INNOVATIVE UA GOVERNANCE

(organized by E. Duchemin & J. Halliday)

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Urban agriculture is a feature in many towns and cities around the world, but the type and governance model of initiatives varies considerably – as does dominant narrative framing and policy support in different local, regional, and country contexts.

This theme explores various governance forms for supporting the embedding, proliferation, and scaling of urban agriculture, including:

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• policies, programmes, and integrated strategies that recognise the contribution of urban agriculture to the goals of multiple departments or policy areas (including environment, social welfare and inclusion, education, economic development, etc);

• urban agriculture as part of wider urban food strategies;

• inclusion of urban agriculture as a viable land use in urban planning;

• models of collaborations between community groups, governments, businesses, that support urban agriculture through access to land, inputs and training, markets;

• the role of universities in research and data on the multifunctional benefits of urban agriculture, to support advocacy over policy support;

• supportive multi-level policy frameworks that foster an enabling environment for the institutionalisation and scaling of urban farming practices;

• trans-local governance, such as networks and city-to-city knowledge exchange, for sharing techniques and experiences, policy models and data, and for collective advocacy

 

By the end of the session, participants will:

• understand different forms of governance of urban agriculture that have been deployed in various contexts;

• understand the gaps, barriers and challenges faced by urban agriculture practitioners and advocates;

• be aware of strategies to promote support for food growing in cities – both within local contexts and as a global movement;

• be able to identify the role of urban agriculture in addressing various urban issues, and be prepared to engage stakeholders and advocate for governance support.