City region food systems: strengthening resilience against multiple shocks and crises

The networking event focuses on the imperative for cities to take a territorial approach to building food systems resilience, at a time when activities throughout supply chains are vulnerable to multiple shocks and stresses – including climate events, pandemic-related disruptions, and the impacts of interstate conflict.

Guido Santini

Moderator

June 27, 2022 | 16:00 - 17:30

Multifunction Hall Room 7

RUAF, Netherlands; CGIAR, France and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Global

English

Building Resilience for Sustainable Urban Futures

WUF11

Networking Events

Summary

The event will be a forum for dialogue between expert speakers, urban representatives, and the audience for the exchange of knowledge and experiences in multistakeholder assessment and planning, and adaptability of interventions to different contexts.

The first part of the event will introduce two initiatives that offer technical support to urban and city region food systems stakeholders.

1) The City Region Food Systems (CRFS) assessment and planning process, developed by FAO and RUAF, has been piloted in 11 city regions to date. A new handbook and online toolkit containing detailed guidance, tools and examples – including a comprehensive monitoring system – will be launched later this year.

2) The global CGIAR science partnership for a food secure future has launched a research initiative on Resilient Cities through Sustainable Urban and Peri-urban Agrifood Systems, as part of its Research and Innovation Strategy to 2030. This initiative, which adopts the CRFS approach, provides scientific and technical support for urban food system stakeholders in Low and Middle Income Countries in critical areas, such as waste management and circular economy, informal markets and urban planning, employment generation, food safety and nutrition.

Following these introductions, city and city network representatives will share their experiences, including: benefits of an inclusive, risk-sensitive and holistic territorial approach to food systems; actions to address issues, to mitigate the impact and challenges of COVID-19, and to build resilience; lessons for others.

The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with participants.

Objectives

The objectives are:

-to inform city and city region stakeholders about the benefits of taking a city region food systems approach, and its potential to improve overall urban resilience;

- To raise awareness of the methodologies and tools that are available to support city and city region stakeholders, including the forthcoming CRFS Handbook and Toolkit and outputs of the CGIAR Resilient Cities Initiatives;

-To promote city-to-city exchange of experiences;

-To identify opportunities for transferability (or adaptation of solutions) between cities and city regions of different sizes, geographical character, types, and in different locations.