RUAF Update | September 2015
September 2015
RUAF Update
no.25
In this update: Ongoing activities
• RUAF joins the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative • RUAF annual report 2014 online • Urban Green Education for Enterprising Agricultural Innovation • Supporting enterprises for urban liquid and solid wastes recycling for food, energy and clean environment • Enhancing food security and urban and peri-urban agriculture in Liberia • CityFoodTools mission to Colombo, Lusaka/Kitwe, Quito and Medellín
Publications
• Urban Agriculture Magazine • Cities and Agriculture: Developing Resilient Urban Food Systems • Guidelines on Monitoring impacts of urban and peri-urban agriculture and forestry on climate change mitigation and adaptation
Events
• Webinars on urban intersections on food security, water and climate change • Special Urban Food Forum, ICLEI • Commonwealth local government forum • Urban Management Tools for Climate Change • The Role of Urban Agriculture in Post- disaster and Emergency Settings • Agriculture in an Urbanising Society • Governance of the Smart Cities Food Agenda • Urban Green Train: 3rd project meeting • Urban food policies - Markets, catering services, urban/rural connections
www.foodpolicymilano.org
News RUAF part of technical team to support the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact is going to be one of the most important legacies of Expo 2015. It acknowledges that cities, which host over half the world’s population, have a strategic role to play in developing sustainable food systems and promoting healthy diets and improved urban environments. To this date, about 50 cities have contributed to the development of the Pact and the accompanying Framework for Action and are invited to sign both documents in Milan on 15 October 2015. In order to further guide these and other cities in taking on proposed actions, a selection of good practices is being assembled by a Technical Team, that also helped the City of Milan and participating cities to draft the Pact. This team brings together decades of experience with both policy and good practices related to urban food and nutrition security and sustainable urban food systems. In addition to English, Spanish and French translations, the Pact has been translated into Dutch, Italian and Chinese. The City of Milan is welcoming new cities to subscribe to the Pact in the coming months. For further information contact h.renting@ruaf.org on behalf of the technical team or the City of Milan: Raffaella.Scalisi@comune.milano.
RUAF Update | September 2015
Ongoing activities RUAF joins the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative
RUAF has joined the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative (LPFN). RUAF will work with LPFN to advance the issues of urban-rural linkages and city region food systems. For more information: m.dubbeling@ruaf.org.
Urban Green Education for Enterprising Agricultural Innovation
Now available online RUAF annual report 2014
In 2014, the RUAF Foundation continued to support governments and other stakeholders who wish to design, implement and monitor urban agriculture and urban food policies and programmes. RUAF engaged with over 90 local and international partner organisations to work in 30 cities in 24 different countries around the world. In doing so, RUAF demonstrated: • its innovation capacity in bridging emergency and development issues (see RUAF projects in Liberia and Gaza), • its capacity to work at different scales - from household, to city to provincial level (see the climate change and WASH programmes) and with multiple stakeholders (RUAF’s mainstreaming of multi-stakeholder planning approaches); • its ability to fully integrate urban agriculture in the urban economy (a.o. through value chain development) and in the urban ecology and metabolism (see RUAF’s WASH, WABEF and GlobeUrbFood programmes) and • its ability to adapt to new urban challenges, specifically climate change adaptation and mitigation. Please find the RUAF annual report 2014 now available online.
2nd partner meeting, 1-3 July 2015, Angers. Different project partners presented the intermediate results on assessment of urban agriculture entrepreneurial education and training needs implemented over the last couple of months in Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Partners have started to draft descriptions for the different urban agriculture training course modules (e-learning and face-to-face training) and possible case studies to be developed for the pilot course that will be organised in Italy in the fall of 2016. One of these case studies is Le Jardin de l’Avenir, an example of multifunctional agriculture and shared economy. Social relationship between consumers and producers form the foundation of this business whose principal activity is pick-your-own products. For further information, please contact: Femke Hoekstra at f.hoekstra@ruaf.org.
