Unequal Journeys to Food Markets: Continental-Scale Evidence from Open Data in Africa

2025-05-12

AI Summary

This study addresses the structural inequity in food market accessibility across low- and middle-income countries in Africa, revealing its strong associations with urban–rural divides, socioeconomic disadvantage, and food insecurity. Leveraging continent-wide OpenStreetMap and WFP open geospatial data, we develop the first scalable, multidimensional market accessibility assessment framework, integrating three complementary metrics: travel time, 30-minute market coverage, and spatial entropy. Methodologically, the framework combines GIS network analysis (via OSRM), the Relative Wealth Index (RWI), and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) data. Results demonstrate that rural and economically disadvantaged populations experience significantly longer average travel times, lower market coverage, and reduced spatial redundancy. Market accessibility exhibits a strong negative correlation with RWI (p < 0.01) and a moderate positive correlation with IPC food insecurity severity levels. This framework establishes a novel, geographically explicit paradigm for diagnosing and monitoring spatial inequities within food systems.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: AI for Accessibility
• Search and Optimization: Evaluation and Analysis
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics

Abstract

Food market accessibility is a critical yet underexplored dimension of food systems, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Here, we present a continent-wide assessment of spatial food market accessibility in Africa, integrating open geospatial data from OpenStreetMap and the World Food Programme. We compare three complementary metrics: travel time to the nearest market, market availability within a 30-minute threshold, and an entropy-based measure of spatial distribution, to quantify accessibility across diverse settings. Our analysis reveals pronounced disparities: rural and economically disadvantaged populations face substantially higher travel times, limited market reach, and less spatial redundancy. These accessibility patterns align with socioeconomic stratification, as measured by the Relative Wealth Index, and moderately correlate with food insecurity levels, assessed using the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Overall, results suggest that access to food markets plays a relevant role in shaping food security outcomes and reflects broader geographic and economic inequalities. This framework provides a scalable, data-driven approach for identifying underserved regions and supporting equitable infrastructure planning and policy design across diverse African contexts.

Problem

• Assessing spatial food market accessibility disparities in Africa
• Evaluating rural and economically disadvantaged populations' market access challenges
• Linking food market accessibility to food security and inequality

Innovation

• Integrates OpenStreetMap and World Food Programme data
• Uses travel time, market availability, entropy metrics
• Scalable framework for equitable infrastructure planning