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Theme 6, Group 6.1 COVID has taught us that the current approach for responding to emergencies is not effective. We need to move from short-term emergency planning to taking a more systemic approach and think about longer-term recovery planning. This will be particularly important as emergencies become more frequent in the wake of climate change (for example in Colombo they expect flooding every few years). Cities can build resilience by developing recovery plans as a stepping-stone to longer-term food strategies. Integrated into this approach should be capacity building. Building resilience i... قراءة المزيدs to build capacities of people and institutions so they can cope with shocks and stresses by absorbing them. Building capacities of different institutions will ensure that all actors in the urban food system are becoming more resilient. Harnessing the power of different stakeholders, and effective coordination between them, is key to creating more resilient cities. It’s essential that different stakeholders coordinate in order to push forward resilience planning and projects in spite of local government’s budgetary and electoral terms, to ensure continuit. In one city, they were able to overcome one of the world’s strictest lockdown and still provide fruit and vegetables to their citizens because of effective co-ordination between local governments, police, municipal and private transport companies and farmers. COVID further highlighted the role of civil society in helping cities respond to shocks and stresses. We need to untap the potential of civil society and other community groups to help cities respond to emergencies. Civil society and citizens can also play an important role in holding local governments accountable for their (in)actions. The private sector is another important stakeholder group; school food and public/private partnerships are another obvious solution to help cities become more resilient. Schools provide a stable market for local businesses and we can leverage public procurement as a tool to protect cities. We should connect local producers to nearby school kitchens, ensuring that local businesses are supported, children have healthy and sustainable food, and markets are diversified. Schools are an important platform to deliver nutritious food, but cities would like some support to help cities to do this. Diversification of food chains to improve resilience. Increasing urban agriculture, promoting the school feeding programmes like those outlined above, or leveraging the new supply chains that have been created through COVID or through people moving out of urban centres, as some of the ways cities can do this. The solutions put forward in our discussion highlighted the importance for multi-stakeholder collaboration and coordination to create resilient cities. The responsibility should not fall on the shoulders of one group of actors, instead all actors should be empowered to play a role and sufficient resources should be invested in different stakeholder groups (e.g. civil society organisations, private sector, academics, schools) to build capacity and agency. This means that emphasis should be focused on creating multi-stakeholder partnerships and effective coordination between groups. It should also mean that individual stakeholders groups are given sufficient support and resource to be able to play a role in shaping their local food system. Ultimately, it is the role of national government to ensure that local governments are sufficiently resourced to be able to invest in multi-stakeholder partnerships. As some of the above actions are implemented, some of the challenges may be: Lack of data on emergency and recovery (knowing who needs access to food and support) Vulnerable differs from city to city, The large number of institutions and stakeholders can lead to governance fragmentation Local governance has become too complicated and there are too many institutions, making policy change slow. This is compounded by the issue of budgetary and electoral terms being too short/frequent to make any long-term, systemic change. Stakeholder lack agency or resource to be able to play their role قراءة القليل

Theme 5: Leveraging urban and local food systems to strengthen social protection and inclusion What actions in next 3 years will have greatest impact on the Discussion Topic? 1.Codesign policies and programmes through a multidisciplinary lens, bringing participants from different backgrounds, build authentic relationships and go beyond those who already hold, power, access, and resources. 2.Meet people where they are at: actions aimed to support vulnerable groups should be implemented in a way that brings valuable services and resources to constituents in a way that is (physically, culturally)... قراءة المزيد accessible to them. 3.Ensuring that the (historically and currently) oppressed communities have a lead role in the design of programmes & policies that affect them and that their knowledge is used as the basis for these programmes/policies. What contributions will our organisations make? Invest in healthy school canteens as a key leverage point to increase the nutrition status of children. This can be done by increasing children’s food literacy through education, providing better meals in the canteens and introducing school farming. In particular, cities can develop or update Standard Operating Procedures to include criteria related to social inclusion, health & nutrition, and sustainability. They can also mandate their