Profil des membres
Sophia Torres
Organisation:
Global Platform for the Right to the City
Pays:
Brésil
Domaine(s) de spécialisation
Sophia Torres
Dear HLPE - FSN Team,
Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
The proposed framework is welcome and pertinent, particularly as it introduces a multi-scalar approach, engaging with a human rights perspective and community-based approaches.We particularly welcome the inclusion of the Right to the City framework, as to engaged with the terrtorial, political, social, environmetal and economic dimensions of food sovereignity. However, a more nuanced incorporation of community-based approaches towards food security and food sovereignty would benefit the analysis. We further detail these recommendations below.
Kind regards,
Sophia Torres and the Global Platform for the Right to the City team
The below listed comments follow and respond to the guiding questions provided in the e-consultation
peri-urban food systems? / Is this a useful conceptual framework to provide practical guidance for policymakers? / Can you offer suggestions for examples to illustrate and facilitate the operationalization of the conceptual framework to address issues relevant for FSN?
The proposed framework is welcome and pertinent, particularly as it introduces a multi-scalar approach, engaging with a human rights perspective and community-based approaches. However, a more nuanced incorporation of community-based approaches towards food security and food sovereignty would be welcomed.
Community based-approaches offer important possibilities for advancing more inclusive urban-rural linkages, through a human rights approach. Given their substantive contributions, three concrete mechanisms are worth noticing. First, and broadly speaking, the social and solidarity economy (SEE), which encompasses different kinds of social enterprises such as cooperatives, mutual benefit societies, associations, foundations and nonprofits organizations dedicated to the production of goods, services and knowledge that respond to economic and social aims and foster solidarity (ILO 2009)1. Based on a strong set of principles and values, the social and solidarity economy promotes the protection of the social and environmental functions over the accumulation of profits, and thus is being increasingly recognized as a viable alternative to address both ecological degradation and growing socio-economic inequality. Moreover, the social and solidarity economy complements and expands the postulates of the circular economy, driving more socially and environmentally sustainable modes of production and consumption by not only addressing the need to limit the exploitation of natural resources but also promoting decent work opportunities (social protection, equity and equality). The Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy (RIPESS in Spanish), founded in the late 1990s, has been a fundamental actor fostering learning and advocacy processes at different levels, including the creation of the United Nations Inter Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy which was instrumental for the approval of the resolution “Promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy for Sustainable Development” by the UN General Assembly in 2023.
The second mechanism refers to cooperatives more in particular. They are defined by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) as “autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise”2. Cooperatives are based on the key principle of promoting solidarity and decent-work, through promoting alternatives to traditional models of individual private property of companies and distribution of gains generated by the economic activities. Moreover, cooperatives can play a critical role in advancing more sustainable models for the management of natural resources in four central topics connecting rural and urban areas: food, water, energy and waste management. In this case, understanding such goods as commons opens the door for collective management and distribution mechanisms different from public and private ones. According to ICA, at least 12% of the global population is engaged in a cooperative and there are three million cooperatives worldwide. StreetNet and Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) are two relevant organizations that have been promoting the creation of cooperatives among workers in the so-called informal economy3, such as street vendors and waste-pickers.
Together with their affiliates, they have recently developed a methodology and calculator tool to show how ‘inclusive recycling’ contributes to reducing greenhouse emissions4.
Third, and in a similar manner to cooperatives, community-supported agriculture is an alternative under the social and solidarity economy umbrella that is based on ensuring the social inclusion and fair income for small-scale farmers --the majority of them women--, who deliver 70% of the food produced globally using less 25% of the agricultural land (Hitchman forthcoming 2023). The support of such small-scale production can guarantee not only a more even distribution of resources and profits, but also the adoption of more environmentally sustainable modes of food production, distribution and consumption. The framework of agroecology is relevant in this sense, which when coupled with the notion of agroforestry, can play a fundamental role in preserving ecosystems that are increasingly absorbed under urban sprawl. With a membership of around three million families, the global network URGENCI promotes Local Solidarity-Based Partnerships for Agroecology that bring together a broad range of actors (i.e. producers, consumers, activists, researchers, and public officials) committed to foster relations of proximity and socio-environmental justice.
