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The RUAF Update is the newsletter from the RUAF Foundation. You can contact us for more information at [email protected].
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RUAF Update | May 2016
RUAF Update no.27May 2016
In this update:Update on RUAF projects• Encouraging pioneering business initiatives • Value chain development for a local
market in Gaza• City region food systems and food waste
reduction• Accelerating sustainable WASH• City region food systems training• Assessing city region food systems and
monitoring the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact implementation
• CityFoodTools fieldwork in 7 city-regions around the world
New RUAF publications• Multifunctional rooftop horticulture:
a promising strategy for intensifying horticulture production in cities
• Effects of urban green areas on air temperature in a medium-sized Argentinean city
• Climate change: Lessons from and for Latin American Cities
• Urban Agriculture Magazine 31
RUAF participation in events• Voedsel Anders / Food Otherwise• University of Sustainability (UniSost)• Sowing the asphalt. Past, present and
future of urban and peri-urban agriculture• The future of urban food systems:
REUSE><WORK• 8th European conference on sustainable
cities and towns• World Humanitarian Summit 2016• German Habitat Forum• ICLEI Resilient Cities 2016• Food security in an urbanising society
The RUAF Global Partnership in Amersfoort. Image: Henk Renting
RUAF renewed its Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food SystemsIn a recent meeting (18-21 April 2016) in its new home base in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, RUAF Foundation, with several of its founding partners and a number of new partner institutions have renewed the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems.
This new partnership replaces the RUAF member network that existed since the start of RUAF in 2000. The current members of the RUAF Partnership are a mix of municipalities, research institutes, and NGOs and include: the International Water Management Institute based in Colombo, Sri Lanka; the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences based in Beijing, China; the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, Wilfrid Laurier University and the Toronto Food Policy Council, both based in Canada; the Municipality of Ghent, Belgium; and the NGOs Economia e Sostenibilita from Milan, Italy; and the Mazingira Institute based in Nairobi, Kenya. Negotiations are ongoing with the Municipality of Quito, Ecuador to also join.
The partners strengthen RUAF and each other in joint and collaborative strategy development, research, benchmarking and upscaling, representation and networking, dissemination and awareness raising, and in implementation. The partners have specific interest to learn from past experiences in joint impact analysis.
In the coming year the RUAF Global Partnership aims to further consolidate itself and where needed, expand, inviting selected other members to ensure coverage of fields of expertise, activities, opportunities and regions. This will be reflected in the RUAF Strategic Plan 2017-2020. We will keep you updated on our website and in future issues of the RUAF Update.
RUAF Update | May 2016
Update on RUAF projectsEncouraging pioneering business oriented initiatives on urban agriculture The URBAN GREEN TRAIN project produced its first results that can be accessed from the RUAF and URBAN GREEN TRAIN website:• The document
New Urban Agriculture initiatives towards a mindset change shares the results of a comparative analysis of 27 case studies, the current educational offer on urban agriculture entrepreneurship as well as the results of a survey on training needs of future entrepreneurs implemented in Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The aim of this work is to identify new entrepreneurial models, training opportunities and challenges for urban agriculture, as well as to provide state of art information on both urban agriculture entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. This will pave the way for the development of a set of training modules and resources that will be piloted in a first course to be held in Bologna, Italy in November 2016.
• 4 video tutorials give insight in the UA businesses of Rotterzwam and Uit Je Eigen Stad in the Netherlands, Eta Beta in Italy and Le Jardin de l’Avenir in France.
• 26 SME in-depth case studies can be found online in the
Visit the new RUAF office The RUAF Foundation has moved to a new office as from January 2016.
Our new (postal) address is:P.O. Box 357, 3830 AK Leusden, The NetherlandsOur telephone number +31 33 434 3003 remains unchanged.
Please visit us at our new visiting address in De Nieuwe Stad (The New City Incubator) in Amersfoort, The Netherlands: http://www.denieuwestad.nl/.