RUAF Update | September 2015
Supporting enterprises for urban liquid and solid wastes recycling for food, energy and clean environment
Enhancing Food Security and Urban & Peri-urban Agriculture in Liberia comes to an end
RUAF collaborates in the IWMI managed project CapVal: Creating and Capturing Value. CapVal facilitates the development of three resource recovery and reuse businesses in Ghana, that also enhance local sanitation planning and management, while reducing environmental impacts. The project is working towards the establishment of a co-composting facility (producing safe pelletised compost, “Fortifer”); a briquette producing plant (“Jekora Briquettes”); and (well-treated) wastewater-fed aquaculture (African catfish). All three interventions are supported by appropriate capacity development of the private and public sectors. In a workshop in June, project partners discussed the briquette production process and business canvas for the joint initiative of Jekora Ventures with Volta Ghana. RUAF supports this endeavour with capacity building of the public sector, monitoring and evaluation and corporate social responsible business development. More information: Josiane Nikiema of IWMI-Ghana at J.Nikiema@cgiar.org or René van Veenhuizen: r.van.veenhuizen@ruaf.org.
Since 2009, RUAF collaborated with Welthungerhilfe in the Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture project, funded by EU Liberia, until 2013 in partnership with CARELiberia, and from 2013-2015 with Action Contre la Faim. Throughout this project RUAF has facilitated a process of multi-stakeholder engagement, awareness raising, information gathering, and policy development in the 3 mentioned cities, in cooperation with local governments, NGOs and universities. A Policy Narrative was developed, a Multi-Stakeholder Forum set up in the three cities, supported by the city authorities and the Ministry of Agriculture and a City Strategic Agenda was formulated and adopted. In 2015, urban and peri-urban agriculture has also been included in the draft National Urban Policy (developed by Ministry of Internal Affairs, supported by MCC and UN Habitat).
Ensuring an Integrated National Urban Agriculture Strategy, Monrovia City, Liberia An exhibition was organised on 12 June under the theme "Increasing household resilience to shock through improved access to food and capital". The exhibition brought together household beneficiaries from the Income Generating Activities, Village Savings and Loan Groups, and the various Animal and Vegetable Groups. "I am so thankful for making me a boss of my own. I used to get sick every time because I was not doing anything but today, I have my own business helping my family and other people" said one of the farmers, Mrs. Johnson. Read more stories. In collaboration with Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), Welthungerhilfe, RUAF and ACF, organised a mini-conference on UPA in Liberia, to highlight the achievements of the EU funded project, as well as a meeting with key stakeholders from the Multi-Stakeholder Forums of Greater Monrovia, Tubmanburg and Gbarnga. Participants discussed the adapted City Strategic Agenda of Greater Monrovia, and formally adopted the agenda. The full report and the agenda are currently being finalised by MCC and will soon be available on the RUAF website. More information: Mr. Frank Krah, of MCC, at fkrah2002@yahoo.com, or René van Veenhuizen: r.van.veenhuizen@ruaf.org.
The multi-stakeholder fora are well attended. In Greater Monrovia for example, on average 50 people attended, representing over 25 institutions (authorities of city, township and Ministries, as well as other public agencies like EPA and Lands Commission, NGOs, University of Liberia, Farmers organisations, and International Organisations, as well as representatives of the Press). Under UPANI, RUAF also coordinated work on Food Safety and on UPA as part of Urban Land Use Mapping. The national agency for GIS, LISGIS, is now supporting Monrovia City Council and other key institutions in gathering information, sharing data and databases, and integrating urban agriculture as part of urban land use planning. Food safety and quality management of products is increasingly on the agenda in Liberia. Very few studies have been done or are not available. The Ministry of Health (MoH) developed National Food Safety Guidelines (2011), which articulate objectives in the improvement of food safety and seeks to clarify roles and responsibilities of ministries and agencies involved in food safety activities in the country, but MoH lack capacity to implement. RUAF and WeltHungerHilfe organised a study on Food combining research (soil, water and plant tissue sampling and testing on contamination), capacity building of students, researchers, farmers and authorities, and awareness raising. This information and produced material will allow for the further development of Food Safety guidelines and implementation of Risk Reduction Measures. All reports and a fact sheet are available on the RUAF website. Contact: René van Veenhuizen: r.van.veenhuizen@ruaf.org.