Local, regional and national governments are responsible for creating and protecting the enabling conditions for these mechanisms to be applied and maintained over time. A combination of legal frameworks, institutional design and dedicated policies has proven to be crucial in countries around the world (Utting 2017, Utting 2022). There is growing recognition of the significant role that the social and solidarity economy plays as a sector, and measures to support it include: financing, fiscal incentives and market access; multi-scalar governance arrangement and co-construction of policies; training and certification; knowledge building and dissemination; public-SSE partnerships and preferential public procurement. From a physical and territorial dimension, it is key to guaranteeing fair access to adequate infrastructures and services. Paramount among them are land; production, storage and distribution facilities; communication and transportation systems. In that sense, beyond subsidies and financial support, governments can also support SSE initiatives through direct (permanent or temporary) transfer of such resources, which are then managed collectively through communities, as in the case of Community Land Trusts. Such an arrangement has been recommended in the New Urban Agenda (2016)5 as an effective strategy to preserve traditional agricultural land, protecting it from speculation (Hitchman, forthcoming 2023). Through a scope of such varied actions, the combination of the right to the city (see more below) and the social and solidarity economy provides concrete, transformative tools for advancing rural-urban linkages that foster economic, socio-spatial and environmental justice.
2. Does the V0 draft cover sufficiently the implications of this broader definition in urban and peri-urban food systems?
We recommend that to fully cover the socio-spatial, economic and political implications of the proposed approach in urban and peri-urban food systems the paper would benefit in engaging more with an approach based on the concept of food sovereignty. Even if mentioned a handful of times in the draft, the concept is not fully presented and engaged with.
As developed in the publication “Beyond urban-rural linkages, the defense of territories and cities for life” (Global Platform for the Right to the City, 2022): “Food sovereignty is based on the following principles: 1) focusing on food for people; 2) valuing food providers; 3) localizing food systems; 4) making decisions locally; 5) building knowledge and skills; and 6) working with nature. Food sovereignty raises seeds, land, water, knowledge, biodiversity as common goods and as crucial elements for the material, symbolic and spiritual sustenance for peoples”. It recognizes the interdependence between (agro) biodiversity and cultural diversity, opposing the homogeneity of agro-industrial systems and processes of corporate capture, while also fostering solidarity between producers and consumers (Gutierrez, 2019)6. Along these lines, resonances and coincidences exist with the postulates of energy sovereignty which opposes extractivism, corporate energy monopolies and mega-projects that are harmful to the environment, defending the right of people to decide what source of energy to exploit, how much to produce, how, by whom, where and for whom (Del Bene, Soler and Roa, 2019)7. Both food sovereignty and energy sovereignty demands considerations about territories and collective/participatory and localized decision making mechanisms as a result of coexistence relations between communities and nature.
Recommendations to ensure food sovereignty at the local level include:
Relevant sources:
Global Platform for the Right to the City, “Beyond urban-rural linkages, the defense of territories and cities for life”: 2022, available at: https://www.right2city.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/07_Right-to-the-City-Rural_EN_OK2.pdf
Gutiérrez, Laura (2019). “Soberanía y autonomía alimentarias” In Kothari et. al. “Pluriverso. Un diccionario del posdesarrollo.” Pp. 439-442.
FIAN International, “Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition and to food sovereignty”, 2020, available at: https://www.fian.org/files/files/Andrea_20201211_Papers_2_Food_V2.pdf
3. Are there any other issues concerning urban and peri-urban food systems that have not been sufficiently covered in the draft report? / Are topics under- or over-represented in relation to their importance?
