WLE remembers RUAF’s Marielle Dubbeling, 1968-2019

In Memoriam: 17-12-1968 to 23-10-2019

On 23 October 2019, the WLE co-flagship leader for Rural-Urban Linkages, Marielle Dubbeling (RUAF Foundation) passed away peacefully at her home in France, following a long battle with cancer.

WLE salutes the creative and inspirational work of Marielle. Our thoughts are with her husband and family, and the global RUAF community. Her colleague René van Veenhuizen will take over her functions within WLE.

The entire WLE team thanks Marielle for her inspirational service.

The following is the In Memoriam statement from RUAF:

On 23rd of October, Marielle Dubbeling passed away peacefully at her home in France, following a long battle with cancer. Her husband, Guido, was at her side.

She is remembered by many people, all over the world, as a unique individual; a spiritual person of integrity and uncompromising values; an influential thinker; a supportive and stimulating colleague and tutor; a steadfast leader; and, above all, a friend.

Marielle's passing leaves a great void. We have opened an online book of condolences, where we invite colleagues and friends to share their tributes, emotions and memories: https://www.remembr.com/m.dubbeling

Marielle was a leading expert in urban agriculture and city region food systems, who  had significant and long lasting impacts on urban policies, as well as on research and education in this field of work.

Marielle was co-founder of the RUAF Foundation, of which she was the Director since 2012, and a driving force of the RUAF Global Partnership. She will continue to inspire the many people that have been involved in studies and projects in which she took part.

Marielle graduated 'cum laude' from Wageningen University in 1994 with an M.Sc. Tropical Crop Science and Ecological Agriculture, for which she carried out fieldwork in Cameroon.

Her interest in agro-ecology further developed when she joint the Institute for Low-External Input Agriculture (ILEIA) at ETC in the Netherlands in 1996, where she also participated part-time in the ETC Urban Agriculture programme.

From 1999-2004 she worked as Regional Urban Agriculture and Environmental Management Coordinator for the UN-HABITAT Urban Management Programme in Latin America (UMP-LAC), based in Quito, Ecuador.

In 2004 she joined the staff of RUAF (Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security) which was founded in late 1999. She was one of the driving forces in the further development of RUAF and led many of its international programmes, studies and projects. In 2012 she became the Director of the RUAF Foundation. Over the last 18 months she led the transition of the RUAF Foundation into a network named the ‘RUAF Global Partnership on Urban Agriculture and Food Systems’, with its Secretariat hosted at the Netherlands-based Humanist Organization for Social Change (Hivos).

Throughout her career, Marielle was always developing new insights and approaches through innovative research and development projects. She worked on many themes, as reflected in the large number of publications (see www.ruaf.org), including:

• Participatory multi-stakeholder policy development and action planning on urban agriculture. Marielle started to develop this approach when working at the UMP programme in Latin America,  and developed it further in the RUAF programmes 'Cities Farming For the Future' and 'From Seed to Table', in 17 cities in the South.
• Urban Agriculture as a tool for urban climate change management. She initiated projects with UNDP and CDKN (UK) to put the concept into practice, assess potential impacts and develop guidelines and indicators.
• City region food systems approach. Mainly in collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Marielle worked on the operationalisation of this approach, including a planning toolkit and monitoring indicators

She was also co-founder and technical advisor to the ICLEI-RUAF CITYFOOD network, and co-leader of the CGIAR Flagship on Rural-Urban Linkages of the Water, Land and Ecosystems Research Program.

Her intellect shined through the many  knowledge syntheses and training materials that she developed, with (amongst others) Ryerson University and under commission from various international bi- and multilateral agencies, as well as governments at all levels.

Marielle leaves us on the 20th anniversary of RUAF, and following the recent transition of RUAF into a network named the 'RUAF Global Partnership on Urban Agriculture and Food Systems'. The RUAF Partnership met in Montpellier only two weeks ago. The Partners expressed the unanimous commitment to build on Marielle's legacy in urban agriculture and food systems, in her memory and honour, and with all around the world who were inspired by her.

The next issue of Urban Agriculture Magazine, celebrating 20 years of RUAF and the launch of the new RUAF website, will be dedicated to Marielle. We will invite those who have worked with Marielle over the past 20-25 years to contribute.

Marielle’s husband Guido has told us that Marielle always said “distance is not an issue and that, wherever you are in the world, when your thoughts are with someone that is what’s important”. If you would like to share in a worldwide farewell to Marielle, we will all take 15 minutes to remember her at the time of her cremation on Tuesday 29th October, 10-10.15am European Time. Marielle loved trees, especially old trees, so maybe find a tree or an outdoor space to be for that time.

Please do not hesitate to share this message widely.

⁓ The RUAF Secretariat, the RUAF Foundation Board, the RUAF Global Partnership.