Hei-tro GMBH (LTD.) Aquaponik development in Dortmund. Images: Femke Hoekstra
Inventory of UA Enterprises, and give insight in the various applied business models of a variety of urban agriculture SMEs
• Educational resources related to urban agriculture entrepreneurship can be found online in the Inventory of UA Educational Offer
• Newsletters are uploaded on the web site news section.
At the 4th project meeting, hosted by the German project partner South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences in Soest, Germany (5-7 April 2016), the partners discussed progress on module development for the upcoming online and face-to-face pilot course on urban agriculture entrepreneurship that will be open for registration soon. For more information please contact Femke Hoekstra at [email protected] or Henk Renting at [email protected].
RUAF Update | May 2016
International (WAI). The WAI comprises a multinational network of close to 100 partners in 8 countries, from CSOs to banks and from governments to businesses. The WAI seeks to contribute to a shift towards integrated WASH sector development by working on three pillars: establishing a functioning market, strengthening the public sector, and empowering & organising citizens. Specific WAI objectives for 2016 are: • diversify and expand the funding base; • provision of safe water and improved sanitation against
€18,- per person; • and continue to learn and innovate on sustainability
and acceleration (including linkages to Food Security and Climate Change, next to Business Development, Inclusiveness and Gender).
RUAF will continue to collaborate with local partners in Nepal, Bangladesh and Ghana in the coming year. For more information: [email protected].
City region food systems trainingFor the last two years, RUAF has been part of a project funded by IDRC and Rooftops Canada that has constituted a network of trainers on urban agriculture and food systems. The project coordinated by Ryerson University developed case studies of Nairobi, Cape Town (see Urban Agriculture Magazine 29), Toronto and Almere, to serve as inputs to a common curriculum. Testing of training materials in Toronto and Nairobi in Feb-Mar 2016 was followed by a network meeting in Nairobi to evaluate the achievements of the project and agree on the way forward. Network members also attended a NEFSALF assembly (the Nairobi and Environs Food Security, Agriculture, and Livestock Forum). Nairobi City County government, which passed an Urban Agriculture Promotion and Regulation Act in 2015, mounted the training with support from Mazingira Institute and joined the training network.
The project members agreed to continue to develop a set of guidelines for cities to set up their own training process, and requested RUAF and its partners to finalise this material, as well as to further lead the development of a learning group to provide support to other cities on city region food systems training. For the training in Toronto contact: Fiona Yeudall [email protected], Barbara Emanuel [email protected] or Lauren Baker [email protected]. For Nairobi contact: Diana Lee Smith: [email protected]; or on RUAF [email protected].
Value chain development for a local market in Gaza Under the SDC funded and the joint Oxfam and RUAF executed programme in Gaza, local value chain actors are supported to improve the date and fodder/dairy value chain. Two processing units, one for dates and one for dairy, have been upgraded with solar powered cold storage systems (to increase shelf life and marketing periods) and are supported in agribusiness enterprise development. Three more dairy process units are currently being selected to benefit from similar support. In November 2015, the Gaza team visited various date businesses for exposure to new technologies and markets and aiming to build bridges between the West Bank and Gaza. Similar visits for dairy actors will be organised in the coming months. In January, RUAF conducted a training on facilitation skills for key project staff, involved in group development processes, like the value chain and GUPAP platforms.
A group of local trainers (15 trainees within 4 key extension institutions) are being trained by RUAF and Oxfam in Participatory Technology Development and are currently supervising a number of farmer experiments, testing green fodder production, improved feeding practices and their effect on milk quantity and quality, a new pollination technology for date palm trees, and control of Red Palm Weevil.
At the same time, an analysis has been conducted on policies regarding local production and marketing, food safety, sanitary and quality criteria and regulations. Based on this analysis, the Gaza Urban and Periurban Agriculture Platform is supporting the development of the new Ministry of Agriculture mid-term plan and of a new consumer protection plan in collaboration with the Ministry of national Economics. For more information: Irene Kruizinga (Oxfam) at [email protected] or [email protected].