We welcome the incorporation of the right to the city approach to the draft, however we believe that it could be further described and articulated, as to fully represent the democratic, social and territorial implications of such an approach to ensure food sovereignty. Below you can find some elements of note.
Arising from social mobilization and proposals by civil society organizations, and enshrined in legislation and policies at local, national and international level, the right to the city has been defined as “the right of all inhabitants, present and future, permanent and temporary, to inhabit, use, occupy, produce, govern and enjoy just, inclusive, safe and sustainable cities, villages and human settlements, defined as commons essential to a full and decent life”8. The city is understood as a political community in charge of taking care of the collective wellbeing, and not just as a collection of buildings and physical infrastructures. Considered as a collective right, the right to the city underpins the integrality and interdependence of all internationally recognized civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, as codified in international human rights treaties9. Moreover, the right to the city framework emphasizes the territorial dimension of such rights, with a focus on guaranteeing adequate life standards and democratic decision-making. It also provides a productive framework from which to claim new rights (i.e. public space, energy, care, to mention only a few that are already under discussion in several cities/countries).
The right to the city is connected to the vision of inclusive, sustainable and decentralized, cities and human settlements; which ensure job opportunities, health, education, leisure and culture for all its inhabitants. To further materialize and operationalize such a vision, the right to the city can be articulated around eight key components: no discrimination; gender equality; inclusive citizenship; enhanced political participation; fulfilled social functions; quality public spaces and services; diverse and inclusive economies; and inclusive rural-urban linkages10.
By recognizing the need to incorporate and rebalance urban-rural linkages, the right to the city promotes an integrated territorial perspective relevant for all types of settlements and their surrounding habitats, from small towns and villages, to intermediary cities and expanded metropolitan areas. Such an approach seeks to go beyond simplified dichotomies based on abstract administrative categorizations that invisibilize the real fluxes and interconnections at both material and symbolic dimensions. Instead, diverse phenomena are conceived as interwoven processes and relations: environmental (ecosystems, watersheds, climates, etc.); social (migration, family and community networks, organizational forms); economic (production, distribution, consumption, recycling and final disposition circuits); political (legal frameworks, policies and programmes); and cultural (language, traditions, collective imaginaries).
The defense and guarantee of the social and environmental functions of territories is a cornerstone of the right to the city. This refers to the equitable distribution of the burdens and benefits of economic processes, and their territorial impact, including urbanization. This is of particular relevance under a context in which the current mainstream economic and development models, guided through the logic of resource extraction and accumulation of profits, often result in scenarios of increasing social-economic and territorial inequalities, exclusion and environmental degradation. As a response, the right to the city is centered around the prioritization of the socio-economic function of land and the city, through a strengthening of community-based processes and democratic management of the city, with the support and flourishing of more diverse and inclusive economies, recognizing informal work and supporting the social and solidarity economy. It also incorporates an intersectional approach that is intrinsically feminist, anti-racist, anti-ableist, intergenerational, and aligned with the emancipation and autonomy of those traditionally marginalized and excluded.
Learning from Indigenous Peoples worldviews, the right to the city reclaims the deep relationality of the web of life that brings together humans and nature. Going beyond an utilitarian point of view, the intersection between human rights, the right to the city, and the rights of nature makes it possible to identify four key action points to advance towards cities and territories for care and wellbeing. These have been articulated in the publication “Beyond urban and rural linkages, the defense of territories and cities for life” (Paredes et al, 2022) and are summarized as follows:
4. Are there other references, publications, or traditional or different kinds of knowledge, which should be considered?
Even though the publication mentions traditional markets, there’s no direct reference to the importance of indigenous and ancestral practices and knowledge. Inclusive urban-rural linkages should fully integrate and support such knowledge and practices through (but not limited to):
6. Could you suggest case studies and success stories from countries that were able to strengthen urban and peri-urban food systems?
