Katowice – At the eleventh World Urban Forum, FAO, the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems and CGIAR jointly organized a networking event on strengthening the resilience of city region food systems towards multiple shocks and stresses. Opening the event, Guido Santini, Officer at the FAO Plant Production and Protection Division, highlighted ongoing FAO interventions to build resilient food systems such as the City Region Food Systems (CRFS) Programme and the Green Cities Initiative. The latter helps cities assure the environmental, social and economic wellbeing of urban dwellers through integrating agriculture, forestry and food systems into urban planning.

Jess Halliday, Associate at RUAF, further elaborated on the joint programme by FAO and RUAF: The City Region Food System Programme supports governments and local stakeholders to assess and plan resilient and sustainable local food systems with strong urban-rural linkages. At the very core of the programme are its territorial approach, food systems thinking and multistakeholder participation. The upcoming Handbook and Toolkit, to be launched in October 2022, will guide stakeholders through the process. Developed over six years and piloted in 11 city regions, the resources contain detailed guidance, tools and examples to help stakeholders assess the sustainability and resilience of their city region food systems, identify bottlenecks and vulnerabilities, and plan evidence-based actions. As a next step, multimedia resources will be developed to facilitate city-to-city knowledge exchange.

Simon Heck, Program Director at the International Potato Center, demonstrated how science can help connect cities and agriculture through CGIAR’s new initiative on Resilient Cities. Actions within the initiative include establishing safe urban food production zones in the Philippines, implementing food safety surveillance models in Ethiopia, conducting food waste assessments in Bangladesh and Kenya, and providing mobile food retailing technologies in Bangladesh as well as innovations like lean launchpads for young urban food entrepreneurs in Peru.

The Resilient Cities Network was presented by Executive Director Lauren Sorkin. It brings together global knowledge, practice, partnerships and funding to empower cities to strengthen urban resilience. She highlighted that building resilience in cities would not only generate vast economic savings and create 25 million new jobs, but also cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly. As an example, through their Participatory Urban Agriculture Programme, the City of Quito developed the capacity to produce and deliver 43% of its food through various short supply chains, reducing food waste and increasing accessibility.

The event also invited city representatives to provide insights into their strategies to build resilient food systems. María Belén Loor, Executive Director of the Economic Promotion Corporation CONQUITO, Municipality of Quito, introduced the city's strategy to strengthen urban resilience. Starting with promoting and scaling-up urban agriculture since 2002, the CRFS pilot city has now institutionalized food security and set up a multistakeholder platform (Quito Agri-Food Pact) to develop an agri-food strategy. Further participatory engagement has led to the development of Quito's resilience strategy to strengthen the food sector and urban agriculture within Quito as well as to create a programme for sustainable agricultural production. 

Alexis Segatashya, Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Specialist at the City of Kigali, highlighted Kigali’s Stakeholder Advisory Group as part of the City Region Food Systems Programme. This multistakeholder mechanism strengthens food governance in order to formulate priority actions and a strategy for enhanced resilience and sustainability of Kigali’s food system. He also emphasized already existing key government actions such as a disaster management programme, provision of farming subsidies, as well as post-harvest support.

A special video produced by FAO and the City of Colombo highlighted the need for building capacity to be more efficient and adaptive in the face of evolving social, demographic and environmental dynamics. This also requires a comprehensive understanding of the complex networks of players, processes and relationships involved in the food system. Colombo’s participatory approach as part of the City Region Food Systems Programme brings together food system stakeholders like governments, producers, consumers, and businesses to analyze, plan and design a resilient food system.

During the exchange with the audience, participants discussed strategies to gain political engagement for the work on food systems. The discussion also addressed the potential for high-tech controlled environment agriculture to contribute to food security within cities. Moreover, participants shared experiences of supporting informal street vendors by providing access to infrastructure such as light, water and sanitation. The active exchange concluded by highlighting the vital role of civil society in keeping up the momentum in the sphere of strengthening urban food systems.

Finally, Katrin Bruebach, Global Director of Programs, Innovation and Impact, Resilient Cities Network, closed the event by summarizing the various perspectives that were presented. Cities are rethinking their approach to food systems: They understand that well-managed food systems are vital for public health, the economy and the environment. As urban food systems are interlinked with other critical urban systems like water, health, transport, public space, among others, implementing action and accelerating change may not always take a straightforward approach. Rather, through the associated systems, sectors and services, it is possible to mobilize and create a cascading impact. Katrin called this "finding your critical friend and ally", further driving home the message that resilience building requires not only a joint effort but also rethinking how we approach innovation and problem-solving in the city. Consequently, the solutions for resilient urban food systems may be found in other critical urban systems and can be leveraged to break silos and achieve a holistic and resilient approach to planning our cities.