City region food systems and food waste reductionRUAF Foundation, in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit/GIZ and UN-FAO, have analysed 13 case studies in the field of city region food systems and food waste reduction. The case studies show that city region food systems are an effective policy area through which to strengthen urban rural linkages for sustainable and resilient development. The case studies, and an overall analysis drawing conclusions and lessons learned, will be published next month and aim to further inform the drafting of the New Urban Agenda to be presented in Quito in October this year. For more information contact: [email protected].
Accelerating sustainable WASH – WASH Alliance International programme 2016WASTE and RUAF cooperated in the MFS II programme of the Dutch WASH Alliance, which started in 2011 and came to an end in 2015. In December 2015, a one-year extension of the programme was approved under the name WASH Alliance
Image: Lauren Baker
RUAF Update | May 2016
New RUAF publicationsMultifunctional rooftop horticulture: a promising strategy for intensifying horticulture production in cities. By: Francesco Orsini, Marielle Dubbeling and Giorgio Gianquinto In our urbanising society, urban horticulture is gaining relevance due to its potential to increase resource efficiency, contribute to city food security and enhance associated ecosystem and social services. In cities, however, spaces available for cultivation are limited, thus leading to the need to explore innovative growing solutions, for instance, plant cultivation on building rooftops. While rooftop horticulture experiences are “sprouting” all over the world, scientific evidence on the most suitable growing solutions, policies and potential benefits is growing. This publication addresses the main features of rooftop horticulture, providing an interdisciplinary assessment of different approaches for development and the multi-faceted forms that rooftop horticulture may assume in different contexts, bringing together existing experiences as well as suggestions for planning of future sustainable cities. Available at: http://www.ruaf.org/publications.
RUAF and the University of Bologna are also currently editing a new Springer publication on Rooftop Agriculture that will feature information as well as case studies from all over the world. Publication is foreseen for the end of the year.
Effects of urban green areas on air temperature in a medium-sized Argentinean city By: Alejandra S. Coronel, Susana R. Feldman, Emliano Jozami, Kehoe Facundo, Rubén D. Piacentini, Marielle Dubbeling and Francisco J. Escobedo This peer-reviewed article, presenting the results of a joint RUAF-CDKN programme on Monitoring the impacts of urban and peri-urban agriculture and forestry on climate
Assessing City Region Food Systems and monitoring the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact implementationFAO and the RUAF Foundation are partnering to build sustainable, resilient and dynamic city region food systems. Their joint City Region Food Systems programme provides assistance to local governments in assessing their own city region food system, understanding gaps, bottlenecks and opportunities for informed decision-making, prioritising investments and design of sustainable food policies and strategies to improve local food systems. An international expert consultation held in Rome (13-14 April 2016) aimed to:• improve and consolidate the current draft framework of indicators on
City Region Food Systems developed by RUAF and FAO; • to identify existing tools and methods to collect corresponding
indicator data and possible proxies; • and to identify a set of indicators to monitor the implementation of
the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact framework of action; aligning these to the SDG indicators where possible.
RUAF associate Joy Carey and RUAF partner the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems represented RUAF in the meeting. RUAF will further support development of a set of (SDG aligned) indicators to monitor baseline and progress of city region food system status and policies/programmes. For further information: Guido Santini (FAO) at [email protected] and Marielle Dubbeling at [email protected].
CityFoodTools field work in 7 city-regions around the worldIn the meantime, the CityFoodTools project to test and improve the toolkit of indicators and methods to describe, map and assess city region food systems is at full speed. The provisional assessment method is being applied in 7 city-regions around the world: Colombo (Sri Lanka), Lusaka and Kitwe (Zambia), Quito (Ecuador), Medellín (Colombia), Toronto (Canada) and Utrecht (The Netherlands). The fieldwork is coordinated by RUAF and implemented together with FAO Food for the Cities, while also the RUAF partner organisations Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and Toronto Food Policy Council (for Toronto) and the International Water Management Institute (for Colombo) are involved.