Across the global south and the global north, many inspiring efforts exist that seek to disrupt the unfair distribution of burdens and benefits of conventional development processes. The publication “Beyond urban-rural linkages, the defense of territories and cities for life” (Global Platform for the Right to the City, 2022) 2022, sheds light on examples regarding the aspects of solidarity economies, food sovereignty, responsible production and consumption, as well as movements focusing on bringing environmental and territorial justice. These experiences are rooted in the defense of the social and environmental function of territories, and present alternative actions based on more equitable, collective, and complementary approaches. Such examples make it possible to identify the types of actions needed to transform current patterns of production and consumption, and to reexamine the planning and management of territories. Examples can be found here: https://www.right2city.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/07_Right-to-the-City-Rural_EN_OK2.pdf
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1) As mentioned in Utting, P. (2017) Public Policies for Social and Solidarity Economy. Assessing Progress in Seven Countries. Geneva: International Labour Organization. For more information on the ILO engagement in supporting the social and solidarity economy see https://unsse.org/about/members/ilo/.
2) ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193) and ILO Regional Conference on Social Economy, Africa’s Response to the Global Crisis, October 2009, cited on “Waste pickers’ cooperatives and social and solidarity organizations”. Cooperatives and the World of Work No.12. ILO (2019).
3) According to ILO, 61% of the workers in the world are employed in the informal economy (without social protection and/or official registration of the business they work for).
4) For more details about this initiative see https://www.wiego.org/ghg.
5) For its part, the New Urban Agenda (NUA) refers to cities and human settlements for all, with equality in their use and enjoyment, emphasizing inclusion, non-discrimination and an intergenerational perspective. The Agenda frames its common ideal in the right to the city. When considering the interaction and connectivity between urban and rural areas, the NUA also proposes to strengthen sustainable mobility and transportation systems, as well as technology and communications infrastructure networks, to make the most of the territorial potential, improving productivity, social and economic cohesion and environmental security and sustainability, based on planning instruments which focus on integrated urban and territorial development. Additionally, in 2019, UN-Habitat issued a document containing guiding principles for the generation of urban-rural linkages as a framework for action to advance integrated territorial development. This document proposes 10 principles which offer guidance on the implementation of the guidelines established in the NUA and articulated to the SDG. The principles revolve around: local interventions, integrated governance, spatial and functional systemic approach, financial inclusion, balanced partnerships, human rights, social protection and non-violence pact, environmental sustainability, active participation and data-driven decisions (UN-Habitat, 2019).”
6) Gutiérrez, Laura (2019). “Soberanía y autonomía alimentarias” In Kothari et. al. “Pluriverso. Un diccionario del posdesarrollo.” Pp. 439-442.
7) Del Bene, Daniela; Soler, Juan Pablo; Roa Tatiana (2019). “Soberanía energética.” In Kothari et. al. “Pluriverso. Un diccionario del posdesarrollo.” Pp. 435-438
8) Global Platform for the Right to the City. Right to the City Agenda. For the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda. Available at: https://www.right2city.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/A6.2_Right-to-the-city-agenda.pdf
9) As recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) and other related international documents. After decades in the making, access to a clear, healthy and sustainable environment was declared by the United Nations General Assembly as a universal human right in July 2022. The right to the city and its components are included in the New Urban Agenda (2016), as well as in national and local instruments, such as the City’s Statute from Brazil (2001), the Constitution of Ecuador (2008) and the Mexico City Constitution (2017). The World Charter for the Right to the City (2005), promoted by social movements and civil society organizations, has played a crucial role in this process. Local and regional governments have also recognized the relevance of the right to the city, incorporating it as part of the World-Charter Agenda for Human Rights in the City (2011).
10) Over the past three years, the Global Platform for the Right to the City has facilitated the elaboration of a series of thematic papers that deepen the conceptualization of these components and provide related recommendations for public policies. The paper on rural-urban linkages is available at https://www.right2city.org/document/thematic-documet-beyond-urban-rural-linkages/