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City region food system tools and examples

Year of publication 2018

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 325

Author Santini, G.; Miller, S.; Dubbeling, M.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Document

ISBN 978-92-5-130525-6

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) FAO, RUAF Foundation and Wilfrid Laurier University with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation embarked in the period 2015-2017 on a collaborative programme to assess and plan sustainable city region food systems in 7 cities around the world: Colombo (Sri Lanka), Lusaka and Kitwe (Zambia), Medellin (Colombia), Quito (Ecuador), Toronto (Canada and Utrecht (the Netherlands). This City Region Food System (CRFS) toolkit provides guidance on how to assess and plan for sustainable city region food systems. It includes practical tools and examples from the seven cities on how to: • Define and map the city region; • Collect data on the city region food system; • Gather and analyse information on different CRFS components and sustainability dimensions through both rapid and in-depth assessments; • Use a multi-stakeholder process to engage policymakers and other stakeholders in the design of more sustainable and resilient city region food systems. The City Region Food System assessment is aimed to help strengthen the understanding of the current functioning and performance of a food system in the context of a city region, within which rural and urban areas and communities are directly linked. It forms the basis for further development of policies and programmes to promote the sustainability and resilience of CRFS. The CRFS assessment and planning approach advocated builds on a formalised process of identifying and engaging all relevant stakeholders from the start of assessment through to policy review and planning. This means that a CRFS process can result, not only in revised or new urban food policies, strategies and projects, but also in the creation of new -or revitalization of existing- networks for food governance and policy development, such as urban food policy councils and in new institutional food programmes and policies. Each city region has its own context, so no guidelines will fit all. This toolkit is however structured in seven sections or steps generally involved in any CRFS assessment and planning process, based on actual experiences in the project partner cities: • Getting prepared • Defining the CRFS • Vision • CRFS Scan • CRFS Assessment • Policy Support and Planning • Governance The toolkit tells the story of why and how project cities have been implementing this process and what outcomes they achieved. It is meant to be a resource for policymakers, researchers, and other key stakeholders and participants who want to better understand their own CRFS and plan for improvements. In this way the examples and tools documented provide valuable experiences and lessons that may accelerate the development of similar initiatives in other city regions around the world, wishing to apply, or to customise, and to up-scale similar practices. Resources: For a detailed description of the CRFS assessment process, city examples, tools and project outputs, please go to: http://www.fao.org/in-action/food-for-cities-programme/toolkit/introduction/en/ http://www.ruaf.org/projects/developing-tools-mapping-and-assessing-sustainable-city-region-food-systems-cityfoodtools

Language English

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