challenges. For instance,
our mapping exercises revealed how the spaces near
environmental hazards can sometimes be attractive
to food vendors and consumers because of reduced
competition or lower costs. When purchasing foods,
consumers in informal settlements may prefer lower
prices to higher-quality items.
The locational benefits of vending in informal settlements
are thus a double-edged sword, offering short-term
gains in price or convenience but only perpetuating
residents’ poverty and exclusion. Consumers are forced
to trade off food quality and safety for lower prices and
accessibility, even if this exposes their foods to greater
hazards. Food vendors themselves struggle with highly
insecure livelihoods, largely as a result of the physical
and spatial constraints discussed above. Finally, both
vendors and consumers are caught in a deeper bind
that reflects the structural challenges in African informal
settlements. Such obstacles include residents’ low
incomes, poor access to infrastructure or services, and
political exclusion. While selling in informal settlements
can offer undeniable advantages, addressing these
entrenched structural challenges will require future
interventions, as discussed below.
4.2 Opportunities and
priorities
Although vendors have already proved resilient in the
face of multiple challenges, they may enjoy more secure
livelihoods with policy support and additional community
mobilisation. For example, a positive opportunity for
transformation arose with the recent establishment
of a Food Vendors’ Association (FVA). FVA members
are acting as change agents (Robertson 2014: 313),
helping to integrate and scale up individual actions that
can improve the use of public spaces for incremental
and collective learning (see Box 3). The FVA has
identified a key opportunity to enhance food safety by
proposing monthly training sessions to raise awareness
and improve vendors’ hygiene, handling practices
and cleanliness at their vending sites. In addition, they
recommended clean-up exercises to foster collective
responsibility among food vendors, livestock keepers
and other residents, while also enhancing their
local environments.
The street economy relies heavily on a strong sense
of attachment to place, which is manifested in local
solidarity and interdependence between vendors
and livestock keepers. For instance, fresh produce
vendors help to source foods for livestock (especially
goats) and their vegetable recycling represents a set
of innovative waste management strategies. Although
rarely acknowledged, such vital practices help the
actors to serve as ‘zero waste/nutrient recyclers’ within
the community. Other social ties were highlighted in the
FGDs+, as vendors stated that they did not sell milk with
preservatives to families with children, and customers
often provide social support, such as buying food from

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 29
family members and neighbours. Relational strains do
exist, as demonstrated by cases of theft, mishandled
loans between customers and vendors, and conflicts
between livestock keepers and food vendors. However,
the social capital in informal settlements is still a
significant asset (Moser 1998), and future initiatives can
continue to strengthen relations between vendors and
livestock keepers.
Residents in the FGDs+ identified other key
opportunities (see Table 3), including:
• Designating solid waste disposal points in the
settlements and signing a Memorandum of
Understanding for rubbish collection with the county
government (or other relevant agencies). This is an
urgent concern since the current inadequate services
have resulted in extensive waste accumulation,
which attracts pests and disease vectors to the food
vendors’ sites.
• Improving water provision, including lobbying the
Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company on the
need to reduce water connection fees and ensure
an adequate reticulation of water supply. Since water
prices are relatively high and distribution is uneven in
informal settlements, improving water reticulation and
promoting affordability are essential in addressing
these challenges.
• Improving sanitation by offering additional toilet
facilities and covering the open drains and sewers, as
per Mathare FVA proposals.
• Detailed, settlement-wide data (through balloon
mapping and other mapping and enumeration tools)
can help to meet vendors’ and residents’ needs for
dialogue and deliberation towards a sustainable,
community-led layout of their settlements.
• Food for urban livestock should be sourced from
shops, markets and food vendors, neighbours or
acquaintances. Contrary to popular perception,
vendors produce very little waste as their peelings and
other leftovers are often consumed by livestock.
Such initiatives will not only promote access to
affordable food but will also bolster self-employment,
improve security on the streets and enhance quality of
life more generally. Upgrading initiatives will strengthen
the livelihoods of food vendors and livestock keepers,
as well as improve access to infrastructure among
their fellow residents. In addition, hygiene training
for vendors and livestock keepers will offer a crucial
complement to these physical interventions. Consumers
will enjoy better access to healthier foods, thereby
promoting long-term gains in community health and
well-being. Alongside these vital improvements in
infrastructure, service delivery and vendors’ hygiene, we
suggest it will be crucial to establish a more favourable
policy framework.
