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Food Policy Councils
Author: Rebecca Mongi (Arusha City Council, Tanzania), Olivier Andrianarisoa (Municipality of Antananarivo, Madagascar), Carmen Zuleta Ferrari (Consultant); Paul Currie (ICLEI Africa), Ingrid Coetzee (ICLEI Africa), Ryan Fisher (ICLEI Africa)
A growing number of cities and regions are forming Food Policy Councils (FPCs) and similar groups known by other names, such as multi-stakeholder food forums/platforms, food policy networks, food boards, food coalitions, food partnerships, and food labs. As the movement towards inclusive, multi-stakeholder food systems governance for cities and city regions gathers momentum, there is a pressing need to document and systematise experiences of city food systems governance from around the world. This UA Magazine issue by RUAF has two contributions from ICLEI one focusing on Antananarivo, Madagascar and another article focusing on Arusha, Tanzania – both with contributions authored by ICLEI Africa and representatives from the cities which are both members of CITYFOOD Network.
One article reflects on a process to develop a food policy with Arusha City Council, which was supported as part of a city-to-city exchange project led by ICLEI Africa, with partners FAO, C40 and RUAF. Another article explores how the Antananarivo Food Policy Council evolved out of a multi-stakeholder platform originally established to enable scale-up of the city’s urban agriculture programme. The transition meant widening the platform’s focus from production to the whole food system. As the key facilitator, the Antananarivo City Council partners with non-governmental stakeholders to implement projects, safeguarding the initiative from electoral change.