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Urban Harvest is implemented through global, comparative studies and
regional networks of “anchor cities”. The latter refers to cities
where diagnostic studies, technical interventions and policy development
in the context of UPA take place. Regional
anchor cities were identified through the intersecting of a number of
indicators:
·
Levels and growth of poverty
·
Population size – the sample
includes mega-cities, and medium and smaller-size urban areas
· Rates
of population growth
·
Presence
of existing projects/enabling environment
The anchor cities are
linked through networking and capacity building mechanisms to
“contact/receptor cities”, cities within each region where scaling up
of impact is expected to occur. The Urban Harvest anchor cities are
located in some of the major geographical regions of the developing world:
South-east Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa, and
Latin America
In
each of the above regions links have been set up with municipal
authorities, national
and international organizations as relevant and essential partners in UPA
issues. In Nairobi, for example, Urban Harvest was involved as
co-organizer with UN-HABITAT, FAO and IDRC in a conference on the issue of
urban food security (Urban Policy Implications of Enhancing Food Security
in African Cities) from 27 – 31 May. Urban Harvest supported at this
meeting, the participation of local government partners in research
projects in Kampala and Yaounde. A member of the Kampala City
Council presented a paper on "The Magnitude of Urban Food
Poverty in Kampala, Uganda". A second input came from a member of the
Ministry of Agriculture in Uganda, who presented a paper on "The Role
of Rural-to-Urban Food Inflows: the Case of Nakawa Division, Kampala
City".
Another
important regional network in Africa is one where the Urban Harvest SSA
Coordinator participates as a member of the Scientific Committee of a IDRC
Cities Feeding People-funded project with the Municipal
Development Program (MDP) in Harare. The project is on "The
Political Economy of Urban Agriculture", which investigates access to
resources for UPA (i.e. land) in Dar-es-Salaam, Kampala and Harare.
Several important lessons in policy and planning issues have been learnt
from their project experience which can be used in the two parallel
Urban harvest projects in Kampala on Strengthening
Urban Agriculture and Health
Impact Assessment.
For
more information on the MDP project please contact the Program Coordinator
for Urban Agriculture - Shingirayi Mushamba at mushamba@mdpesa.co.zw
The
UPWARD network as
well as SEARCA in Philippines, are
important partners who help link up Urban Harvest activities with other
initiatives such as those of the Agricultural Economics Research
Institute in the Netherlands -LEI
(the VEGSYS program), the University of Munich, and other national and
international research institutes. These networks have especially helped
in providing training support in the region, and linking up with several
important local and regional resource persons and institutions. Urban
Harvest also participates in the National Urban Agriculture Network in
the Philippines through the UPWARD coordinator, Dindo
Campilan.
In
Latin America Urban Harvest exchanges information with several regional
partners in UPA through AGUILA
- the regional network for urban agriculture in Latin America. AGUILA
has also acted as an intermediary for linking up with local municipal
authorities in Lima, during the pre-project activities for the Cono
Este study. |
