The increasing rates of urbanisation in Rwandan cities has resulted in a growing need to meet urban residents’ food needs. Rwanda has the second-highest population density in Africa, hence decisions around sustainable land use and natural resources management to ensure food system sustainability are increasingly becoming critical.

The potential for food system sustainability and resilience in Kigali and Rulindo are constrained by a number of factors. Urban growth and expansion are resulting in the loss of both fertile production areas and biodiversity. Climate stresses and shocks are impacting livelihoods and the food system, with seasonal food shortages being recorded partly due to drought and heavy rain events. Food transport between and across regions is being constrained due to heavy rain resulting in floods, landslides and destruction of food system-related infrastructure such as markets and roads.

As a first step, there is huge potential in mapping the food flows between Kigali and the neighbouring districts, including Rulindo, as well as understanding the food system activities, opportunities and threats. Moreover, there is the need to ensure that within food systems, relations between these cities on the one hand and with peri-urban and rural areas on the other hand, become more symbiotic.

This dialogue will explore possibilities and opportunities for improving the resilience and sustainability of the food systems of Kigali and Rulindo district. Discussions will move beyond the short-term responses to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Kigali and Rulindo’s food systems, to more long-term approaches for ensuring continued access to nutritious and safe food in the face of climatic shocks and stresses and other disruptions. It will look at policy interventions that are necessary for promoting healthy diets, food and nutrition security in Kigali city and Rulindo district. It will unpack ways in which we might better link urban, peri-urban and rural food systems to ensure sustainability of these systems.

Register for the dialogue using this link : https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87979019187?pwd=d2Zva2Ura0Q1RzZOcGROSkhvRUZEdz09