Slumboere mangler vitale næringsstoffer

“Many of the people living in informal settlements are poor and rely on street food vendors (madboder) for their consumption… The food is, in most instances, very unhygienic,” Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, the International Food Policy and Research Institute’s (IFPRI) Eastern and Southern Africa director, told IRIN, adding:

“When you get little money in the slums, you either prioritize to buy food or paraffin (petroleum til komfurer og lamper), and they tend to decide on buying already cooked food.”

Eating cheap, cooked foods is one of the many strategies employed by the urban poor to cope with rising global food prices.

Experts say there is a need to create policies to ensure that this segment of the world’s population can access a proper diet (kost).

“Their vulnerability to food price increases means there should be ways to ensure they can access a balanced diet, like promoting urban agricul-ture (havebrug i byerne) and providing them with social protection,” Anne O’Mahoney, the Kenya country director for the global NGO Concern Worldwide, told IRIN.

In Kenya, a recent assessment carried out by the government, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), and the UN’s World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization revealed that more than a quarter of the country’s urban children are stunted (under normal højde) – a symptom of chronic malnutrition – while 13 percent of high-density urban households have unacceptably low levels of food consumption.

A 2010 study by the University of Colombo, in Sri Lanka, found that just 38,4 percent of children had at least one fruit portion a day, while legume (bælgplante) and nut consumption was seen in only 34,4 percent.

“Inadequate dietary diversity in urban slums is a concern,” the authors concluded.

Improving diets