BOX 3: NAIROBI’S FOOD VENDORS’ ASSOCIATION (FVA)
The Food Vendors’ Association was launched in late
2013, formed by the Kenyan urban poor federation
Muungano wa Wanavijiji. Its members reside in four
of Nairobi’s informal settlements: Mathare, Huruma,
Mukuru and Kibera. The FVA has championed food
security issues in informal settlements and it seeks to
improve access to infrastructure. Its rapid growth in
membership – to almost 700 individual vendors and
producers in just a few months – suggests there is
great interest in this issue.
Members include women selling vegetables and
cooked foods; residents operating butcheries;
kiosk owners selling various foods and cereals; and
livestock keepers. Members are organised into local
groups that jointly buy maize flour and soap, as well
as developing a savings scheme from which they can
receive loans to expand their businesses (up to three
times the value of their savings). As expressed by one
very motivated FVA member:
“Food Vendors’ Association is not all about
lobbying for the interests of food vendors,
but establishing a strategic platform to
champion issues of sanitation and improved
basic infrastructure in the settlements,
which have direct impacts on food safety.”
The FVA sees itself as a change agent taking
a strategic initiative and championing issues of
sanitation and other infrastructure in informal
settlements. Its strategies will not only bolster
livelihoods but also build upon and strengthen the
deep social networks in informal settlements.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
30 www.iied.org
4.3 Utopian laws on paper
vs harsh reality: Wide
gaps between policies and
practices
As in many African urban contexts, food vending
in Kenyan informal settlements and other informal
economic activities continue to “… encounter various
legal barriers that prevent them from attaining their full
potential” (Muraya 2006). We briefly review the relevant
policy framework in Kenya, in order to underscore the
inappropriate existing policies as well as the need
for reforms that can better support food vendors and
livestock keepers.
According to Public Health Act Cap 242: “Food
must be prepared and stored in establishments
approved for the purpose using clean and pathogen-
free equipment and containers”, but this is a major
challenge in informal settlements. Instead, vendors’
foods are prepared and stored along streets that may
be prone to flooding or other hazards. The Act also
stipulates that “… potable water be used in preparation
of food”, yet in informal settlements, access to water is
problematic for several reasons. Few water points are
available; water quality is poor due to leaking pipes and
open sewers; and kiosks or water vendors are often
unaffordable to the poor. Food hawkers therefore must
limit their water consumption in order to reduce costs
and the number of trips to fetch water.
Table 3: Common opportu nities as identified by residents in the t hree settlements
SETTLEMENT COMMON OPPORTUNITIES
Mathare • Provision of communal storage and cooling facilities
• Lobby the public health sector to issue free health certificates and licences
• Awareness raising regarding food safety
• Clean-up exercises
• Provision of designated dumpsites
• Lobby for water provision by the appropriate stakeholders
• Lobby the county government to cover open drains and sewers
• Engage stakeholders to enhance drainage and sewer provision
• Provision of sanitation facilities
Mukuru • Mobilise food vendors in the villages
• Promote vendors’ responsibility and hygiene (for example, control waste disposal,
develop good sanitation habits)
• Engage residents in sanitation initiatives, including behavioural change
• Create frequent forums to discuss food security and safety
• Possible engagements with lead agencies such as the Ministry of Environment and
county government; lobby for financial support from nearby industries and county
government
Kibera • Local administration involvement
• Youth support in solid waste collection
• Exchange visits for food vendors
• Street lighting, especially in Soweto East
• Centralised market

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 31
The Act also stipulates that “… food stores must be
free of vermin such as rodents, flies and cockroaches.”
However, vendors in informal settlements lack adequate
food storage facilities and usually keep their items
at home. They often complained of rodents and
cockroaches in their dwellings, as well as dust, rubbish
and flies along the streets. “Food handlers must be free
of communicable diseases and must undergo regular
medical check-ups” is another requirement unfulfilled by
the food vendors, who usually lack basic licences and
access to medical care. Furthermore, “… food products
must not contain any harmful additives or foreign
substances, including microbial toxins or chemical
residues in concentrations injurious to health.” Yet the
research has indicated that food vendors often use
additives such as Magadi soda and aspirin, which could
be harmful to consumers.
