Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (SWAC/OECD)

West African Futures: settlement, market and food security

by T. Allen, October 2011

www.oecd.org/swac/waf

Urban/Rural Distribution

and Economic Growth

1

How settlement patterns

impact food security issues?

Settlement and food security

2

How settlement patterns

impact food security issues?

Settlement and food security

3

This question:

• can only be tackled at the regional level;

• and requires to revisit current settlement

trends.

Urbanisation trends

4

Factors favouring economic development:

• Concentration of activities and people;

• Decline of transportation costs;

• Removal of barriers to movement of goods, people and

information.

World Development Report 2009

5

Factors favouring economic development:

• Concentration of activities and people;

• Decline of transportation costs;

• Removal of barriers to movement of goods, people and

information.

World Development Report 2009

6

Urban agglomeration and GDP

7

Urban agglomeration and GDP

8

Urban agglomeration and GDP

9

Urban agglomeration and GDP

10

Urban agglomeration and GDP

11

Urban agglomeration and GDP

12

3.500

Urban/Rural ratio:

Two advantages:

1) An uncapped indicator;

2) ...

The Urban/Rural ratio

13

GDP and urbanisation

14

GDP growth and urbanisation pace

15

GDP growth and urbanisation pace

16

Urban/Rural ratio:

Two advantages: 1) A non-capped indicator;

2) A proxy for the ratio of non-producing food

consumers to producers.

The Urban/Rural ratio

17

Evolution of the U/R ratio

18

Evolution of the U/R ratio

19

Evolution of the U/R ratio

20

The Urban/Rural trend induces

new characteristics of food insecurity:

• The urbanisation process creates demand for

marketed agricultural products;

• Up-stream and down-stream economic activities linked

to agricultural production have sustained the

development of the urban centres.

Conclusion

21