"Food and Agriculture for the Urban Future" is the networking event organized by FAO together with UN-HABITAT, ILO, ICLEI and RUAF on September 3 (17h00-19h00)

Summary: Participants are invited to identify key challenges and propose ways forward for implementing city-region food systems. Food and nutrition security is a critical need for city dwellers that came out dramatically during the 2007–2008 food crisis riots in numerous cities. Building resilient food systems for the future through integrating rural and urban areas and strengthening their linkages will benefit both small farmers and the urban poor. It is urgent to i) Bring together elements for a common understanding of local and global challenges, ii) Identify priorities for improved rural-urban linkages, ii) Facilitate and support future coordinated and multi-stakeholders’ contributions.

“Urbanization is our future” and food and nutrition security will always be a daily and critical need for the city dwellers. The link cities have with agriculture and management of natural resources is still strong and remains important for their sustainability. During the 2007–2008 and 2011 food price crises, with riots occurring in numerous cities, hunger became vocal and food came back on the political agenda. Conflicts, climate change and extreme natural events and economic turmoil increase food and nutrition insecurity and put millions of people at risk, particularly the poorest. In all countries, cities need to sustainably bring food and agriculture back on the local agenda.

Building resilient food systems for the future through integrating rural and urban areas and strengthening their linkages will benefit both small farmers and the urban poor. Such a “city-regional food system” can be characterized, designed and implemented through four dimensions: 1) people centred and social development policy, associated with the right to food, livelihoods and sustainable diets, 2) urban and territorial planning, through the urban-rural continuum, including urban and peri-urban agriculture and forestry, connecting producers and consumers, 3) multi-level governance with a key role for local authorities and 4) disaster risk reduction and resilience of the food system to cope with crisis.

In order to achieve this, it is urgent to:

1. Bring together multiple elements for a common understanding of both local and global challenges,
2. Identify priorities for implementation of improved rural-urban linkages and partnerships,
3. Facilitate and support future coordinated contributions at technical and policy levels

The networking event will bring together stakeholders from international organizations, local and national governments, private sector, resource centers and NGOs in order to identify key challenges and propose ways forward for implementing city-regional food systems.

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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is partnering with different organizations, for organizing and contributing to the networking event, particularly ICLEI and RUAF as well as UN-Habitat, the World Food Programme and ILO. The WUF 6 event will be highlighted as a milestone within a series of event including the ICLEI World Congress, the Rio+20 conference and the Milano Expo 2015 “Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life”.

The “Food-for-Cities” global network, with more than 1000 members from 100+ countries, will be used to share information regarding the networking event but also for the WUF 6. All members will be invited to make contributions. Prior to the event, an online conference will be organized. A flyer will be prepared and widely distributed during the WUF6.

A full report as well as information regarding the networking event and the WUF6 will be prepared and published on line in the different partners websites including the FAO Food for Cities (www.fao.org/fcit), the ICLEI website (www.iclei.org) and RUAF website (www.ruaf.org).

A workshop/technical consultation, open to all partners, will be organized by FAO after the WUF6, in Rome (where the HQ of FAO is located), in order to build on the recommendation of the networking event to propose some was forward and implementation strategies. It should address the roles of local and national governments, collaborating with civil society and the private sector; the technical competencies of partners to address challenges to food and nutrition security, and to provide educational and policy guidance; the collaborative strategies for implementation.