Early 2016, Henk Renting (RUAF) visited Quito, Toronto and Colombo (together with Yota Nicolarea of FAO), while Guido Santini (FAO) visited Lusaka and Kitwe in Zambia. In Quito, the focus was on establishing the local research team and making agreements with local institutions and key stakeholders on the research approach and priorities. In Colombo, Lusaka/Kitwe and Toronto already the results from the first assessment phase - a mapping and evaluation of the regional food system on the basis of existing secondary data and information sources - were presented and discussed in multi-stakeholder workshops with representatives from relevant (municipal, regional and national) public administrations, civil society organisations, private sector companies, and universities and research institutes. Results from the first phase were validated and complemented, important blind spots in data and information were identified, and priorities were set for the next phase of in-depth food system assessment. In the coming months similar workshops will be organised in Quito, Medellín and Utrecht where data collection for the first phase is currently under way. The results and experiences with applying the toolkit will also be used to further finetune and improve the city region food system assessment framework.
The CityFoodTools project is supported by the Daniel and Nina Carrasso Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. For further information: [email protected] and [email protected].
RUAF Update | May 2016
Urban Agriculture Magazine 31Community involvement in urban agriculture and food planning and policy influencing (expected July 2016)Urban agriculture and food systems are fast gaining the attention of planners and policy makers across the Global South and North. A number of cities and regions are developing and implementing food systems plans and policies. While this emerging planning and policy attention is laudable, it must build on community-led efforts to rebuild urban agriculture and community food systems. Failure to build on these on-the ground practices run the risk of developing policy that is uninformed and disconnected from the lived experiences of people in communities. This issue of the UA Magazine explores the issue of community engagement in urban food policy and planning through case studies across the globe. Articles explore the formal and informal role of community in urban food policy and planning, innovative planning practices and participatory policy development. The Magazine will complement the upcoming publication on Integrating Food into Urban Planning by FAO and Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU) of the University College London.
change adaptation, mitigation and developmental impacts (see RUAF website), features amongst the 4 most downloaded articles from the Journal AIMS Environmental Science.
Cambio climático: Lecciones de y para Ciudades de América Latina/ Climate change: Lessons from and for Latin American CitiesEdited by: Prof Sylvie Nail, Université de Nantes, France (April 2016).
The book includes the following article, co-authored by several researchers and technical staff from Rosario, Argentina and Marielle Dubbeling, RUAF Foundation: “Agricultura urbana y periurbana y forestación como posibilidad de mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático. Estudio de caso en la ciudad de Rosario y región, Argentina” / “Urban and peri-urban agriculture and forestry as a potential strategy for climate change adaptation and mitigation” (in Spanish and English). The book is available from the publisher.
Neighbours created 462 Halsey Community Garden in New York on public land where they can compost organic waste and grow and distribute fresh produce.
Image: Murray Cox
Past eventsVoedsel Anders / Food Otherwise 12-13 February 2016, Wageningen. RUAF Foundation co-organised the 2nd Voedsel Anders / Food Otherwise conference on the transition towards fair and sustainable food systems. 700 people participated in a diverse programme of plenary debates and 60 interesting workshops on topics such as agroecology, short supply chains, land rights and fair agricultural and trade policies. Henk Renting (RUAF) organised a workshop on opportunities for urban food policies in Dutch-Belgian cities following the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and Femke Hoekstra (RUAF) on regional training and innovation hubs for urban agriculture. Reports of the workshops (in Dutch or English) can be found on: http://www.voedselanders.nl/verslag/.
University of Sustainability (UniSost)23-24 February 2016, Milan. Last February, the international workshop: "Sustainability Schools: organisation, management models and contents" took place. It was organised by RUAF partner Esta and the University of Sustainability in collaboration with Centro de Estudios Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, RUAF Foundation and Schumacher College. The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the management skills and communication of the UniSost staff and the quality of the University of Sustainability and to create the foundation for a long-term partnership on sustainability training. More information: http://www.unisost.org/wp/.
UniSost workshop in Milan. Image: Femke Hoekstra
RUAF Foundation is a global partnership on sustainable 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: [email protected], to unsubscribe: [email protected]. You can contact us for more information at [email protected].