Provisions in the Meat Control Act Cap 356:
“Animals meant for slaughter must be free of
communicable/zoonotic diseases, for example BSE,
avian flu, FMD, rabies etc.” Again, this is a problem
in informal settlements: animals are not checked
before slaughter and no ante-mortem inspections are
conducted to prevent the slaughter of sick animals, as
the Act stipulates. Furthermore, the Act states that “…
carcasses [must] be decontaminated before they enter
the food chain and be protected from re-contamination
through appropriate handling and storage.” However,
carcasses in informal settlements are often dumped
into rivers, along the streets, or with other solid waste in
open spaces. The carcasses are not decontaminated,
and hence become health hazards associated with
food contamination.
Pig Industry Act Cap 361: In relation to pig rearing,
the Act stipulates that “… pigs should be raised
in confinement and fed with feeds free of disease
pathogens such as salmonella.” By contrast, pigs in
informal settlements are often released and roam widely
(although in some areas it is illegal to allow pigs to
roam). In Mukuru, as discussed above, the majority of
pig keepers must confine them to sheds built outside
their houses.
Food, Drugs and Chemical Substances Act Cap
254: The Act states that “… appropriate drugs and
antibiotics must be used to treat animal diseases and
withdrawal periods allowed to prevent accumulation
of drug residues in animal food products.” However,
livestock in informal settlements were found to be
treated using local means, since veterinary services
were deemed too expensive. These remedies included
the use of pepper, human drugs and local herbs as
well as other concoctions made by livestock keepers.
Residents are thereby exposed to further health risks
when consuming livestock products.
Comparing our findings against Kenyan legislation
clearly reveals the absence of supportive mechanisms
and underscores the need for future policy reforms.
Livestock keepers and food vendors in Nairobi’s informal
settlements are often ignored or scapegoated, thus
obscuring the state’s systemic failure to provide basic
services, to ameliorate living conditions or to develop
equitable urban policies. These groups are also invisible
in official statistics, similar to other informal workers
and residents of informal settlements (Patel et al.
2012, Charmes 2012). But through the community-
led mapping processes discussed above, residents
documented how food vendors provide for their own
needs and survive under difficult circumstances,
without official recognition. Putting the substantial
numbers of vendors on the map highlighted how these
residents offer a vital lifeline and livelihood in informal
settlements, but they still require supportive policies and
interventions in the future.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
32 www.iied.org
5
The journey does
not end here:
From discussion
and mapping to
transformative action
“Never before in my wildest thoughts have I
ever considered that food is directly impacted
by the status of sanitation infrastructure,
but now I know.” Consumer, focus group
discussion in Kosovo
Throughout the FGDs+ and mapping exercises,
residents carefully explored food safety challenges and
identified strategies to promote food security in Mathare,
Kibera and Mukuru. The research also provided several
opportunities for mutual learning between vendors,
livestock keepers and consumers. Key findings include
the following:
• Balloon mapping, FGDs+ and cognitive mapping
helped illuminate street vendors’ essential roles within
the community food system, as well as uncovering
the magnitude and scale of environmental hazards
affecting such foods. For the first time, residents were
able to visualise where ‘danger and dining meet’. The
findings also revealed how deeply rooted, structural
forces persistently draw food vendors and low-income
consumers towards hazardous sites.
• Residents gained various spatial insights from the
mapping exercises, such as the diverse locations
and temporal patterns of community food vendors.
Mapping has revealed how vendors as well as other
residents use public spaces innovatively and manage
them via informal governance. Furthermore, the study
explored ongoing spatial conflicts between food
vendors, livestock keepers, children’s playgrounds
and other activities in contested public spaces. These
areas are primarily main streets and walkways, which
may be affected by various environmental hazards.
• Traders themselves enjoyed a newfound opportunity
for horizontal and vertical exchanges in the FGDs+, as
they interacted for the first time with peers operating
throughout their settlements. Vendors shared a
range of experiences, including daily opening and
closing times; bustling and less popular sites; nearby
retailers; and both the pros and cons of selling in their
settlements. Additionally, participants benefited from

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 33
the comparative knowledge that the FGD+ facilitators
had gained in other settlements.
The project’s participatory methods also offered a range
of new insights and helped to empower residents.
These innovative methods and detailed findings can
support future advocacy with Kenyan government
officials or other stakeholders, as follows:
• Building local capacities in mapping and
visualisation tools strongly promoted the participants’
confidence, self-awareness and empowerment.
By sharing extensive spatial and qualitative data
with residents, the project also helped them to
prioritise future interventions using the project’s co-
produced knowledge.
