Transformative Bottom‐Up Change in Highly Dynamic Food Environments: Learning From Living Labs in Africa

The relationship between food environments, diets, and consumption practices is essential in improving nutrition and health outcomes. Despite growing research in higher income countries on such interactions, less is known about food‐environment dynamics in lower income countries, where food insecurity, malnutrition, and informal markets play a key role. HealthyFoodAfrica is a five‐year research and innovation project aimed at promoting more sustainable, equitable, resilient, and health‐enhancing food systems in 10 African cities by reconnecting food production and consumption. In each locality a bottom‐up food system lab (FSL) was established as a driver for co‐creating a range of interventions across the food system. This article first presents a food environment lived‐experience framework based on practice and theory, allowing for a contextualized understanding of food environments in these diverse settings. It regards the food environment as a dynamic constellation, in which FSLs co‐create and drive bottom‐up initiatives directing food environment dynamics towards the common goals of improved health and better sustainability outcomes. We map the focus and impact pathways of interventions from four selected FSLs within their local food systems, recognising that the complexity of these informal urban environments makes isolated causal effects difficult to discern. Examining these diverse interventions through a common analytical lens enabled us to identify unique trajectories, as well as shared mechanisms, in how urban food environments evolve. To conclude, we discuss the implications of our findings and provide recommendations on how informality, bottom‐up dynamics, and self‐organisation can be better supported in urban planning in African cities.