Sowing the asphalt. Past, present and future of urban and peri-urban agriculture12 March 2016, Barcelona. During this seminar, organised by food sovereignty movements in Barcelona, Henk Renting (RUAF) and Roberto Cittadini (ProHuerta, INTA, Argentina) gave introductions on international experiences with urban agriculture and food sovereingty in metropolitan areas in the context of food emergencies. Also, there was an interesting debate with representatives from social movements from Madrid, Zaragoza, Valencia and Barcelona on emerging perspectives for urban food strategies and opportunities that the signing of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact by their city governments might offer in this respect.
The future of urban food systems: REUSE><WORKREUSE><WORK is a project of applied research that aims to share knowledge, look for best practices and establish new practices on how cities produce and re-produce themselves. Accommodating an increasing population poses the question of how to engage inhabitants in urban life. On the other hand shrinking regions suffer from a demographic drain due to lack of attractive work. New paradigms are necessary and under development. REUSE><WORK aims at collecting valuable initiatives from European cities, on one or more of the three main topics: Work, Re-use and Food. RUAF participates in this initiative of the Dutch Pakhuis de Zwijger and Spontaneous Cities, that started February 5 with a discussion meeting, as part of a multi-stakeholder pool of experts that will contribute to the applied research outcomes in Amsterdam Region and monitor its developments. For more information: [email protected]. The next meeting will be organised in Pakhuis de Zwijger’s City Makers Summit on 28-31 May 2016.
8th European conference on sustainable cities and towns27-29 April 2016, Bilbao. Hosted by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the Basque Government, Bizkaia County Council and Bilbao City Council, with the involvement of Udalsarea 21 – Basque Network of Municipalities for Sustainability. A thematic session of the conference called ‘Well-fed cities’ looked at some of the actions that local governments can take to develop or improve their food systems for their citizens, by addressing the following issues:• How can urban food systems be made more sustainable and resilient?
What is needed to strengthen urban food security?• How can public procurement be used as a strategic instrument by
local governments for their public institutions? • How can local governments have a more active role in promoting
more sustainable diets? • How can urban planners consider space for urban and peri-urban
food production, urban gardening and urban agriculture?• How can urban-rural linkages best be used for feeding cities and rural
communities?• What benefits in terms of local economy (green jobs) can be realised?Keynotes were held by Henk Renting (RUAF) and Cinzia Tegoni (City of Milan). Powerpoints are available upon request: [email protected].
Upcoming eventsWorld Humanitarian Summit 201622-24 May 2016, Istanbul. Upon initiative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, managed by UN OCHA, this conference will bring together governments, humanitarian organisations, people affected by humanitarian crises and new partners including the private sector to propose solutions to our most pressing challenges and set an agenda to keep humanitarian action fit for the future. RUAF will be present organising an exhibition space with the University of Coventry on 'Urban agriculture and greening innovation activities in the context of forced displacement', in collaboration with other organisations like UNHCR. Contact: [email protected].
German Habitat Forum 1-2 June 2016, Berlin. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the federal state of Berlin host the German Habitat Forum as an opportunity to debate sustainable solutions to urban challenges and deliver input for the UN Habitat III conference in Quito. Henk Renting (RUAF) participates in the session on 'Managing Rural-Urban Linkages: Mobility beyond the City' convened by FAO and IFAD.
ICLEI Resilient Cities 2016 6-9 July 2016, Bonn. Resilient Cities 2016 will focus on Inclusive and Resilient Urban, Financing Urban Resilience andImplementing Global Frameworks. For the third consecutive year, an urban food forum will be co-organised by ICLEI and RUAF and other important partners. If you like to have more information or attend the congress, please register at http://resilientcities2016.iclei.org or contact [email protected].
Food security in an urbanising society 5-16 September 2016, Wageningen. This year Wageningen University in collaboration with RUAF will again give a two-week course on Food security in an urbanising society. The course focuses on how rural production and urban markets can be integrated to assure access to adequate quantities of nutritious food while sustaining the viability of the production areas.
