Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and Food Smart Cities
In Milan in 2015, 137 mayors from cities around the world gathered to discuss food security and sustainable development. From this meeting the concept of the Food Smart City was conceived, giving cities a concept to work towards to transition to new urban food systems. This meeting concluded with cities signing the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact agreeing to developing sustainable food systems which are inclusive, resilient, safe and diverse.
The pact now represents 205 cities and over 450 million people. The framework for action touches upon 6 main themes
- Governance
- Sustainable diets and nutrition
- Social and economic equity
- Food production
- Food supply and distribution and
- Food waste
Signatories are committed to working towards this human rights based framework.
RUAF, FAO and the MUFPP Secretariat have launched the The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) Monitoring Framework Handbook and Resource Pack. This handbookprovides practical steps, simple tools, top tips and a methodology for any cities wishing to adopt and implement a monitoring framework, tailored to their own context and reflecting MUFPP recommendations.
The MUFPP Monitoring Framework Handbook is based on the results and lessons learned from a seven-month project in 2019 during which three cities – Antananarivo (Madagascar), Nairobi (Kenya) and Quito (Ecuador) – piloted the implementation of the MUFPP Monitoring Framework with technical support from RUAF and FAO.
“The MUFPP monitoring framework has helped show us a pathway to becoming changemakers by identifying a diverse range of food system activities that we can propose to local policy makers. It has helped inspire new collaborations as the data collection process required us to seek out other food system actors, especially those pursuing similar goals of sustainability and resilience,” says Alexandra Rodríguez Dueñas, Project Lead, AGRUPAR Participatory Urban Agriculture Project Manager, Conquito.
‘Designed for cities by cities’, this new resource helps cities to track the impacts of their food system policies and strategies.
The food smart city concept has been developed by various groups including Rikolto. For Rikolto the food smart city is a city which uses food as a lever to address issues of climate change food security. They try to implement pilot projects in five domains.
- Assist cities in developing and implementing local strategies and policies, and setting up innovative policy mechanisms to advance sustainable urban food systems
- Develop inclusive business models between urban retailers and peri urban farmers and foster closer ties between cities and the countryside
- Enable schools to adopt sustainable catering practices and promote healthy and sustainable food in schools
- Support city regions to improve food safety and develop effective and engaging local food safety mechanisms
- Empower consumers to make healthy and sustainable food choices