• Community-led mapping can become a tool for
engaging public authorities, while residents’ local
initiatives on infrastructure can complement formal
planning policies. For instance, the FVA has already
embraced balloon mapping and other mapping
methods as tools both for knowledge creation
and community mobilisation. Such iterative and
participatory tools can amplify residents’ voice in
advocating for improved water, sanitation or other
interventions. They can also showcase community-
led infrastructure improvements and further develop
social, health and environmental practices that
support food safety in informal settlements.
• In Nairobi and other Kenyan cities, there are
opportunities for food vendors to collaborate with
official initiatives such as the Kenya Slum Upgrading
Programme (KENSUP) and the Kenya Informal
Settlement Improvement Project (KISIP). Participatory
mapping will be fundamental to establishing these
partnerships with government and aid agencies.
Participants themselves recognised the significant
potential of using mapping tools to transform vendors’
status and increase their public profile. As one FVA
member reflected, the research had empowered and
highlighted the contributions of her fellow traders:
“Urban poor women vendors produce
much of the settlement’s food, and care for
the conservation of public spaces and the
environment. Yet we continue to face exclusion
that prevents us from realising our potential.
Empowering women through such studies and
government social and economic policies is
crucial for ending food insecurity and poverty
in informal settlements.”
Furthermore, she rightly underscored the need for
state policies to bolster urban food security, and these
initiatives will need to combine multiple sectors and
geographic scales. Without sound housing and land
tenure policies, as well as improved incomes, services
and infrastructure, the urban poor will remain at elevated
risk of food insecurity. Kenyan legislation on food safety
and livestock keeping is also highly inappropriate to
the challenges in informal settlements (see Section
4.3). Urban-level initiatives, such as improved services,
infrastructure and mobilisation of vendors, can be
complemented by broader social and economic policy
measures. For instance, urban food security can be
supported by promoting market efficiency, improving
the transport of foods and providing social protection to
bolster food security during crises (Cohen and Garrett
2010). These authors also proposed several useful
recommendations regarding street vendors:
“Given the importance of street foods,
municipal authorities should train vendors in
hygiene, adequately and consistently enforce
regulations, and improve basic infrastructure.
Collaborating with vendor associations [can]
facilitate training and regulatory compliance.”
(Cohen and Garrett 2010: 479)
Our research similarly identified the need to train
vendors in hygiene, collaborate with vendor associations
and improve infrastructure access. In particular,
FGD+ participants have emphasised the importance
of adequate water, sanitation, drainage and regular
rubbish collection in their settlements. Sheds and
adequate storage are another priority, in order to
promote food safety as well as allowing vendors to
continue operating along the streets. Vendors, livestock
keepers and other residents can also help to develop
appropriate designs for markets, waste disposal points
and other community-led solutions to transform public
spaces. We conclude by sketching a research and
advocacy agenda, which we will continue to develop
in partnership with food vendors in Nairobi’s informal
settlements.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
34 www.iied.org
6
Conclusions: Key
findings and priorities
for action–research
and advocacy
Although street foods are essential both to consumers
and vendors in informal settlements, inadequate
infrastructure and services pose several threats to food
safety and livelihoods. Selling food near uncollected
rubbish, without adequate water and sanitation and with
only improper storage or non-existent refrigeration can
all promote food contamination. Increased insecurity
and inadequate public lighting can also prevent vendors
from selling after dark. Some vendors sell close to water
taps, but they may still lack the money or time to wash
their foods, utensils or hands thoroughly. In turn, this
can produce severe health risks, especially given the
lack of safe toilets in informal settlements. Nevertheless,
street foods do provide several benefits to customers
in terms of affordability, accessibility and social ties
in their communities. Vendors are deeply embedded
in informal settlements, but we suggest that the very
advantages of convenience and proximity to their fellow
residents can also generate health risks that require
future interventions.
Future interventions to promote food security will need
to be tailored to a variety of food vendors and should
reflect the contextual specificities of their informal
settlements. For instance, as noted above, large animals
are more commonly kept in Mukuru than in Mathare or
Kibera. Vendors’ needs may differ significantly based
on food type, such as cooked meals, fresh produce,
packaged goods and dried beans or cereals. Other
variations may include sellers’ levels of mobility and
methods of display; some are mobile hawkers while
others sell items on the ground or from fixed sites
(kiosks, restaurants or ‘hotels’, etc.). We highlighted
the role of locational factors, including vendors’ access
to infrastructure, levels of insecurity and proximity to
various hazards. Traders’ interactions with livestock
keepers and other residents of informal settlements are
again highly complex, requiring careful consideration
when proposing future initiatives.
