Dr. Abdulrazak Karriem

• PhD in City and Regional Planning (Cornell University)
• MA Regional Planning (Cornell University).

Abdulrazak Karriem obtained his PhD in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Prior to joining the Institute for Social Development at UWC, he taught in the Department of City and Regional Development at Cornell University and in the Growth and Structure of Cities Program at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also worked for the Department of Land Affairs (on land reform and rural development) and at the Department Constitutional Development (on provincial and local governance).

His research interests are in urban and rural development, the role of social movements in promoting development from below, as well as urban sustainability and climate change. He has researched and written on the Brazilian Landless Movement’s struggles for land reform and an ecologically sustainable rural development model, on urban agriculture, and food security.

Completed Research Projects

2015-2016: Evaluation of Migration Data and Modelling Migration in the Western Cape 

This is a Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD) commissioned project that investigated migration patterns into the province. Rapid levels of migration – both national and international – into the Western Cape has created problems for municipalities and district councils who lack the appropriate data to plan for the influx of families who need housing and other infrastructure or whose children need access to schools. To address this gap, this research triangulated different sources of migration data to generate migration models that could provide more reliable data that would enable provincial government departments and municipalities to better plan for an influx in migration.

2015-2016: Food choices and Body Mass Index (BMI) in adults and children: Evidence from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) and empirical research from Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain in South Africa. 

This is a European Union and COE funded project that investigated the link between food choices and Body Mass Index (BMI) in adults and children in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain South Africa.  More specifically, the research identified the kinds of food that were consumed in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, assessed the circumstances and factors determining food consumption, and identified the relationship between food choices and the self-perceived health status and actual BMI measurements

2016-2019: UWC Research Coordinator – Urban Agriculture for Food security and Income generation in South Africa and Mozambique (UFISAMO)

UFISAMO is a research project that was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and that involved North-South and a South-South collaboration between Humboldt University and Free University in Berlin, Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, and the University of the Western Cape, along with NGOs (Abalimi Bezekhaya in Cape Town and the Association for Sustainable Development in Maputo). As the title suggests, the research project investigated the role that urban agriculture plays in promoting food security and generating income.

2021-2025: UWC Coordinator – Nexusing Water, Energy and Food to Increase Resilience in the Cape Town Metropolitan Region.

This is a joint Project between Utrecht University, Stellenbosch University and the University of the Western Cape and funded by the NRF-South Africa and NOW-Netherlands. This project included funding for two MA students who have graduated and 1 PhD student in the ISD.

On-going Research Projects

2021-2028: Researcher – South-South Migration and Migrant Food Insecurity: Interactions, Impacts and Remedies (MiFood Project).

This is a collaborative research project involving the International Office for Migration and the Internation Labour Organisation and researchers from 13 universities in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and North America. This multi-county research project is funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

2024-2027: Researcher – Indigenous and neglected crops (INC) promotion for resilient food systems in Southern Africa.

This is a Joint Project between Hohenheim University, University of the Western Cape, the University of Zululand, and the University of Fort Hare. Funded by the German Ministry of Agriculture.

2025-2026: Remitting for Resilience (R2): Enhancing Food Security and Climate Adaptation through Gender-Inclusive Migrant Remittances  

The Remitting for Resilience (R2) Project aims to enhance adaptive capacities and resilience-building strategies to address the risks of climate change to food security, livelihoods, and human mobility in Africa. This is a 10-country consortium led by Wilfred Laurier University, Canada.  The Project is funded by the Canadian New Frontiers in Research Fund.