local drug and food control agency to supervise food quality in the canteens. Scale-up the impact of school canteens by involving parents in the learning process and encouraging changes in diets at household level. Commit to working in multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder teams to incorporate as many perspectives as possible and to make sure that solutions are inclusive of all stakeholders, especially those most impacted. Meet vulnerable groups where they are sheltered and make healthy food available and physically accessible in these spaces. Center culturally-important foods – on school menus, in emergency food efforts, etc - that respond to the needs and preferences of the diverse communities in your locality. This respects the diverse food cultures of the communities that live throughout the world, and further downstream, has the potential to reduce food waste. Offer free meals to vulnerable groups throughout the pandemic via initiatives that bring together the community and private sector. How will it be possible to tell if these actions are being successful? Success will be achieved when groups that are largely excluded from food programmes and policy discussions are recognised as key stakeholders, actively engaged, and hold true power in these discussions. This requires participation beyond the typical individuals and organizations that already hold power and access to resources. We must actively include stakeholder groups such as: children, food service workers, people who experience houselessness, and other oppressed communities. The knowledge they hold from their lived experiences must be recognized, valued, and used as a basis for the design of policies & programmes that support them. Only when this type of authentic inclusivity is realized can bidirectional learning truly inform policymaking and programme development. قراءة القليل

Theme 4: Financing Mechanisms for Sustainable Food Systems Solutions Public and private finance, as well as blended finance mechanisms, are required for investment in catalytic food security initiatives. A key question when looking into these financing mechanisms, is the role of local governments. There are business models and financing mechanisms with great potential in the public and the private sector that have not yet been tapped, but that could be brought to reality through the involvement of local governments: Business models that can drive the sustainable food systems from a local gover... قراءة المزيدnments perspective. For local governments to untap that potential, they need the necessary fiscal space to encourage local food value chains, from rural to urban level. From the local governments perspective, it becomes clear that it's not (only) about the value chain of a commercialized financing mechanism, but also other sustainable financing mechanisms. The question is, how to create such financing mechanisms and business models, through instruments that cities have at their disposal or new instruments to cities. There are different opportunities to deploy such tools in ways that can make a big difference for financing food systems sustainably: Taxation: The role of local governments to improve tax collection and service delivery is important to ensure food security. A possible government solution is the use of tax cuts, tax breaks or tax subsidies to promote food companies that are invested, e.g. in nutritious and healthy food. Regulation: sustainable financing sources for food systems require a broader and more inclusive investment climate and security (enabling environment). Equity investments: Equity is usually missing in the value chains of local markets. Local governments should start looking into equity funds for investments in the local food value chains. Subsidies are an important instrument for public sector business models through which local governments can impact the pricing of e.g. healthy nutrition and provide incentives for consumers, reducing long-term health costs. Guarantees are crucial to reduce risks for (private) investors (blended finance). A key challenge for cities is how to cover the costs for guarantees. Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are another important mechanism and should be used by local governments where it makes most sense in the supply chain: E.g. food loss provides a huge opportunity for sustainable financial business models to improve the nutritional value chains locally. PPPs are also key when addressing challenges for local markets such as lack of competitiveness, weak infrastructure, etc. Cooperatives: The creation of small cooperatives (not only for farmers) will strengthen the food systems in cities, promote inclusion and support small businesses to access finance. Real estate is an important asset that local governments can use for food markets. Microfinance is usually accessible for small business and women and therefore an important mechanism to develop inclusive businesses. Capacity Building for different stakeholders throughout the supply chain can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a project, while reducing its risks and hence increase its competitiveness and attract investors. Stakeholder Engagement & Partnerships: We need to work on investments ways that are equitable, inclusive, and that connect the links within the food supply chain through partnerships. Key stakeholders include small scale businesses, banks, local governments, smallholder farmers, central governments, etc. Circular Economies: A mechanism that can link local production with the consumption side of food at city level could enhance local economy and circular economies. By defining these tools in nutritional value chains, the linkages between finance, food and people become the point to focus rather than the financial value chains. Cities should be at the forefront of integrating food systems and nutrition into the city government. قراءة القليل

