Measuring impact
This magazine (PDF) by the RUAF Foundation explores how various assessments and indicator frameworks to help cities map the current status and performance of their city region food system, have concretely supported planning and policy, and have enabled cities to measure and monitor changes in relation to food strategies and action plans. Assessment of urban region food systems is an important basis for improved policy making and planning for more sustainable and resilient food systems. Assessment methodologies are becoming more widely available. City resilience to climate change and disasters is increasingly becoming a specific area of interest for such assessments. One article (PDF) focuses on improving urban nutrition in Africa and Asia though policy change and concludes that the link connecting poor diet and nutrition to the strong impact of urbanization means that nutrition should be central to any urban food policy. Key to his is multi-stakeholder alliances to improve the governance of nutrition. An article on resilience of urban food supply in West Africa (PDF) aimed to answer the question how City Region Food Systems respond to natural disasters which might severely affect urban food supply and resilience. Results indicated that foodsheds were highly crop specific and a tendency to an increase of city vulnerability from south to north was observed. The magazine concludes that because food system transition is a serious, urgent and very complex challenge, it requires a serious and longer-term assessment and planning process, supported by policy that is monitored in relation to outcomes. Assessment and measuring of impact must serve to support on-the-ground policy and practice transformation.