The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP), and RUAF are launching a knowledge platform called ‘Food Action Cities.’ The platform will provide a place where cities can share experiences, resources, and ideas towards creating sustainable and resilient food systems.
Food Action Cities currently includes over 70 case studies of actions and initiatives that have been implemented in cities – addressing accessibility, affordability, utilisation, food safety, and the need for healthful food. Experts have contributed articles in urban food systems and nutrition, giving advice on developing and implementing actions.
“Cities are increasingly willing to share and support each other to drive transformative change in the landscape of nutrition around the world, building on their own experiences in policy action, learning from each other and focusing on tested innovative, participatory and forward-thinking strategies. By doing so, they can get inspired and achieve greater results faster, ” stated Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.
The platform promotes good practices in urban food systems governance, such as:
- Integration of food and nutrition in all relevant policies and programs, across city government departments and agencies;
- Multi-stakeholder engagement and alliances between city government and the private sector; and,
- Synergistic use of multiple policy instruments to address each issue, in order to magnify the overall impact.
Rene van Veenhuizen, Coordinator of the RUAF Global Partnership, said: “At a time when cities are introducing innovative policy instruments and programmes to shape urban food systems, there is a real need for this dynamic platform, which allows cities themselves to contribute to the wealth of information. The case studies detail the actions that cities have put in place, how they have done so, what worked for them, and what did not work.”