Figure 6.12: The City-Region Food Systems (CRFS) approach

While cities can meet part of their food needs through urban agriculture, they will remain dependent on their peri-urban and rural areas and international supply chains to ensure food security

pandemics can result in food insecurity in cities due to food processing, distribution and deliver y disruptions. Multi-level governance at the regional scale is needed to respond to such disruptions and engage multiple actors and stakeholders in planning for better regional resilience. Such multi-level governance will ensure improved management of interlinkages and interdependencies among different settlements in a city-region.124

Based on the principles of multi-level regional planning and governance, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has proposed the City-Region Food Systems (CRFS) approach that provides opportunities to address challenges “inherent to the industrial capital-driven food system” that can result in supply chain disruptions and food insecurity during adverse events (Figure 6.12).125 Key features of CRFS are its abilities to strike a balance between regional dependency and local self-sufficiency (Box 6.5) and to foster and strengthen collaboration among different local governments and stakeholders.126 Having collaborative networks is critical for community resilience against different shocks, including pandemics. CRFS also provides multiple benefits for sustainability. It contributes to enhancing availability and accessibility to quality locally grown food, thereby providing health benefits; helps protect the ecosystem by nurturing soil and improving watershed management; strengthens the local economy by increasing money recirculation with the region; and increases social capital by providing more opportunities for interactions and collaboration between different stakeholders.127

Overall, for cities to be more resilient against pandemics and other threats, multi-level governance approaches and coordinated policies and actions across different scales and sectors are needed. Such approaches facilitate better management of the transitional spaces between urban and rural areas and can enhance efficiency, minimize conflicts and trade-offs, and maximize co-benefits and synergies between different measures and strategies.

Figure 6.12: The City-Region Food Systems (CRFS) approach