Urban policy environments and urban food security

Abstract

In recognition of the challenges posed by Uganda’s rapid urbanization, the national government has introduced a Uganda National Urban Policy (UNUP). The government has also proposed a ‘stringent’ new National Migration Policy. Up to now Uganda’s policy environment has ignored the urban dimensions of poverty and the food insecurity that accompanies it. Migration, an important driver of both urban poverty and urban food insecurity, has been poorly understood and only international migration has been addressed. This chapter explores the urban policy environment and the multilevel governance policy process in Uganda, in order to understand not only how new policies are being shaped by the government’s political priorities in the face of its weakening popular legitimacy and growing signs of urban discontent, but also what potential entry points exist to influence policy making in Uganda in ways that might better support the needs of the nation’s growing numbers of urban food insecure, among them internally displaced Ugandans.