The close interrelations between vendors, environmental
hazards and service deficits in informal settlements, as
well as food’s multiple links to community well-being,
together make it critical to support this previously hidden
trade. Although vendors in informal settlements have
been overlooked both by policy makers and researchers,
we argue that they can provide a central entry point for
equitable food policy, practice and action–research
in African cities. A study of food hawkers can help to
reveal deeper challenges in informal settlements, while
future interventions can generate significant benefits
for vendors and consumers alike. During subsequent
stages of our action–research project in Nairobi’s
informal settlements, we will continue to explore the
following themes:

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 35
a) Uncovering the links between
vending, urban health and food security
Accessible, affordable vended foods can enhance
health and help to reduce poverty among consumers
as well as sellers in informal settlements. As one of
the largest recurrent expenditures in low-income
households, food has a pivotal role in shaping poverty
dynamics and can strongly contribute to well-being
(particularly among children, people with HIV/AIDS and
other vulnerable groups). While some food vendors may
be quite prosperous, many traders are very low income
and may not differ significantly from their customers
in informal settlements. Via interviews and additional
FGDs+, we will explore the dynamics of successful food
vendors and the obstacles facing other traders, as well
as tracing the linkages between vending, urban health
and food security more generally.
b) Creating opportunities to reduce
poverty and support gender equity
Food vending frequently provides vital support to
women traders and their children, while gender and
lifecycle dynamics help in understanding the complex
food trade in informal settlements. Although food
vendors encompass women or men, old or young
residents, many are female traders who are more likely
to sell fresh produce or certain cooked foods such
as githeri (beans and maize stew). Mothers with small
children are often less able to travel and, more generally,
women may have few livelihood alternatives due to their
limited skills or access to capital. As a result of these
constraints in resources, training, transport and access
to childcare, as well as gender norms that already link
women with cooking, selling food in their communities
can be an especially crucial income-generating activity.
Demonstrating the importance of food vendors can
foster women’s empowerment via greater recognition
of their contributions, in addition to forging ways
of addressing their unmet needs. By continuing to
investigate women’s and men’s particular challenges
through FGDs+, their key priorities for interventions can
be identified. Analysing the gendered or other axes of
differences among vendors can thus inform strategies to
reduce poverty and promote gender-equitable initiatives.
c) Revealing the policy neglect and
environmental hazards in informal
settlements
Unlike the highly visible traders working in the CBD or in
well-established markets, the contributions and unique
needs of hawkers in Nairobi’s informal settlements are
usually overlooked. Operating in a policy vacuum, as
in informal settlements more generally, traders working
there may be less likely to receive supportive services
or other interventions. Informal settlements’ spatial
conflicts, greater environmental hazards and increased
levels of insecurity may create unusually severe
challenges for food hawkers. Furthermore, traders in
informal settlements are caught in a broader web of
meagre solid and liquid waste management. Even as
they strive to maintain their vending sites, many cannot
adequately dispose of food wastes and struggle to cope
with poor drainage. These characteristics suggest some
of the particular challenges of food vendors in informal
settlements, which we will seek to unravel in later stages
of the research.
d) Using food vending as an entry point
for new alliances and advocacy
We suggest that food vending offers an unusually
valuable entry point for holistic initiatives that
simultaneously enhance food security and create
wider gains in informal settlements. To ensure food
safety, vendors will need various initiatives that can
also create benefits for residents and other workers
by improving their settlements’ infrastructure, services
and environmental quality. For instance, improved
water and sanitation is essential for vendors preparing
meals or cleaning fresh produce; better water and
sanitation will also support livelihoods and health
more generally in their settlements. Key services also
include regular rubbish collection, well-maintained
drainage and enhanced flood control, which will also
help residents to cope with extreme weather and will
improve environmental quality. Upgraded paths can
prevent dust or other food contaminants and facilitate
access by mobile vendors; in addition, better paths will
help other workers and the many residents who travel
on foot. Food vendors are therefore a strategic entry
point for initiatives to enhance food safety and access
to food, which can also generate extensive gains in
their communities.