Theme 3, Group 3.2 – Theme 3: Urban and Local Actions for sustainable Food Systems: food environment, waste reduction and Circular Economy The discussion in the group “Urban and Local Actions for sustainable food systems: food environment, waste reduction and circular economy” revolved around four big entry points/solutions: 1) public food procurement and school food/meals; ) local fresh food markets (wet markets and wholesale markets); and 3) awareness raising and behavior change actions on healthy diets, food waste reduction, and food systems; and 4) cross-cutting food waste reduction ... قراءة المزيدactivities, that can seen as integrated in the previous 3 entry points, or act a stand-alone entry point.  The focus on public food procurement and school meals was seen as one of the most strategic entry points since it’s a public instrument that, if used to achieve SDGs at the local level, can achieve tangible results on a significant scale at the local level, and potentially mobilize the country-wide shift in the public food procurement and provisioning system. Besides offering real impact on local diets, especially those of children, it can serve as a strong educational and behavioral-shifting campaign for empowering and sensitizing children, parents and the public institutions about their dietary needs, as well as the needs and challenges of the food systems. These sustainable public procurement and school feeding programs can go hand-in-hand with food waste reduction actions. However, it was emphasized that higher-level food reduction policies need to be put in place, such as policies for organic food waste segregation, feeding also into the issue of circular economy as food waste reduction in cities can reduce costs of municipal services. The issue of the food environment was addressed by highlighting the role of local, fresh food markets and the need for developing basic infrastructure such as roads, but also market and logistics infrastructure for wholesale markets and open-air markets, as these markets are essential for enhancing local food environments and enabling access to fresh, micronutrient-rich foods, especially in developing countries. The value and supply chains of those nutritionally-sensitive commodities that make part of such markets need to be strengthened.  The proposed format to encourage and push these actions forward was to start with relevant and strategic data collection in cities, and piloting “quick-win“ projects where this strategic data can be immediately harnessed and presented to policy makers/champions in order to get the political buy-in. In terms of governance, strategic coalition of partners through mapping different kinds of actors and bringing them on board was stressed. The key element is to include younger generations in decision-making processes because they are very driven and opinionated actors, and are imminent successors of the Agenda 2030 legacy. قراءة القليل

Theme 3, Group 3.1 – Urban and Local Actions for sustainable Food Systems: food environment, waste reduction and Circular Economy Local governments have a crucial role to play when it comes to shaping local food environments and circular economy interventions. Yet, any action or solution proposed needs to be concrete and practical so it can respond to the realities experienced stakeholders on the ground. Strategic actions that can already be taken by local governments include the improvement of local markets; food environments such as the school, restaurants, and street food; and land and in... قراءة المزيدfrastructure development (roads, storage, water provision). The latter is key as this is something that municipalities and local governments own and are strictly mandated with; improving local and city-region-level infrastructure could help reduce food loss and better connect farmers and consumers. In designing these solutions, it will be important to build on a holistic understanding of the food system. Data collection is essential to better understand each one of the components that make up the food system, as well as to inform the public and the political leaders charged with decision-making. Challenges with knowledge integration can be expected, yet there are good examples to learn from on how to manage multi-sectoral information systems – and this is where academia could play a key role, supporting local governments make strategic investments by advising on low-cost technological solutions. Beyond local government actions, measures will be needed to involve women’s groups, youth, and consumers more broadly. Consumers are key to implement initiatives, collect data and local knowledge, and build the public will needed for governments to enact change. For this, local governments will have to put systems in place to enable citizen engagement in circularity (e.g., to manage waste through urban agriculture). There can be a powerful food systems agenda if civil society is strong, empowered, and with the knowledge. Informality also plays a big role in shaping food environments. However, policies don’t account for the informal food system and there’s much we don’t know about its influence over the food value chain, e.g., who are the