RUAF Board

Charlotte Flechet is the Global Programme Director of Rikolto’s Good Food for Cities programme where she supports and leads a global team of 40+ people working on urban food environments, regenerative agriculture, circular and inclusive entrepreneurship, short food chains, multi-stakeholder and multi-level food governance, policy advocacy and peer-to-peer learning. Prior to joining Rikolto in 2016, she held short-term positions with the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and IUCN’s EU Liaison Office. She holds masters degrees in International Relations and Sociology & Anthropology from Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and an MSc in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. In addition to her role as RUAF Board Member, Charlotte also represents Rikolto in the Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Committee (MAC) of the Sustainable Food Systems programme of the One Planet Network and the Urban Food Systems Coalition.

Luc Mougeot is a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Global Studies, Canada (July 2022 – June 2025). Luc worked at Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) from 1989 to 2021, with various programs to support researchers and their organizations in the global South and in Canada, in fields of social and environmental sciences, natural sciences and engineering, technology and education. Luc’s IDRC programme, Cities Feeding People, supported path breaking research to advance public policies for urban agriculture’s role in urban development. This included supporting, with DGIS, the creation of RUAF in 1999, its growth a global resource network for urban agriculture, and its contribution to key multilateral events and initiatives. Before joining IDRC, Luc was a faculty (associate professor) for 12 years at the Federal University of the State of Pará (Belém), in the Brazilian Amazon region. Luc has directed or supervised research projects, theses and dissertations of more than 35 researchers. He has published more than 70 articles, chapters, reports and books. He is a scientific reviewer for peer-review journals, for research funding agencies in Canada and abroad, and an advisor to international research programmes and networks. 

Barbara Emanuel is Chair of the RUAF Board and was previously a member of the RUAF Global Partnership. Barbara recently retired after working for 30 years at the City of Toronto. As Manager of the Toronto Food Strategy she led a team that incubated numerous initiatives to promote a healthy, sustainable food system for Toronto. This required collaboration and leveraging resources from multiple City Departments as well as engagement with the provincial and federal government. The food strategy applied an equity and food system lens to all policies and initiatives. The food strategy team also worked closely with community food leaders and food-related not for profit organizations, thus ensuring grounded and effective food policy and action. Barbara was also responsible for the Toronto Food Policy Council, the longest established multi-stakeholder council at the municipal level.
Throughout her career, Barbara has been active at the global level through multiple organizations. Barbara was a member of the MUFPP steering committee for a number of years, helped support the Food Systems Working Group supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, GAIN and a number of global food organizations and is currently engaged in some market related initiatives through GAIN. Barbara was also a founding member of the C40 Food Systems Working Group.

René van Veenhuizen is Senior Project Manager with Hivos.  René has worked with RUAF for the last 25 years – starting at ETC, then with RUAF Foundation, and from 2018-2023 with Hivos as coordinator the RUAF Partnership Secretariat. René graduated in Land and Water Management from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He has over 35 years’ professional experience, working with universities, the UN, and various NGOs. As Senior Project Manager with Hivos, he currently coordinates the EU-funded AfriFoodLinks project, and is Advisor to the Urban Futures programme (funded by Fondation Botnar) and the EU-funded HealthyFoodAfrica project. He has been the editor of the Urban Agriculture Magazine for 20 years, is co-author of several publications on sustainable food systems and urban agriculture, and is a speaker at local and international workshops and public engagements. He has extensive advisory and consultative experience, advising on sustainable agricultural development, urban agriculture and food systems.