Food insecurity in households in informal settlements in urban South Africa

The increasing number of AIDS orphans has led to an increase in child and youth headed households. Adjusting to the parenting role with no support from their extended family is a source of distress for orphans heading households. This study explored the parenting experiences of orphaned youth heading households in resource constraints environments. Methods: The participants were purposely selected from Youth-Headed Households (YHHs) located in informal settlements in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. The data analysis was inductive and followed the thematic approach. Results: Thirteen females and five males aged between 15-24 years were interviewed. The phenomenon of YHHs occured in impoverished informal settlements partly due to orphans being forcefully removed from their parents’ homes after the death of their mothers. The household heads felt morally obliged to care for their siblings, experienced parenting as burdensome, and the role adjustment from being a child to a parent difficult and demanding. The inability to provide adequate food to feed their siblings was a source of emotional stress. In an attempt to fulfil their parenting roles, they dropped out of school to find employment. Conclusion: Although the child support and foster grant are widely recognised for improving children's access to food, education, and basic services in South Africa, the lack thereof contributed to the economic hardships and vulnerability to food insecurity and hunger among orphans in YHHs. There is a need for multi-sectoral interventions to address food insecurity and, in so doing, improve the psychosocial wellbeing of orphans in YHHs.

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Food insecurity and its association with co-occurring postnatal depression, hazardous drinking, and suicidality among women in peri-urban South Africa

Journal of Affective Disorders ◽

10.1016/j.jad.2013.04.040 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 150 (2) ◽

pp. 460-465 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Sarah Dewing ◽

Mark Tomlinson ◽

Ingrid M. le Roux ◽

Mickey Chopra ◽

Alexander C. Tsai

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Postnatal Depression ◽

Hazardous Drinking ◽

Urban South

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Sustainable Water Provision in Informal Settlements: A Developmental Challenge for Urban South Africa

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences ◽

10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n25p102 ◽

2014 ◽

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Informal Settlements ◽

Urban South ◽

Water Provision

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The politics of local resistance in urban South Africa: Evidence from three informal settlements

International Sociology ◽

10.1177/0268580918764837 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 337-356 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marcel Paret

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Urban Poor ◽

Urban Poverty ◽

Local Level ◽

Informal Settlements ◽

Economic Transformation ◽

Local Resistance ◽

Urban South ◽

Political Orientations ◽

The One

Between 2009 and 2014, South Africa experienced widespread protests. In contrast to prominent examples of global protest during the same period, they were localized and did not push for broad political and economic transformation. To explain these features, this article draws from three ethnographic and interview-based case studies of local protest and organizing within informal settlements in and around Johannesburg. The author argues that urban poverty and the experience of market insecurity, on the one hand, and democratization and the experience of state betrayal, on the other hand, gave rise to specific political orientations. Residents responded to market insecurity by demanding collective consumption for place-based communities, and they responded to state betrayal by demanding fulfillment of a national liberation social contract through administrative fixes. Both strategies confined activism to the local level and limited broader challenges. The findings have implications for research on both the urban poor and social movements.

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Food insecurity, diet quality and body composition: data from the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI) pilot survey in urban Soweto, South Africa

Public Health Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s136898002100046x ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-9

Author(s):

Sarah H Kehoe ◽

Stephanie V Wrottesley ◽

Lisa Ware ◽

Alessandra Prioreschi ◽

Catherine Draper ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Body Composition ◽

Food Security ◽

Body Size ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Diet Quality ◽

Urban Poor ◽

Reproductive Age ◽

Healthy Life ◽

Life Trajectories

Abstract Objective: To determine whether food security, diet diversity and diet quality are associated with anthropometric measurements and body composition among women of reproductive age. The association between food security and anaemia prevalence was also tested. Design: Secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI) study. Food security and dietary data were collected by an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Hb levels were measured using a HemoCue, and anaemia was classified as an altitude-adjusted haemoglobin level < 12·5 g/dl. Body size and composition were assessed using anthropometry and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Setting: The urban township of Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. Participants: Non-pregnant women aged 18–25 years (n 1534). Results: Almost half of the women were overweight or obese (44 %), and 9 % were underweight. Almost a third of women were anaemic (30 %). The prevalence rates of anaemia and food insecurity were similar across BMI categories. Food insecure women had the least diverse diets, and food security was negatively associated with diet quality (food security category v. diet quality score: B = –0·35, 95 % CI –0·70, –0·01, P = 0·049). Significant univariate associations were observed between food security and total lean mass. However, there were no associations between food security and body size or composition variables in multivariate models. Conclusions: Our data indicate that food security is an important determinant of diet quality in this urban-poor, highly transitioned setting. Interventions to improve maternal and child nutrition should recognise both food security and the food environment as critical elements within their developmental phases.

