Impacts of COVID-19 on Transportation of Food and Related Commodities in the Urban-Rural Nexus in Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria and Burkina Faso

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

UN-Habitat and University of Nairobi are jointly, and with technical guidance of the UN-
Habitat; implementing the Covid-19 Impacts on Transportation of Food and Related

Commodities in the Urban-Rural Nexus in Selected African Countries (COVID-19
ITFCURN) Project. The selected countries for the project are Cameroon, Kenya, Niger State,
Senegal and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe joined the project in the place of Burkina Faso to achieve
regional balance with county case study from southern Africa. The project had not have a
contact person in Burkina Faso at the time of making the decision. The project is within the
Urban-Rural Linkages (URL) Programme of the UN-Habitat. The focus of the project is to
assess the impact of COVID-19 on urban-rural linkages (URL) through the lenses of flows of
food and other related commodities. Specifically, the scope of the project deals with the flows
at two levels. First, the flow of food to food markets serving smallholder farmers (producers)
and distributors of food to urban wholesale and retail outlets that serve (consumers). Second,
the flow and spatial interaction of people within the context of public transport systems. The
project deliverables fall within the broader global track of Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), in particular, Goal 11 on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient
and sustainable, while at the same time contributing to Goal 1 on access to food as part of
poverty reduction and Goal 17 on strengthening and revitalizing partnerships in sustainable
development. Implementation of the project will be achieved through the three project
components, namely, (1) research, (2) training and capacity building, and (3) academic
support. These project components seek to synergize the understanding of potential
challenges and prospects of URL systems and practices in the case study countries. The
lessons learnt from the project outcomes will form the foundation of the conceptualization
and establishment of Urban-Rural Linkages Centre for Africa at the University of Nairobi. The
URL Centre will provide long-term institutional and organizations framework for partnership
in research, policy dialogue, outreach, capacity building, and planning on urban-rural linkages
in Africa.