• Ziga, M., & Karriem, A. (in press). Home gardening as a food security coping strategy for urban households: The case of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. In D. Tevera & T. Kanosvamhira (Eds.), Food and the city in Africa. Springer.
• Kgobe, F. K. L., Bayat, M. S., & Karriem, A. (2025). Embedding public participation in service delivery planning in South Africa. Journal of Local Government Research and Innovation, 6(1), Article a232. https://jolgri.org/index.php/jolgri/article/download/232/622
• Savelli, E., Rusca, M., Cloke, H., Flügel, T. J., Karriem, A., & Di Baldassarre, G. (2025). All dried up: The materiality of drought in Ladismith, South Africa. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 8(1), 100–127. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/25148486221126617
• Mandioma, S., & Karriem, A. (2024). Community engagement in improving agricultural production: Lessons for community development practice. In C. Gyan, M. Baffoe, & L. Kreitzer (Eds.), Community development practice in Africa: Putting theory into practice (pp. 131–148). Information Age Publishing / Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/979-8-88730-720-6
• Kgobe, F., Bayat, M. S., & Karriem, A. (2024). Evaluating the implementation of public participation in service delivery planning in the democratic age: A case of South African municipalities. Commonwealth Youth and Development, 21(1), 1–20. https://tinyurl.com/54ur2usw
• Kgobe, F. K. L., Bayat, M. S., & Karriem, A. (2024). Government of the people, by the people, and for the people: Stakeholder’s engagement in service delivery planning in South Africa. Journal of Social Sciences, 7(3), 190–208. https://doi.org/10.52326/jss.utm.2024.7(3).13
• Ziga, M., & Karriem, A. (2023). Role of urban agriculture policy in promoting food security in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. In R. C. Brears (Ed.), The Palgrave encyclopedia of urban and regional futures. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87745-3_279
• Africa, C., Yu, D., Karriem, A., & Raymond, B. (2023). Crisis leadership: Reflecting on the complex role of academic (middle) leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Perspectives in Education, 41(2), 89–103. https://doi.org/10.38140/pie.v41i2.6265
• Ahmed, R., Karriem, A., & Mohammed, S. (2022). “We can speak but will there be any change?” Voices from Blikkiesdorp, South Africa. In C. Walker, S. Zlotowitz, & A. Zoli (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of innovative community and clinical psychologies (pp. 631–651). Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-71190-0_31
• Ziga, M., & Karriem, A. (2022). NCD prevention through an equitable food system in South Africa: Opportunities and challenges. ESR Review: Economic and Social Rights in South Africa, 23(4), 7–12. https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/ejc-esrrev-v23-n4-a3
• Ahmed, R., Sayed, Y. M., Nell, J., Somhlaba, N. Z., & Karriem, A. (2021). Poverty, protests and pandemics: What can we learn from community resilience? South African Journal of Psychology, 51(4), 478–480. https://doi.org/10.1177/00812463211047669
• Mensah, C., & Karriem, A. (2021). Harnessing public food procurement for sustainable rural livelihoods in South Africa through the National School Nutrition Programme: A qualitative assessment of contributions and challenges. Sustainability, 13(24), Article 13838. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413838
• Suffla, S., Seedat, M., & Karriem, A. (2021). Peace: Its indices and implications for Swaraj. In K. B. Saxena (Ed.), Swaraj and the reluctant state (Chapter 22). Routledge. (Original work published 2010). https://tinyurl.com/55f5j5jr
• Paganini, N., Adinata, K., Buthelezi, N., Harris, D., Lemke, S., Luis, A., Koppelin, J., Karriem, A., Ncube, F., Nervi Aguirre, E., Ramba, T., Raimundo, I., Sulejmanovic, N., Swanby, H., Tevera, D., and Stöber, S. (2020). Growing and Eating Food during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Farmers’ Perspectives on Local Food System Resilience to Shocks in Southern Africa and Indonesia. Sustainability, 12(8556): 1-26. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208556
• Buthelezi, N., R. Karriem, S. Lemke, Nicole Paganini, S. Stöber, and H. Swanby. (2020). Invisible Urban Farmers and a Next Season of Hunger – Participatory Co-research during Lockdown in Cape Town, South Africa. https://tinyurl.com/2mphuaku