Internal Migration, Climate Adaptation, and Food System Resilience in Namibia

As one of sub-Saharan Africa's most arid countries, Namibia serves as a crucial example for studying the interactions between climate vulnerability, migration, and food systems. The primary objective of this paper is to examine how climate-induced migration in Namibia, driven by environmental stressors such as droughts and erratic rainfall, impacts urban food systems and influences the resilience strategies of migrant households, particularly in cities like Windhoek and the northern towns of Oshakati, Ongwediva, and Ondangwa. Aligned with the literature on environmental migration, informal economies, and adaptive capacity, the study examines the dual role of migration as both an adaptation strategy and a source of new vulnerabilities, exploring how migrants navigate urban food insecurity through informal trading, rural-urban linkages, and reciprocal food and cash transfers, while also assessing the institutional and policy gaps that constrain long-term resilience in the face of climate and socio-economic pressures. We adopted an integrated conceptual framework that examines the interplay between climate-induced migration, urban food systems, and resilience in Namibia. Through household surveys, policy analysis, and stakeholder interviews, we uncover a paradox: despite escaping rural climate stressors, migrants often encounter new vulnerabilities such as precarious employment, inadequate housing, and unstable food access. However, they develop sophisticated adaptive strategies that span urban-rural divides, maintaining rural agricultural production through family networks, adapting urban farming to water scarcity, and creating informal food distribution systems that connect rural and urban markets. These resilience mechanisms face mounting pressure from intensifying droughts and institutional constraints. While remittance economies and informal networks help buffer shocks, climate impacts compound vulnerabilities across migrant and host populations. The study demonstrates how formal and informal systems mediate these challenges. We recommend policies that recognise internal migration as a climate adaptation strategy, strengthen urban-rural food linkages, and improve urban food governance. The Namibian case offers valuable lessons for other arid, urbanising African regions facing similar climate-migration-food system dynamics.