vendors and how many, who distributes the food and how much, who recycles and what is composted, etc. This dynamic increases the system’s complexity. The informal food market also makes up part of the private sector, which has potential to bring about change and, despite its informal character, can attract and unlock investments. Engagement of the school community will be a key strategy for building a new food culture that is both healthy and sustainable. School nutritional guidelines are a proven resource that has tremendous impact on emissions reduction and improving health. Here, food education will be critical to shift mindsets. Integrating food education in primary education will help grow the next generation of consumers, making them aware of what sustainability and circularity means from an early age. Overall, the above actions can be supported with a new thinking around the concept of the city and with an intention to diversify the food system. We need to have more diversity in the food system just like nature does – in what we eat, in how we innovate, in how we finance it – and at the local level is where diversity can happen. One way would be to design and promote different distribution systems, with incentives for decentralization. Another is to go back to the basics of food قراءة القليل

Theme 2: Promote Sustainable Food Systems through Procurement and School Food Public food procurement from local, sustainable sources is a powerful lever and needs to be enhanced all over the world. Scaling up school nutrition programs provides an effective solution that fosters improved nutrition and longer-term food literacy for millions of children while bringing co-benefits across the food system. Many school children rely on school food as their primary source of nutrition. The three key discussion points from the “theme 2: Promote Sustainable Food Systems through Procurement and School... قراءة المزيد Food” breakout group session are as follows: School meals are one of the most important entry points to promote sustainable food intake. The pandemic demonstrated that there were no substitutes in place for school food when schools were forced to close. School food can help address food poverty, malnutrition and obesity, while promoting education and good learning outcomes. School food nutrition should not be only looked at as a feeding program but as a program that presents co-benefits such as climate change and health all together. Currently there is a lot of evidence on the benefits of expanding the school food to a more encompassing school nutrition education program, bringing the pedagogical aspects into the food that the children are consuming. In the next three years, all actors shall leverage this narrative. Sustainable and healthy school meals can be strongly supported by sustainable procurement policies, unifying all the environmental, social, economic aspects of the supply chains. Currently, sustainable procurement is not yet at the core of the global agenda. However, through the sustainable school meal programs, the important role of governmental procurements can be demonstrated and some key principles that are developed through the school meal programs can be expanded to other domains. Undertaking an assessment at the national and regional level about the various food related mandates and how they are being offered will be the first stepping stone. If a city doesn’t have the mandate in school food procurement, multi-level governance should be strengthened and the role that a local government can play should be acknowledged. Especially during the pandemic, it was proven that the citizens would direct their food-related challenges to their city government, not to the national government. Market engagement with regional stakeholders along with a mapping on the food production and consumption would support informed decision-making. In order to realize sustainable procurement, capacity building and guidelines development should be developed. For the procurement practitioners in cities, creating simplified guidelines that make the linkages of the benefits in prioritizing local production as opposed to open tenders would be a straightforward solution of improving the sustainable procurement practice. Building the procurers’ capacity is also crucial. Moreover, many local governments lack knowledge on how sustainable procurement can be achieved. In the case of Senegal, for instance, having robust national policies was advantageous. Through the UNFSS process, a coalition on school meals that will bring practitioners around the globe together will be formed. This is critical for scaling a sustainable procurement program and spreading the message. Global framework and implementation are both important. Such a peer-to -peer platform will boost the exchange between government and research on several kinds of networks. It will be highlighted during the UNFSS Pre-Summit. Joint communication with the parents and education to children will be complementary.  قراءة القليل

