RUAF Associates

Yves Cabannes is an urban specialist, activist and scholar. Since the early 1990s, he has been actively involved in local development projects with NGOs, international agencies and local governments and actors. He researches, teaches and advocates for urban agriculture, urban food systems, food sovereignty, collective and communal land tenure and integration of food into urban and regional planning in different regions of the world, primarily in the Global South. He has published widely on these topics. Yves has been involved with RUAF since its early days and was the Secretary of its Board of Directors (2012-2017). He became Emeritus Professor of Development Planning at the University College London in 2015.

Philip Amoah is an expert in urban agriculture and in water quality and food safety. He has worked with RUAF for over two decades. In 2001, Philip became involved in several research projects of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) related to environmental and human health with a focus on microbiological water quality and food safety. He took over leadership of the SaniPath project for IWMI (coordinated by Emory, USA) which assessed faecal exposure pathways in low-income urban settings. Philip was a member of WHO Water Quality Technical Advisory Group that contributed to preparation of new Editions of three WHO guidelines. He was an Africa representative of the UN FAO/WHO Expert Group on leafy green vegetables and herbs for CODEX ALIMENTARIUS in 2007/2008, and a member of the UN FAO/WHO Expert Group on microbiological hazards associated with fresh produce for CODEX ALIMENTARIUS between 2008 and 2010. Philip was a member of the ILSI Europe emerging issues task force, water and sanitation perspective from 2011 to 2014. Since 2008, Philip has led projects in the domains of safe wastewater irrigation in urban vegetable production and participatory knowledge management. He has also been a consultant in projects on urban food systems, and has led several resource recovery and reuse projects.

Brian Cook is an expert in the study of food systems and consumer food behaviour. As Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford, he led a research programme testing behavioural strategies to promote healthier and more sustainable diets. Before joining Oxford, he was a Senior Health Researcher for the City of Toronto for over a decade where he led the development of the City of Toronto Food Strategy. He has years of experience as a consultant, preparing literature reviews, technical reports and evidence briefs for the FAO, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the European Commission, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and others.