By continuing to mobilise workers in the FVA and
forge other alliances, it may be possible to strengthen
their voice and leverage with Kenyan decision makers.
The participatory tools developed in this project can
underpin such advocacy campaigns, both by offering
detailed data and empowering residents to seek greater
recognition. Muungano and other SDI affiliates have
already developed their capacities for mapping and
enumeration (Karanja 2010, Patel et al. 2012), w h ich
can also inform mapping of food vendors and nearby
infrastructure. In sum, the multi-faceted strategies
needed to support food vendors can offer a highly
compelling motivation for government advocacy and
integrated initiatives, which can create a set of far-
reaching benefits in informal settlements.

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
36 www.iied.org
References
Aanensen, D.M., Huntley, D.M., Feil, E.J. and Spratt,
B.G. (2009), ‘EpiCollect: linking smartphones to web
applications for epidemiology, ecology and community
data collection’, PloS One,Vol. 4, No. 9, pp. e6968.
Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT), University of Nairobi,
Strathmore University, Muungano wa Wanavijiji, and
Katiba Institute (2014), ‘Mukuru Situation Analysis
Report’, Nairobi, 145 pages.
Amendah, D.D., Buigut, S. and Mohamed, S. (2014),
‘Coping strategies among urban poor: evidence from
Nairobi, Kenya’, PloS One,Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. e83428.
Appadurai, A. (2001), ‘Deep democracy: urban
governmentality and the horizon of politics’, Environment
and Urbanization,Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 23-43.
Barry, L (2014), ‘How Public Lab collaborates to make
environmental science something anyone can do’,
presented at the Open Source Developers’ Conference,
Academia Sinica Taipei, Taiwan, 11 April 2014.
Brown, A. (ed.) (2006),Contested Space: Street
Trading, Public Space, and Livelihoods in Developing
Cities. IDTG Publishing, Rugby.
Charmes, J. (2012), ‘The informal economy worldwide:
trends and characteristics’, Margin: The Journal of
Applied Economic Research,Vol 6, No 2, pp. 103-132.
Clark, G (2013), ‘Twentieth-century government attacks
on food vendors in Kumasi, Ghana.’ In: Hansen, K et al.
(eds.), Street Economies in the Urban Global South,
pp. 29-48. School for Advanced Research Advanced
Seminar Series, Santa Fe.
Cohen, M.J. and Garrett, J.L. (2010), ‘The food price
crisis and urban food (in)security’, Environment and
Urbanization,Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 467-482.
FAO (2010) The state of food insecurity in the world
2010. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, Rome. Available at http://www.fao.org/
docrep/013/i1683e/i1683e.pdf [Accessed 5 May 2015]
Godfray, H.C.J., Beddington, J.R., Crute, I.R., Haddad,
L., Lawrence, D., Muir, J.F., Pretty, J., Robinson, S.,
Thomas, S.M. and Toulmin, C. (2010), ‘Food security:
the challenge of feeding 9 billion people’, Science,Vol.
327, No. 5967, pp. 812-818.
Hansen, K. et al. (eds.), Street Economies in the
Urban Global South. School for Advanced Research
Advanced Seminar Series, Santa Fe.
Johnson, D (2007), ‘Public Participation Geographic
Information Systems as surveillance tools in urban
health.’ In: Jensen, R et al. (eds.) Geo-Spatial
Technologies in Urban Environment, p p. 10 9 -12 0.
Springer, Berlin Heidelberg.
Karanja, I. (2010), ‘An enumeration and mapping of
informal settlements in Kisumu, Kenya, implemented by
their inhabitants’, Environment and Urbanization,Vol. 22,
No. 1, pp. 217-239.
Keller, S. (2014), ‘Transect walk’, Sustainable Sanitation
and Water Management, Basel, Switzerland. Available
at http://www.sswm.info/category/planning-process-
tools/exploring/exploring-tools/preliminary-assessment-
current-status/tran [Accessed 5 May 2015]
Kimani-Murage, E., Schofield, L., Wekesah, F.,
Mohamed, S., Mberu, B., Ettarh, R., Egondi, T.,
Kyobutungi, C. and Ezeh, A. (2014), ‘Vulnerability to food
insecurity in urban slums: experiences from Nairobi,
Kenya’, Journal of Urban Health,Vol. 91, No. 6, pp.
10 9 8 -1113 .