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The Conditions for after Work: Financialization and Informalization in Posttransition South Africa

PMLA ◽

10.1632/pmla.2012.127.4.782 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 127 (4) ◽

pp. 782-799 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Anne-Maria Makhulu

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Informal Settlements ◽

Global South ◽

First Century ◽

Informal Employment ◽

Shop Floor ◽

Two Factors ◽

Informal Economies ◽

Forms Of Life ◽

Modes Of Life

This essay situates the problem of twenty-first-century work in the global South—specifically, in South Africa—to challenge northern theories of the crisis of work. Addressing the break between Fordism and post-Fordism peculiar to the postcolonial context, it argues that new regimes of work should be understood in relation both to longer histories of colonial resistance to proletarianization (to the racisms of the shop floor) and to colonial Fordisms, as well as to the way these two factors inform the current expansion of informal employment. What practices and forms of life emerge from the precarity of informal economies and informal settlements? How are precarious modes of life connected to and informed by the steady dematerialization of the economy through financialization?

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A Priori and a Posteriori Dietary Patterns among Pregnant Women in Johannesburg, South Africa: The NuPED Study

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu13020565 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 565

Author(s):

Cornelia Conradie ◽

Jeannine Baumgartner ◽

Linda Malan ◽

Elizabeth A. Symington ◽

Marike Cockeran ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Pregnant Women ◽

Dietary Patterns ◽

Dietary Pattern ◽

A Priori ◽

Dietary Quality ◽

A Posteriori ◽

Urban South ◽

Quality Diet ◽

Nutrient Patterns

Dietary pattern analyses allow assessment of the diet as a whole. Limited studies include both a priori and a posteriori dietary pattern analyses. This study aimed to explore the diet of pregnant women in urban South Africa through both a priori and a posteriori dietary pattern analyses and associated maternal and household factors. Dietary data were collected during early pregnancy using a quantified food frequency questionnaire from 250 pregnant women enrolled in the Nutrition During Pregnancy and Early Development (NuPED) cohort. A priori dietary patterns were determined using the Diet Quality Index-International (DQI-I), and a posteriori nutrient patterns using exploratory factor analysis. Based on the DQI-I, the study population followed a borderline low-quality diet. Three a posteriori nutrient patterns were identified: Pattern 1 “plant protein, iron, thiamine, and folic acid”; pattern 2 “animal protein, copper, vitamin A, and vitamin B12”; pattern 3 “fatty acids and sodium”. Pattern 1 was associated with higher dietary quality (p < 0.001), lower maternal educational level (p = 0.03) and socioeconomic status (p < 0.001). Pattern 3 was significantly associated with lower dietary quality. The low dietary quality among pregnant women residing in urban South Africa should be addressed to ensure optimal maternal and offspring health outcomes.

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Household Vulnerability to Food Insecurity in Rural South Africa: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Survey Data

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18041917 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 1917

Author(s):

Sandile Mthethwa ◽

Edilegnaw Wale

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Food Policy ◽

Critical Role ◽

Rural Household ◽

Eastern Cape ◽

Household Vulnerability ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

Vulnerable Households

Using a nationally representative dataset from rural areas in South Africa, the study examines vulnerability to food insecurity using the Vulnerability as Expected Poverty framework. The dataset used was large and comprehensive to develop robust profiles of vulnerable households. This is executed employing the sustainable livelihoods framework. The findings show that human and financial capital plays a critical role in making rural households resilient from vulnerability to food insecurity. The failure of natural resources to support agricultural livelihoods emerged as an important factor for rural household vulnerability to food insecurity. Gender-based imbalances still prevail, explaining most of the rural household vulnerability to food insecurity. Female-dominated households still endure most of the prevailing vulnerabilities to food insecurity, and this is even worse for households headed by younger females. Policies, strategies, and institutions in South Africa have not been able to address household vulnerability to food insecurity. The study identified Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal as the most vulnerable provinces where food policy has to be a top priority agenda.

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