Nutrition Programming in Urban Settings

More than half of the world’s 7 billion people now live in urban areas (UNICEF 2012). As the world's population is becoming increasingly urbanised, new challenges are arising. The rural-urban gap in nutrition has narrowed in recent decades – essentially because the situation has worsened in urban areas (UNICEF 2012). Ensuring adequate nutrition and food security for people living in urban areas is arguably one of the most significant challenges (FAO 2014). The poorest urban-dwellers spend up to 75% of their income on staple foods alone. The ‘food poor’ refers to those unable to meet all nutritional needs due to expenditure on other basic non-food essentials (Kyalo et al 2013).