RUAF Cities Farming for the Future (CFF)

Project Description / Background

The Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture & Food Security (RUAF) Network formed in 1999 has functioned as a global network of partner organizations that jointly implement an international program focused on awareness raising, networking, documentation and exchange of information on urban agriculture and food security. During the first phase (Sept.1999 - Dec.2004) of the RUAF program, the RUAF partners sought to facilitate access of stakeholders in urban agriculture to relevant information, to enhance the awareness of international organizations and national and local governments of the potentials (and risks) of urban agriculture and to facilitate the integration of urban agriculture in national and local policies and programs.

Urban farmers traditionally have met a lot of resistance by urban authorities and planners, who see urban agriculture as a relict of rural activities or just as a nuisance and a health hazard. Agriculture is usually not taken into urban land use and development plans. Gradually awareness among city authorities, NGO’s, urban planners and other organizations is growing that urban agriculture is part of the urban ecological and economic system and that actual policies should be revised and interventions designed in order to make better use of the potentials of urban agriculture for poverty alleviation and social inclusion, enhancing food security, recycling of urban wastes, improvement of the urban climate, and to reduce the risks associated with urban agriculture.  

Integration of urban agriculture in urban policies and planning, and stronger participation of urban farmers and other stakeholder in the planning process, would pave the way for coordinated activities of both public and private organizations focused at supporting poor urban farmers to develop safe and sustainable production, processing and marketing systems. However, few city authorities and other local stakeholders have experience in the formulation and implementation of such policies and projects and require well-designed methods and tools, technical assistance and staff training. These products and services are hardly available in most regions. Therefore, a second phase of the RUAF program named Cities Farming for the Future (CFF) has been initiated to stimulate the participatory and multi-stakeholder formulation and implementation of local policies and action plans on urban agriculture that will support farmers’ livelihoods while safeguarding municipal concerns related to health and other issues.

Goal - Specific Objectives

The main objective of RUAF-CFF program is to contribute to urban poverty reduction, urban food security, improved urban environmental management, empowerment of urban farmers and participatory city governance.

To realize this objective, the program seeks to apply an integrated approach with six components, which mutually reinforce each other and in combination will deliver the desired results (see figure 1):

Central in RUAF’s methodology is the Multi-stakeholder Processes for Action planning and  Policy formulation (MPAP). This approach was developed in the context of the implementation of Habitat Local Agenda 21 and in recent years experience has been gained in RUAF with this approach, especially in Latin America. 

The MPAP in general includes:

• 1. Studies to describe and analyze the present situation regarding urban agriculture (presence, types, location, problems, potentials for various policy goals, actual constraints for development, stakeholders and their potential role and contributions)
• 1. Research to identify and test certain key problems
• 1. Studies to monitor the results of new policy measures and implemented pilot projects

Project Duration - Donors 

The application for support for a second phase of the RUAF program has been approved by the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation. This means that for the coming four years (2005 - 2009) the work of the RUAF partners in their respective regions can be continued and further strengthened.

Geographical Focus

The RUAF partners have selected in each region (Latin America, Francophone Africa, Anglophone Africa, China and South East Asia) 3-4 pilot cities, to implement the MPAP process. RUAF-CFF will concentrate its main activities in these cities in the coming four years. In addition, 6-10 dissemination cities have been selected in each region that will participate in certain capacity development activities and in the exchange of the results with the pilot cities. 

The three pilot cities for the Anglophone Africa region are: Accra (Ghana), Freetown (Sierra Leone), and Ibadan (Nigeria). The selected dissemination cities are: Kumasi and Tamale (Ghana), Lagos and Jos (Nigeria), Banjul (The Gambia), Bamenda (Cameroon). 

Partners 

RUAF has now been institutionalized into an independent organization, the RUAF Foundation, which is International Network of Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security. The RUAF Foundation, is the recipient and administrator of donor contributions for the RUAF program. The RUAF program is coordinated at global level by ETC Foundation and at regional level by IPES for Latin America and the Caribbean, MDP for Southern and East Africa, IAGU for francophone Africa, IWMI-Ghana for Anglophone Africa, IWMI-India for South and East Asia and IGSNRR for China.