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International comparison of development indicators is a perennial challenge in global development studies. The challenge is especially difficult when measuring urban household food security using experience-based metrics that are influenced by countless contextual factors. This article presents a gender-based analysis of household food security surveys conducted in Nanjing, China and Maputo, Mozambique. The analysis demonstrates the value of a gender lens for understanding the intersecting household characteristics associated with urban food insecurity. While Maputo had much higher food insecurity overall, our analysis leads to nuanced insights into shared and divergent connections between gender inequality and food insecurity in both cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including food insecurity among Zimbabwean migrant households in South Africa, food security of migrants in South Africa and food insecurity and migration to the U.S.

The official moniker of the city of Msunduzi in Kwazulu-Natal is 'city of choice.' The economic revival of Msunduzi over the past decade has been driven by the influx of capital to a city that claims to offer significant advantages to the investor. This paper examines whether this marketing ploy has enlarged the choices of the poorer residents of the city, with particular regard to their food security. Using data from the 2008-2009 African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN) baseline survey, the paper shows that Msunduzi's residents experience higher levels of food insecurity than like neighbourhoods in Cape Town and Johannesburg and many other cities in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Unlike a number of these cities, the food sourcing strategies of households are severely constrained. Urban agriculture and rural-urban food transfers are limited, and the informal food economy is much less significant than elsewhere. The control of the urban food system largely rests in the hands of supermarkets whose location and pricing policies put quality food outside the reach of most poor households. Although many are forced to buy supermarket food, through lack of choice, food shortages and a lack of dietary diversity are endemic. Worst off are female-headed households whose levels of unemployment are higher than average and whose incomes are lower than average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to create a more inclusive discipline and profession have been commended by many and derided by some. While these attempts have pushed for change, particularly with regards to more equal representation of gender and race among faculty, policies aimed at creating a more inclusive environment are often tokenistic, administrative and bureaucratic, and fail to address structural and institutional practices and norms. Moreover, the administrative and bureaucratic policies put into place are generally targeted at a single categorical group, failing to take into account the manner in which identities are intersecting and overlapping. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion often gets driven by Human Resources and Marketing rather than owned by the wider university. This forum draws from a variety of contributions that focus on describing the lived realities of institutional racism, its intersections with other forms of discrimination, and strategies for change. In putting together this forum, we do not aim to create a checklist of practical steps. Instead, we hope to signpost and make visible the successes and failures of previous challenges and future possibilities that must be taken by both faculty and administrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]