Rikolto

A sustainable income for farmers and nutritious, affordable food for all, as part of sustainable food systems: that is what Rikolto is working for.

Rikolto is an international network organisation with over 50 years’ experience of partnering with farmer organisations and food chain stakeholders in 18 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. We achieve our goals by building bridges between smallholder farmer organisations, businesses, government, and other actors across rural and urban areas. Together, we create innovative ways to produce, trade, distribute and access nutritious, quality food, so that no one is left behind.

Using the food systems approach as an overarching framework for our work, we have organised our work around three global programmes: Good Food for Cities, Sustainable Rice, and Sustainable Cocoa and Coffee.

Through the Good Food for Cities programme, Rikolto works with partners in over 33 cities on 4 continents to transform urban food environments towards better access to healthy, sustainable and nutritious food for all. Our aim is to catalyse collective action among local actors, depending on the specific challenges of each city region. Rikolto’s global strategy is based on three pillars:

Sustainable production of healthy, nutritious food, such as fruits, vegetables and pulses, for local markets. We focus on preserving food landscapes, promoting regenerative agriculture, and building smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change and other shocks by accompanying them to diversify their livelihoods.
Inclusive food markets that cater to smallholder producers and urban consumers. To help develop such markets, we support the development of farmer organisations, facilitate their access to finance and business development services, promote inclusive business relations in food chains and facilitate sustainable entrepreneurship. We also strive for more efficient and inclusive distribution of locally produced, safe and healthy food, using innovative business models.
Enabling environments that promote sustainable and healthy diets, including by contributing to urban and multi-level food governance processes, engaging citizens in collective action, supporting evidence-based food policy development, and facilitating peer-to-peer learning opportunities.

Rikolto joined RUAF in 2021 and has worked with RUAF on many initiatives, including Quito’s Agrifood Pact (PAQ), a Sourcebook on Urban and Peri Urban Agriculture developed with FAO, and a research project on food neighbourhoods in Lima and Quito.

In partnership with RUAF partners, Rikolto aims to:

Strengthen knowledge management in urban food governance and local food markets.
Facilitate peer-to-peer learning among local food system actors.
Develop new initiatives towards more inclusive urban food environments, multi-level food governance, and resilient city region food systems.