Theme 1, Group 1.2 Integrating food systems transformation into urban and territorial governance and planning Challenges Participants identified challenges at the local, city level that make it hard to get food on the urban political agenda and to pursue an integrated approach: Local politicians tend not to see food as part of the urban agenda due to the persistent view that production happens in rural areas and consumption in urban. Local executive sees only some, separate aspects of food, such as food poverty, school canteens, and public procurement. They are unable to see the bigger picture... قراءة المزيد and inter-connections, and how initiatives from across departments/policy domains can form part of a comprehensive framework and strategy. Participants also identified challenges of cooperation between governance levels – especially between local and national levels. One city participant said that their city advances the food agenda ‘in spite of [national] government’, rather than being enabled by a multi-level governance framework. Another is involved in efforts to connect municipalities working on food within the same geographical region, which enables integrated working in policy areas that are devolved to regions in their country (health, agriculture), but the absence of the national and EU levels means actions are not as effective as they might be. Urgent actions Participants emphasized the need to be opportunistic to get food on the local government agenda in cities, and seize upon every occasion to reframe the food system as an urban issue and promote integrated working. At present, there is an opportunity to harness the experiences of COVID-19 as a basis for securing political will for long-term, transformative action. This can be done in several ways: strong advocacy to ensure policy-makers understand that the COVID-19 food crisis was not a one off but symptomatic of the fragility of urban food systems; maintaining and reinforcing new network connections that emerged during the emergency response; reviewing of governance structures and processes in light of the COVID-19 experience, to ensure they have the adaptive capacity to pivot towards ways of working in future emergencies. Participants saw a need for more assessments of urban food systems using a systemic approach, to: i) build a common understanding of key issues to be addressed; ii) generate data (currently data is not systematically collected because food systems are not on the political agenda, but without data it is difficult to get food systems on the agenda). They acknowledged an urgent need for cities to documenting their experiences and share lesson, both about what worked and what did not. There is also a need to assist local stakeholders in adapting actions that have been tried and tested elsewhere to their specific context. Participants stressed that getting food on the long-term agenda is a long-term process. Food activists need to be resilient to knock-backs, think strategically about relationships, and be mindful of 4- to 5- year election cycles. Tactics for securing and retaining buy-in to the food agenda Approaching decision-makers within the municipality both at the institutional level and bottom-up through community advocacy. Providing data to politicians; taking them on learning journeys to experience aspects of the food system. Identifying a political champion to advocate within local government. Mobilizing civil society to put on pressure on politicians. Once food is firmly on the agenda in the city, using both hard (legislative) and soft (influence) power to push the message and retain engagement. Engaging with the community, voluntary sector and food growing organizations provide energy, ideas, and capacity Ensuring a governance model in which the voices of citizens are heard, and identifying who is not at the table on a continuous basis. Inclusivity is key to tapping local wisdom and developing actions based on community need. قراءة القليل

Theme 1, Group 1.1 Integrating food systems transformation into urban and territorial governance and planning In light of the group discussions’ vision, i.e. that “Multi-level food governance mechanisms are established and local governments are recognized and supported as active key players for promoting food systems transformation”, the group identified a number of actions that are necessary to better move towards the vision: National frameworks that legally, financially and institutionally make greater action at local level possible Capacity building of local actors once these resource... قراءة المزيدs become available An international framework that ensures national level accountability (to local level action) Joined up climate change (CC) and food policies at global level (i.e. get food on the CC agenda) Mechanisms within food policy councils (FPC) that ensure participation (of farmers for example) Investment in trans-local (city-to-city) alliances It was also noted that the private sector has a strong impact on the food environment. The question is: how to best engage with it? All agreed that a distinction needs to be made between different private sector actors (global, national, local) and that a different approach is needed depending on the actors involved. Organizations were not specific as to their contributions. There was a general consensus on the need to build local-level capacity, advocate for changes in legislation and finance streams at national level, and set up effective participatory mechanisms within FPCs. Indicators of success were briefly discussed and these included “technical” indicators, such as levels of waste recycled/reduced, diet-related indicators, and number of outlets that sell local product. In addition to this, it was noted that it will be important to ensure the sustainability of actions over time. قراءة القليل

