Authors: John Oppong-Otoo, Food Safety Officer, African Union InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR)
Silvia Alonso Alvarez, Principal Scientist Epidemiologist, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Buying milk, chicken or vegetables from a streetside stall, or an open air or wet market is such a natural part of life for most of us in Africa that we likely take the informal food sector for granted.
The reality is that, across the continent, such street vendors and small-scale retailers are the predominant sources of milk, vegetables and other fresh food, and are part of the very fabric of communities. Informal food markets are important sources of affordable and readily accessible food to households, both raw and ready-to-eat.
Yet the informal sector, which feeds the majority and gives jobs to many, is typically under-valued or sometimes viewed with concern by authorities as a result of – at times unfounded – perceptions of food safety and hygiene risks.
Consequently, persistent under-investment has left individual vendors to do their best against the odds to ensure the food they are selling is safe and uncontaminated.
But the right to food that is safe and wholesome is one of the world’s most fundamental human rights, without which none of us can lead fulfilling and healthy lives. Without fully supporting those working in the informal sector, the right to safe food for 1.5 billion Africans is jeopardised.
While food safety standards in the formal sector and in exported goods have improved rapidly in Africa in recent decades, ensuring consistent standards across the informal sector remains a challenge. The informal food sector, characterized by its fragmentation and under-resourcing, presents unique difficulties for governments to implement and maintain uniform food safety measures.
The African Union is responding to the need to improve food safety in the continent through its recently launched Food Safety Strategy for Africa.
However, with 90 million cases of foodborne sickness every year, governments urgently need guidelines on how to work with Africa’s vast informal agrifood sector, and address its specific challenges, from a lack of equipment such as refrigerators, to limited access to training and information. In doing so, African governments can unlock the full potential of informal food markets to support improved food and nutrition security and livelihoods across the continent.
This is why the African Union (AU) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are developing the first formal guidelines to help governments better integrate the informal sector into national food systems at large, and create the conditions in which individuals and small enterprises can practically ensure food safety.
Informal markets are too important for food security and livelihoods to attempt to reform them with drastic wholesale changes or piecemeal efforts. Rather, governments need to work closely with those in the existing food system to begin gradually transitioning businesses to better food safety practices and thriving businesses.
To begin with, governments must recognise the role and potential of the informal food sector to deliver national goals for nutrition security and livelihoods. This means including the informal sector within national and regional agrifood policies, thereby recognising the vital services that it provides to millions across the continent.
Acknowledging the informal food sector as a cornerstone of Africa’s agrifood sector will also help to shift the narrative from one of risk to one of potential, which in turn would foster a more productive way of working with those in informal markets.
Secondly, governments must also deepen their level of engagement with the informal food sector. This includes creating mechanisms for the informal food sector to engage with national authorities more effectively on an ongoing basis.
At present, the informal food sector has little to no voice in government dialogues and is hardly represented in global and national food systems strategies. As a result, policies are created that directly impact its future, largely without the input of those involved.
Part of the challenge of establishing consistent monitoring of food safety and quality is the fragmentation of the informal food sector, which can make it difficult to communicate and implement food safety practices at scale.
One way for governments to address this is by supporting and encouraging the development of associations, cooperatives and organisations that unite those working in the informal food sector and legitimately represent their interests. This offers more consolidated channels through which government agencies can interact with those in the informal food sector to continue supporting them in improving their food safety practices.
Finally, governments must commit to scaling up investment for informal food businesses.
Increased financial support can help professionalise the informal sector, using nudges, incentives and training to improve food safety practices, rather than the often-ineffective punishment-first approach of the past.
As the first step to support governments to better embrace and leverage the informal agrifood sector, we believe these guidelines could become a watershed moment in the transformation of African food systems.
Following World Food Safety Day on June 7, African countries should seize the opportunity to leverage the enormous – yet untapped – potential of the continent’s informal food sector to become a vehicle for healthy and safe foods for all.
We encourage policymakers, public authorities and those working in Africa’s agrifood sector to participate in our ongoing consultations. Doing so will help ensure this becomes a successful, continent-wide framework for food and nutrition security, while ensuring informal markets are at the centre of Africa’s ongoing food system transformation.