Working with Informality for Food Systems Transformation and Resilient Communities
This paper makes the case for working with informality to drive progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Zero Hunger.
Amid growing hunger, rapid urbanization, and shrinking aid budgets, working with informality is indispensable to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—especially SDG 2, Zero Hunger. Drawing on our research from Nairobi and Cape Town, we show how informal actors—from food vendors to community kitchens—are already innovating to fill critical gaps in food access and social protection. Rather than treating informality as a problem to formalize away, policy frameworks must recognize, support, and work with informal systems as vital engines of social resilience and inclusion. Supporting self-organization, flexible regulation, and targeted investment in the informal economy can unlock scalable, community-led solutions for more equitable and sustainable development.