Makau, J., Dobson, S. and Samia, E. (2012), ‘The five-
city enumeration: the role of participatory enumerations
in developing community capacity and partnerships
with government in Uganda’, Environment and
Urbanization,Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 31-46.
Maxwell, D. (1999), ‘The political economy of
urban food security in Sub-Saharan Africa’, World
Development,Vol. 27, No. 11, pp. 1939-1953.
Misselhorn, A., Aggarwal, P., Ericksen, P., Gregory, P.,
Horn-Phathanothai, L., Ingram, J. and Wiebe, K. (2012),
‘A vision for attaining food security’, Current Opinion in
Environmental Sustainability, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 7-17.
Morgan, K. (2009), ‘Feeding the city: The challenge of
urban food planning’, International Planning Studies,
Vol. 14, No 4, pp. 341-348.
Moser, C.O. (1998), ‘The asset vulnerability framework:
reassessing urban poverty reduction strategies’, World
Development,Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 1-19.
Muoki, M., Tumuti, D. and Rombo, D. (2008), ‘Nutrition
and public hygiene among children under five years of
age in Mukuru slums of Makadara Division, Nairobi’, East
African Medical Journal,Vol. 85, No. 8, pp. 386-397.

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 37
Muraya, P.W. (2006), ‘Urban planning and small-scale
enterprises in Nairobi, Kenya’, Habitat International,Vol.
30, No. 1, pp. 127-143.
Muungano Support Trust (MuST) (2014), ‘Kenyan
settlement profiling report – Nairobi’. Slum Dwellers
International (SDI), Cape Town.
Mwangi, A.M., den Hartog, A.P., Foeken, D.W., van’t
Riet, H., Mwadime, R.K. and Van Staveren, W.A. (2001),
‘The ecology of street foods in Nairobi’, Ecology of Food
and Nutrition,Vol. 40, No. 5, pp. 497-523.
Patel, S., Baptist, C. and d’Cruz, C. (2012), ‘Knowledge
is power–informal communities assert their right to the
city through SDI and community-led enumerations’,
Environment and Urbanization,Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 13-
26.
Porter, G., Lyon, F. and Potts, D. (2007), ‘Market
institutions and urban food supply in West and Southern
Africa a review’, Progress in Development Studies,Vol.
7, No. 2, pp. 115-134.
Proietti, I., Frazzoli, C. and Mantovani, A. (2014),
‘Identification and management of toxicological hazards
of street foods in developing countries’, Food and
chemical toxicology,Vol. 63, pp. 143-152.
Rambaldi, G., Corbett, J., Olson, R., McCall, M.,
Muchemi, J., Kyem, P.K., Weiner, D. and Chambers, R.
(2006), ‘Mapping for change: practice, technologies
and communication’, Participatory Learning and Action,
No. 54. IIED and CTA, London.
Robertson, M. (2014),Sustainability Principles and
Practice. Routledge, Abingdon.
Ruel, M.T., Garrett, J.L., Hawkes, C. and Cohen, M.J.
(2010), ‘The food, fuel, and financial crises affect the
urban and rural poor disproportionately: a review of the
evidence’, The Journal of Nutrition, Vol. 140, No. 1, pp.
170S-6S.
Shapouri, S., S. Rosen, B. Meade, and F Gale (2009)
Food security assessment, 2008–2009. Outlook No.
(GFA-20), Washington DC. Available at http://www.
ers.usda.gov/media/155651/gfa20_1_.pdf [Accessed 5
May 2015]
Shubert, W. (2014), ‘Balloon mapping: How to make
your low-flying satellite.’ Geojournalism Handbook.
Available at: http://geojournalism.org/2013/08/balloon-
mapping-how-to-make-your-own-low-flying-satellite/
[Accessed 5 May 2015]
Sieber, R. (2006), ‘Public participation geographic
information systems: A literature review and
framework’, Annals of the Association of American
Geographers,Vol. 96, No. 3, pp. 491-507.
Simiyu, E. (2014), ‘Mapping the physical constraints
to food safety in Nairobi’s infomal settlements: Case
study of Mathare.’ MSc dissertation, Department
of Geospatial Engineering and Space Technology,
University of Nairobi.
Sonnino, R. (2009), ‘Feeding the city: Towards a new
research and planning agenda’, International Planning
Studies,Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 425-435.
