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Planning workshop
in CIP leads to the signing of Lima Declaration on
UA by local mayors
In November 2003 Urban Harvest co-organized a
workshop in Lima on ' Integration of urban
agriculture in the sustainable development of
municipalities'. The objective of the workshop
was to facilitate the inclusion of urban agriculture
in the political agendas of municipalities in the
Eastern Cone and South of Lima, by raising the
awareness of municipal authorities about the
potential of urban agriculture to be the motor of
local economic and social development. The workshop
aimed to do this by facilitating the exchange of
experiences between districts in Lima, and other
Latin American cities on how they used urban
agriculture successfully as a strategy to combat
hunger, generate employment and income for people,
improve social and gender equity, and sustainable
management of the urban environment.
Participants at the workshop represented a wide
range of stakeholders including city officials,
representatives of 9 municipalities in Lima,
international and regional development
organizations, and research institutes. Interesting
presentations were made by city officials from
Havana (Cuba), Cuenca (Ecuador), the mayors of
the Lurin and Villa Maria de Triunfo municipalities
in Lima, and coordinators of UMP-LAC, Red Aguila,
and Urban Harvest to show the potential of UPA to
contribute to sustainable cities.
An important contributions of this workshop was
that the presentations made a strong impression on
the various municipal authorities present who
learned to see UPA activities in a different, more
positive light, and especially appreciate its
potential society-strengthening function. They
learned from the presentation on Havana city for
example, that UA had generated employment for many
poor urban dwellers, especially poor women. The
Cuenca city presentation impressed participants
about the capacity of UPA projects to involve
marginalized sections of society such as the
elderly, and handicapped people. Another important
result was that the facilitative and support
function of NGO's and research institutes was made
transparent to the municipal authorities which gave
them some more confidence and motivation to promote
UA in their municipalities. Finally, the will of
stakeholders to institutionalize UPA in their local
political agendas became clear at this meeting, and
was formalized through the drawing up of a
Declaration on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture,
which is currently being signed by mayors of 8
municipalities in Lima.
To read a detailed
report in Spanish
on the proceedings of this workshop, please click
here. To read the Lima
Declaration on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture signed by the municipalities of Cono
Sur and Cono Este in Lima, please click here.
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