RUAF Update | September 2015
CityFoodTools missions to Colombo, Lusaka/ Kitwe, Quito and Medellín The aim of the CityFoodTools project is to develop a toolkit of indicators and methods to describe, map and assess different aspects and elements of sustainable city region food systems. The project, coordinated by RUAF and implemented together with FAO Food for the Cities and the Wilfrid Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, has started its work in the first 5 city-regions: Colombo (Sri Lanka), Lusaka and Kitwe (Zambia), Quito (Ecuador), and Medellín (Colombia). In each of these cities contacts were established with representatives of relevant municipal, regional and national governments as well as with local researchers and civil society initiatives engaged in sustainable food systems, environmental management and more balanced urbanrural linkages within the city-region. On the basis of these explorative visits working agreements were established with local institutional and research focal points to start development of an integral assessment of the city region food system in the coming six months. In the next weeks similar working visits will be organised to involved city regions in the Netherlands and Canada (Toronto). The project is supported by the Daniel and Nina Carrasso Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. For further information: h.renting@ruaf.org and guido.santini@fao.org.
Publications Cities and Agriculture: Developing Resilient Urban Food Systems Edited by Henk de Zeeuw (RUAF Foundation) and Pay Drechsel (International Water Management Institute). To be published by September 28, 2015 (as hard cover, soft cover and e-book) by Earthscan-Routledge London and New York. The book provides urban planners, local policy makers and urban development practitioners with an overview of crucial aspects of urban food systems based on an up to date review of research results and practical experiences in both developed and developing countries. By doing so, the international team of authors provides a balanced textbook for students of the growing number of courses on sustainable agriculture, food and urban studies, as well as a solid basis for well-informed policy making, planning and implementation regarding the development of sustainable, resilient and just urban food systems.
Urban Agriculture Magazine UA Magazine 27 on Urban Agriculture as a Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy is now available in Portuguese. UA Magazine 28 on Innovations in Urban Agriculture features articles on the GROW the City project and a range of articles with technical as well as social innovations in urban and peri-urban agriculture.
UA Magazine 30 on Rural-Urban Linkages is a co-production between RUAF and ILEIA Foundation. Rural–urban linkages connect people in cities with people in the countryside on a daily basis. The links are tangible and include markets, migration flows, knowledge exchange, leisure and tourism, ecosystem services, food production and consumption. To support sustainable, fair and resilient food systems, an enabling political and institutional environment is needed. This ‘twin’ issue of Farming Matters and Urban Agriculture Magazine, produced together by ILEIA and the RUAF Foundation, looks at some existing experiences with strengthened rural–urban linkages and what they teach us about improving food systems for both consumers and agroecological farmers. All Urban Agriculture Magazines are available at www.ruaf.org. Several articles that first appeared in the UrbanAgriculture Magazinewere re-published forexample bythe European Network forRural Development (ENRD) Magazine, Triodos Upsides Magazine , Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society, LEISA India, LEISA revista de agroecología (in Spanish) and AGridape (in French).
Illustrator: Jacques Abelman
UA Magazine 29 on City Region Food Systems addresses the growing attention for policy and practice approaches that focus on food issues in urban areas from a city-regional perspective, taking into account possible contributions from urban and peri-urban agriculture and a strengthening of urbanrural relations. It features amongst others articles on research and policy development in partner cities involved in the SUPURBFOOD programme.