Steyn, N.P., Mchiza, Z., Hill, J., Davids, Y.D., Venter,
I., Hinrichsen, E., Opperman, M., Rumbelow, J. and
Jacobs, P. (2014), ‘Nutritional contribution of street
foods to the diet of people in developing countries: a
systematic review’, Public Health Nutrition,Vol. 17, No.
6, pp. 1363-1374.
Tacoli, C., Bukhari, B. and Fisher, S. (2013), ‘Urban
poverty, food security and climate change’, Human
Settlements Working Paper No. 37, Rural-Urban
Interactions and Livelihood Strategies. IIED, London.
University of Nairobi, MuST and Muungano wa Wanavijiji
(2012), ‘Mukuru Kwa Njenga Slum Upgrading Plan’,
Nairobi. Available at www.centreforurbaninnovations.
com/download/file/fid/422 [Accessed 5 May 2015]
van ‘t Riet, H., den Hartog, A.P., Mwangi, A.M.,
Mwadime, R.K., Foeken, D.W. and van Staveren, W.A.
(2001), ‘The role of street foods in the dietary pattern of
two low-income groups in Nairobi’, European Journal of
Clinical Nutrition,Vol. 55, No. 7, pp. 562-570.
WaterAid (2005), ‘Community mapping: A tool for
community organizing,’ London. Available at http://
www.wateraid.org/~/media/Publications/community-
mapping-programme-partner-guidelines.pdf [Accessed
5 May 2015]

Cooking u p a storm | Community-led mapping and advoCaCy with food vendors in nairobi’s informal settlements
38 www.iied.org
Related reading
Reframing the debate on urbanisation, rural
transformation and food security briefing by Cecilia
Tacoli and Bill Vorley
http://pubs.iied.org/17281IIED.html
Dining with less danger: mapping food and
environmental hazards in Mathare, Nairobi briefing by
Sohel Ahmed, Edwin Simiyu, Grace Githiri, Adrienne
Acioly, Shadrack Mbaka, Irene Karanja, and Leonard
Kigen
http://pubs.iied.org/17218IIED.html
The role of local government in urban food security by
Cecilia Tacoli, Hoang Xuan Thanh, Mensah Owusu,
Leonard Kigen, and Jon Padgham
http://pubs.iied.org/17171IIED.html
Urban poverty, food security and climate change
working paper by Cecilia Tacoli, Budoor Bukhari, and
Susannah Fisher
http://pubs.iied.org/10623IIED.html
Mapping, enumerating and surveying informal
settlements and cities Environment & Urbanization 24:1
http://eau.sagepub.com/content/24/1.toc
UNFPA Technical Briefing: Urbanization and food prices
by Gordon McGranahan
http://pubs.iied.org/G03114.html
Is urbanization contributing to higher food prices?
working paper by Jesper Stage, Jorn Stage, and Gordon
McGranahan
http://pubs.iied.org/10573IIED.html
The food price crisis and urban food (in)security working
paper by Marc Cohen and James L. Garrett
http://pubs.iied.org/10574IIED.html

IIED WorkIng papEr
www.iied.org 39

Knowledge
Products
IIED is a policy and action research
organisation. We promote sustainable
development to improve livelihoods
and protect the environments on which
these livelihoods are built. We specialise
in linking local priorities to global
challenges. IIED is based in London and
works in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the
Middle East and the Pacific, with some
of the world’s most vulnerable people.
We work with them to strengthen their
voice in the decision-making arenas that
affect them — from village councils to
international conventions.
International Institute for Environment and Development
80-86 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8NH, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 3463 7399
Fax: +44 (0)20 3514 9055
email: info@iied.org
www.iied.org
Funded by:
Food security is rarely prioritised in African cities, and
food vendors are similarly ignored or stigmatised, despite
providing a range of affordable, accessible meals.
Furthermore, past research and urban policies usually
overlook food hawkers selling inside informal settlements.
Based on participatory research in Nairobi, this paper
aims to address the invisibility of vendors in informal
settlements and to inform more appropriate, inclusive urban
food security strategies. Balloon-mapping and other novel
mapping techniques were combined with focus group
discussions to explore vendors’ practices, challenges,
and opportunities for promoting food safety. Our detailed
maps, vivid narratives, and community-led strategies may
cook up a storm that can create safer foods and more
secure livelihoods, with benefits extending across African
informal settlements.
This research was funded by UK aid from the
UK Government, however the views expressed
do not necessarily reflect the views of the UK
Government.