The discussions converged on the need for deep strategic thought to advocate for an integrated urban food systems agenda which: (i) strengthen the connections between the different components of a sustainable urban food systems (food environments, food procurement and distribution, urban agriculture, food waste, school meals, etc.) and (ii) connect food system transformation with other policy priorities (such as public health and social protection) sustainable development. This integrated urban food systems agenda will require a systems leadership on urban food systems with improved capacities... قراءة المزيد and competencies of urban and local government. Political will and leadership were mentioned as key levers of change for local and national food systems transformation. Raising awareness on the importance of promoting urban food systems transformation through initiatives across departments/policy domains and the development of a common urban food systems vision were introduced as crucial for accelerating food systems transformation. COVID-19 highlighted inequities in the food system. Cities have responded to emergency needs in innovative ways but they lack the resources and adequate capacity for promoting systemic responses. All levels of government (national, state/provincial, municipal) and other food system stakeholders must work together to promote equitable food systems transformation and ensure food is integrated into emergency planning, response and recovery. COVID-19 must be harnessed as a basis for securing political will for long-term, transformative action. Strong advocacy is required to ensure policy-makers understand that the COVID-19 food crisis is symptomatic of the fragility of our food systems. The urban food systems analysis at the urban level was promoted as key tool for providing baseline information, promoting systems thinking and for developing integrated food plans and strategies. There is a broad consensus on the lack of both urban food systems data and capacities in addressing systemic and cross-sectoral issues. Improving urban food governance was recognized at the heart of the transformative food systems change. The promotion of innovative and inclusive mechanisms to engage with communities particularly with the vulnerable ones was identified as key priority. To enable this engagement with the communities, local governments need to bring together actors involved in multiple processes, including civil society organizations, to co-create and co-design with them holistic food strategies and plans while advocating for integration with national policies and strategies to leverage existing resources and maximize impact. The urban food systems challenges need to be addressed leveraging on existing networks and experiences, creating space for dialogues and fostering new alliances and networks among different stakeholders and various level of governments. قراءة القليل

The main purpose of the Urban Food Systems Global Dialogue was to bring political attention and promote significant action towards urban food system transformation. The dialogue brought together local and national government politicians, urban government practitioners, local food leaders and civil society organizations and local producers. The intent was to reflect on and recognize the role of local government and the importance of integrating food policy with national government and all food system stakeholders. In addition the dialogue provided an opportunity to share the results of the city... قراءة المزيد consultations and independent dialogues supported by the Urban Food Systems Working Group and to advocate for the integration of the urban food agenda into the UN Food Systems Summit process. The Mayors of Quelimane, Belo Horizonte and Tunis provided the voice of Cities at the plenary panel as well as the Executive Director of GAIN, Director of Food Systems Division of FAO, an urban food systems researcher from the University of Cape Town and a representative of the National Food Policy Council in Canada. A representative of the Urban Food Systems Working Group shared the key messages emerging from the city consultations and dialogues. Break Out room discussions focussed on Food System Governance; Public Procurement and School Food; Food Waste and Circular Economy; Finance for Urban Food Systems; Social Protection and Inclusion and Resilience to Shocks and Stressors. There was spirited discussion in all the break out rooms with participants keen to advocate for the urban food agenda as a vehicle for integration of health, social, environmental and economic issues at the local level. While each session had a focus topic many common issues emerged. Participants stressed the importance of applying an equity and inclusion approach to all urban food systems work. They also emphasized the importance of building capacity and enabling local governments to leverage existing resources to promote sustainable food systems while advocating for integration with national policy and strategies. Food system analysis at the urban level is a key tool for providing baseline analysis and information for developing integrated food plans and strategies. These must be consistent with regional and national plans to leverage existing resources and maximize impact. Participants stressed that cities are already taking action on the ground but there is a need to leverage that capacity in order to realize multiple urban agenda goals. Cities can use existing infrastructure, collaborative partnerships with all food system stakeholders to build on this foundation. Cities have an important role in developing local and inclusive urban food systems, integrating the community perspective, as well as working in multi-stakeholder partnerships and connecting food system planning to social protection. قراءة القليل