RUAF Update | September 2015
Guidelines on monitoring impacts of urban and peri-urban agriculture and forestry on climate change mitigation and adaptation
Past events
RUAF Foundation brought together a group of international and local scientists to jointly design indicators and tools to measure the various impacts of urban agriculture and forestry on climate change adaptation and mitigation and related developmental co-benefits. The draft monitoring framework was field tested in cooperation with local and provincial authorities, NGOs and universities in 4 cities: Kesbewa (Sri Lanka), Rosario (Argentina), Kathmandu (Nepal) and Bobo Dioulasso (Burkina Faso). Research results were used to facilitate policy uptake. The project was supported by CDKN and UN Habitat-Cities and Climate Change Initiative. These guidelines are an important output of that effort: • Guideline 1: Methodological guidelines for monitoring of runoff and infiltration of storm water • Guideline 2: Methodological guidelines for monitoring of temperature effects • Guideline 3: Methodological guidelines for calculating climate change related indicators of urban/ regional food production and consumption The guidelines are available at www.ruaf.org. Image: ICLEI
CityLinks and RUAF Webinar series on Urban intersections on food security, water and climate change, 12 May, 16 June In the first webinar (watch it here) presenters examined how the issues of urban food security and water are tied to climate change. Carmen Vogt (GIZ) discussed considerations for integrated urban and metropolitan development, with a focus on the Urban Nexus approach for the sustainable governance of rural-urban linkages. Ritu Thakur (ICLEI) presented a case study demonstrating the Urban Nexus approach at work in Nashik, India. And Nevin Cohen (School of Public Health at the City University of New York) finished off the panel with perspectives from New York City. In the second webinar (watch it here) presenters examined how urban food security is tied to climate change. Rafael Tuts (UNHabitat) discussed integrated planning and management strategies for urban food security and climate change adaptation. Rubén Piacentini and Marcelo Tenaglia (Municipality of Rosario, Argentina) presented a project that integrates urban and peri-urban agriculture and forestry into city climate change strategies at work in Rosario, Argentina. Lauren Baker (Toronto Food Policy Council) finished off the panel by delving into the context, history, and priorities that shape Toronto's food policy. Marielle Dubbeling (RUAF) moderated both webinar discussions and audience Q&A’s.
Special Urban Food Forum, ICLEI Resilient Cities SUPURBFOOD, RUAF and ICLEI jointly organised a special Urban Food Forum during the 2015 ICLEI’s Resilient Cities Congress (June 2015, Bonn). The Forum was made up of three sessions that link to the ICLEI’s objectives of creating an urban resilience agenda that joins adaptation, mitigation, disaster, risk reduction, and sustainable, equitable development. The first session dealt with urban food policy and programmes, a second session with food and urban planning, and a third session with the role of SMEs to support cities all over the world to develop resilient city-region food systems. Recommendations brought forward by the Forum were shared in the final ICLEI Congress Plenary session, with urban food production and systems mentioned as key aspects in resilience planning in relation to amongst other health and clean air and water resources, calling for food to be included as one of the ISO city sustainability data in future. A special policy brief on City region food systems will be shortly produced by RUAF and SUPURBFOOD with further specific recommendations and examples. For more information: m.dubbeling@ruaf.org.
RUAF Update | September 2015
Commonwealth local government forum RUAF representative Takawira Mubvami participated in the Commonwealth conference (Gaborone, Botswana 16-19 June) that was focussed on discussing the role that local governments can play in implementing actions necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. RUAF gave a presentation at the session titled Planning and Linking Urban, Peri-urban and Rural Communities where we highlighted the need to look at the city as a region to properly address the rural, peri-urban and urban food security issue. Image: www.cvent.com
RUAF recommended specific actions on:
(1) Local governments should protect and enable access to and tenure of land for food production in urban and peri-urban areas, e.g. by limiting building projects on agricultural urban and peri-urban land and renting public areas to farmers, including cooperatives;
(2)
National and local governments should develop regulations to make (commercial or noncommercial) food growing areas mandatory in new development plans, new or renovated housing settlements and building projects, e.g. rooftop farming, community gardens, allotment gardens;
(3) Local governments, private sector (housing management and corporations) and civil society organizations need to allocate space for organic waste storage and recycling (such as small composting sites) in current and new housing units and projects; and (4) Local governments should support, improve and expand local food markets and food hubs, both physical and on-line.
The RUAF presentation was followed by a presentation on urban and peri-urban agriculture in Botswana and a plenary discussion. Session recommendations were included in the Gaborone Declaration – Local Government Vision 2030. Section 3 deals with Creating Sustainable Cities and local Governments. Part 3.5 of the declaration urges the need for new and locally based planning approaches to adequately plan for the many dimensions of urbanisation, which should include mixed use policy, green spaces provision and urban agriculture amongst others. This is followed by the action in bullet 3 urging for planning approaches that recognise urban-rural linkages and the need to provide for and protect urban and peri-urban agriculture, amongst other issues. For more information: m.dubbeling@ruaf.org.
