Climate Resilient City Region Food Systems programme

Aim of the programme

The Climate Resilient City Region Food Systems (CRFS-CR) programme aims to strengthen the capacity of local and national partner governments and food actors to improve food security and nutrition by reinforcing the resilience of food systems to climate shocks and stresses.

It builds on the experiences of the first phase of the joint FAO and RUAF City Region Food Systems (CRFS) initiative, which has been implemented in six countries since 2015 (Zambia, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Ecuador, The Netherlands and Canada) in collaboration with international and local partners.

Why is this programme important?

Seventy percent of cities worldwide are at risk of, or are already dealing with the effects of climate change, including stressors (e.g. rising temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns) and sudden shocks (e.g. caused by flooding, heat and cold waves). There is a pressing need to strengthen resilience of food systems to ensure long-term sustainability and food security.

Programme activities

The programme uses a participatory, multi-stakeholder methodological approach to assess CRFS resilience capacity to climate-related stresses and shocks and to devise locally-relevant action plans.

The programme partners support local stakeholders in the implementation of projects in pilot city regions.

Location

The pilot city regions are:

Antananarivo (Madagascar)
Kigali (Rwanda)
Colombo (Sri Lanka)
Tamale (Ghana)
Melbourne (Australia)

Expected results

The overall outputs of the CRFS-CR programme are:

a common international methodological framework, training materials and technical assistance to assess and plan for climate resilient CRFS, including a common indicator framework on CRFS climate resilience;
an international platform to raise awareness about the role of cities and sub-national governments and actors in contributing to food systems resilience in collaboration with national governments;
a policy dialogue facilitation process among stakeholders at city, sub-national and national level through face-to-face technical meetings and online exchanges.

For implementing city regions, key outputs are:

a report on the main climate shocks and stresses and exposure and vulnerability of the selected food system elements and/or stakeholders, including identification of priority action areas;
a refined indicator framework relevant to local context and priority action areas;
new or revised policy recommendations, food policies, strategies or action plans to improve the climate resilience of the CRFS, based on local priorities and scenarios;
integration of CRFS climate resilience considerations into other city policies and plans;
strengthened governance over climate resilience considerations for the CRFS.

Programme period

The Climate Resilient City Region Food Systems programme is a three-year project, from 2019 to 2021.

Partners

The programme is jointly implemented through projects in pilot city regions by FAO and RUAF, in the latter case through the CGIAR Water Land and Ecosystems (WLE) programme. It is financially supported by the Government of Germany. Wilfrid Laurier University is contributing to the development of the methodology in collaboration with FAO and RUAF consultants.