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Mayors'
Workshop for Urban Agriculture!!
August 24 &
25
“Urban and
Peri-urban Agriculture in
Metropolitan Lima: a strategy to fight poverty and
food insecurity”
August
15, 2006
Approximately 54 million people in Latin America
suffer from hunger and malnourishment.
The majority reside in urban and peri-urban
areas where high unemployment and under-employment
exist. The increase of the urban population is not
matched with growth in infrastructure and planned
urban development and this is placing pressure on
the city environment and causing serious risks to
the quality of life of urban dwellers. It is often
the most vulnerable and marginalized, especially
women, immigrants, the young and the elderly who are
most threatened.
In the last few years, local governments have
increasingly adopted urban and peri-urban
agriculture as a strategy of
to fight hunger, poverty and improve food
security. It is also increasingly as
a cost-effective means
to enhance the quality of
urban environment through the creation of
green productive areas with in city limits. For example, the Brazilian Government program Fome
Zero (Zero Hunger)
includes a variety of strategies to fight
hunger in many local municipalities such as Sao
Paulo, Rio de Janerio, Porto Alegre, Fortaleza and
Belo Horizonte. Likewise, other Latin American
capitals have developed municipal programs
concerning urban agriculture – like in Bogota
(Colombia), Quito (Ecuador), Montevideo (Uruguay), Mexico
City (Mexico), Havana (Cuba) and Caracas
(Venezuela).
Furthermore,
urban agriculture has been promoted by a variety of
associations and organizations within Latin
America, for example the Seminar for Food Security
and international agencies, like the United Nations,
or the third World Urban Forum organized by UN-
HABITAT.
The partnership between municipalities and other agencies and
organizations is imperative for the sustainability
of urban agriculture. Their involvement depends
largely on the management and policies that each
municipality implements and the extent to which they
engage with all relevant actors.
Many different aspects associated with the
development of urban and peri-urban agriculture have
been identified and debated in the municipalities of
the southern and eastern cones of Metropolitan Lima
(Peru) during workshops organized in 2003 and 2004
by the International Potato Center’s global
program Urban Harvest and by IPES
– Promotion of Sustainable Development-,
and promoted by RED Aguila, the UN- HABITAT
Program on Urban Agriculture Management, UNDP and
the RUAF Foundation. During these events a variety
of experiences were shared in regards to the
municipalities of Metropolitan Lima. Moreover,
during these events other Latin American city
representatives have shared their own experiences,
ideas, successes and lessons learnt. One of the key
aspects is the formal recognition or urban
agriculture. This is vital for the sustainability of
this type of agriculture and the well-being of the
producer families. It highlights the importance of
the topic at a national and international level. For
example, The Municipal Program for Urban Agriculture
from the Municipality of Rosario (Argentina)
received the International Prize of Dubai, offered
by UN-HABITAT, for the Best Practices in Improving Living
Conditions.
The municipality of Lima Metropolitan
together with along
with Urban Harvest - CIP, IPES, RUAF, have organized
the following mayors workshop August 24 & 25.
“Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture in
Metropolitan Lima: a strategy to fight poverty and
food insecurity”.
Objective:
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To
increase the knowledge of municipal authorities,
in local governments, about the important role
that urban and peri-urban agriculture can take
as a mechanism to fight poverty and food
insecurity.
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Provide suggestions in the design and implementation
for municipal actions/programs on urban
agriculture.
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