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RUAF Newsletter
November 2020

On World Food Day 2020 last month the international food policy community came together to explore the urgent need for food systems transformation, at a time when the global pandemic, climate change, and political uncertainty are presenting unprecedented challenges to urban food security and nutrition. This newsletter highlights some of the ways in which RUAF and partners are using a food systems approach to tackle the challenges we're facing. New projects are underway and there are a few upcoming trainings and events where you can contribute to the discussion.

HealthyFoodAfrica project underway to improve food systems in ten African cities

RUAF and Hivos are among 17 European and African partners working in close collaboration on the HealthyFoodAfrica project to improve nutrition in Africa by strengthening the diversity, sustainability, resilience and connectivity of food systems. This new work enables Hivos and partners to sustain and build on earlier experiences of using a food system approach to give citizens a voice in shaping their local food systems. RUAF is playing a key role in assessing policy/regulatory frameworks and developing pathways to scale up impact.

The impact of COVID-19 on the food system in Nairobi

Mazingira Institute conducted a series of case studies to establish the situation of local food production and distribution in Nairobi during COVID-19. With support from Water, Land, and Ecosystems (WLE), they published a selection of photo stories for World Food Day, illustrating the lived experiences of various food system actors during the pandemic.

Read the blog

World Food Day 2020: We need to build a resilient post-Covid food system. Together.

This blog, in honour of World Food Day 2020, showed the importance of working together as a key lesson from the first eight months of the public health crisis and shared why partnerships will be crucial in constructing resilient, sustainable and equitable food systems for the post-COVID era.

A foods systems assessment of the Sustainable Diets for All programme in Uganda and Zambia

A holistic food systems approach involving all stakeholders is key to solving the urgent and interconnected challenges that our world is currently facing. A new retrospective study shows the degree to which the Hivos and IIED Sustainable Diets for All programme’s Food Change Labs in Zambia and Uganda used systems thinking to successfully kick-start the transformation of local food systems in these countries.

Read the summary

IWMI CAPVAL Project trainings

RUAF partner, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) – under the Creating and capturing value: Supporting enterprises for urban liquid and solid wastes recycling for food, energy and clean environment (CapVal) project – is organising a series of trainings for public and private sector actors from 16-20 November 2020. Learn how to engage in circular economy business models in order to improve the sustainability of the sanitation value chain by generating positive revenue streams from safe waste management.

Mark your calendar!

Webinar: Food Systems Approach to Climate Change
12 November 2020, 4:00 PM CET
Learn about the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration (in which RUAF is a partner) and the importance of food systems approaches and policy coherence to tackle climate change. Join the discussion with representatives of local and national governments. Register here.

EAT@Home Forum
Starting 17 November 2020
Replacing the annual EAT Stockholm Food Forum, EAT@Home marks the shift to a digital food systems series and platform designed to align with and contribute to the upcoming 2021 UN Food Systems Summit. Hivos and Mazingira Institute will join in a session.

Sustainable Food Systems Programme, 3^rd Global Conference
25 November-3 December 2020
RUAF and Hivos are members of the Sustainable Food Systems Programme, led by UN Environment, and will contribute to discussions on how to achieve food systems transformation through inclusive multi-stakeholder collaboration in this virtual conference.

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