Urban Management Tools for Climate Change. A course organised by IHS in collaboration with UN Habitat, June 15 – July 02, 2015 Each year RUAF organises a session on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture and Climate Change with the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) in its course “Urban Management Tools for Climate Change”. This course offers the opportunity to national and local urban policy makers, municipal officials, planners and lecturers in the field of climate and environmental management to gain knowledge of cities’ vulnerability to climate change and linkages with other urban sectors such as land use management and planning. The course showcases different city and community-based management tools and approaches dealing with the need for adaptation and mitigation. This year the participants highly valued the discussion on the linkages between urban agriculture, city region food systems and climate change and the role of national and local governments, in confronting local challenges brought about by climate change. Contact: r.van.veenhuizen@ruaf.org.
Upcoming events Agriculture in an Urbanising Society, 14-17 Sept, Rome This conference aims at advancing the scientific state of the art in research on multifunctional agriculture and urban-rural relations by bringing together scholars from a wide range of disciplines from many parts of the world. The 2015 edition will focus on reconnecting agriculture and food chains to societal needs. RUAF presents a paper on business models in urban agriculture based on the Urban Green Train project and is coordinator of a WG on “Conceptualizing and Assessing City Region Food Systems”.
The Role of Urban Agriculture in Post-disaster and Emergency Settings, 17-18 July 2015, Oxford, UK. RUAF has been working on the topic of “The role of urban agriculture in post-disaster and emergency settings” for a number of years (including collaboration with ICRC and UNHCR, see UA magazine no. 21, in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and in 2015 with the Dutch Association of Municipalities, VNGI in Jordan). A chapter on this theme is included in the new IWMI/RUAF book (see Publications). The issue was also recently put on the agenda at the Humanitarian Innovation Conference hosted by the Humanitarian Innovation Project, at the Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford University ( 17-18 July 2015). In a panel session titled ‘Community-based Food Production in Humanitarian Contexts’, three presentations were delivered by Mikey Tomkins of CitizenD (on community based urban agriculture for refugee communities in Vickery Meadow, Dallas, USA), Liliane Binego (on a case study about refugee camp food production in Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda) and RUAF, for which Andrew AdamBradford presented the role of urban agriculture in post-disaster and emergency settings). This discussion forms a timely input for the Humanitarian Innovation Conference, which will take place in Istanbul in May 2016. Contact Andrew Bradford: ab3805@coventry.ac.uk and René van Veenhuizen at r.van.veenhuizen@ruaf.org.
Upcoming events Symposium: Governance of the Smart Cities Food Agenda: the Milan World Expo Challenge, 28 September 2015, Milan Organised by the University of Milan Bicocca, Napier University, Fondazione Feltrinelli, and the Municipality of Milan. Henk Renting participates on behalf of RUAF in the round table discussion "From research to policy". Yves Cabannes, RUAF Board member, will give a key note speech on “Food agenda in some Asian smart cities: challenges and limitations”. Contact: h.renting@ruaf.org and ycabanes@mac.com.
Urban Green Train: 3rd project meeting, 11-13 November, Rotterdam Project partners from Italy, France and Germany will visit the Netherlands for the third project meeting. They will continue with the development of course modules on urban agriculture and entrepreneurship. A pilot course will be organised in distance learning and face-to-face mode in 2016.
Urban food policies - Markets, catering services, urban/rural connections , 16-18 November Montpellier
RUAF Foundation is a global centre of expertise in the field of urban and peri-urban agriculture and food systems. Since 1999, RUAF has supported local and sub-national governments, urban producer organisations, NGOs, CBOs, research centres and other stakeholders with training, technical assistance, action-research and policy advice in various related areas. RUAF is a not-for-profit organisation registered in the Netherlands. For more information: www.ruaf.org The RUAF Update is the newsletter from RUAF Foundation. To subscribe: ruaf-news-on@ruaf.org, to unsubscribe: ruaf-news-off@ruaf.org. You can contact us for more information at info@ruaf.org.
This international meeting, co-organised by the RUAF Foundation aims to share knowledge and practices on urban food policies in the world, their construction, modes of action and impacts. This meeting will provide an opportunity to show that, in addition to national policies and international agreements, cities can also make a vital contribution to food security and sustainable food systems. In this perspective, the organisers are calling for contributions from local governments of cities and urban areas in Southern countries that explore experience gained in three little-studied subject areas: 1. Market infrastructure and logistics; 2. Catering services; 3. New types of relationships between cities and rural areas. More information and registration: http://urbanfoodpolicies2015.cirad.fr.