Global

In this issue of the Urban Agriculture Magazine the central theme is community involvement in urban food planning. Urban agriculture and food systems are gaining the attention of planners and policy makers across the global south and north. While this emerging planning and policy attention is laudable, it must build on decades of community-led efforts to rebuild urban agriculture and community food systems. Failure to build on these on-the ground practices run the risk of developing policy that is uninformed and disconnected from the lived experiences of people in communities. »

This report generates a new understanding of diets and food systems, and how they could change by 2030. The analysis shows that if current trends continue, by 2030 nearly half of the world’s adult population will be overweight or obese, up from one third today. The poorest countries are not immune to these trends. »

This info note assessment the available measures to mitigate climate change through shifting food consumption and reveals some opportunities, particularly through linking with public health and other policy areas. Reducing emissions by changing consumption of foods with large greenhouse gas emissions could have a major impact on climate change. Yet, past efforts to change diets through public policy have had mixed results, suggesting that recent estimates of technical mitigation potential likely exceed feasible reductions in emissions. »

This publication aims to improve understanding of the potential benefits and challenges of agri-Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). It provides an analysis of 70 PPP cases gathered from 15 developing countries, together with evidence from FAO’s support to the review of PPP policies for agriculture in Southeast Asia and Central America. Agri-PPPs are expected to contribute to the pursuit of sustainable agricultural development that is inclusive of smallholder farmers. »

To implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, developing countries will have to increasingly rely on domestic finance for investment in agriculture. As public funding for agriculture decreases, the role of private investment and, in particular, smallholder farmers, needs to be scaled up to achieve sustainable food security. In this expert opinion published on The Broker, Danko elaborates on the changing landscape of investing in food security and agriculture. »

The longitudinal study synthesized in this report is the result of a 4-year collaboration between IDS, Oxfam and research partners. The research was carried out between 2012 and 2015 and involved annual visits to communities in 23 rural, urban and peri-urban sites, along with commissioned reviews of national-level prices and policies over the period. The social, economic and political adjustments made by people in developing countries in the wake of the global food crisis are the focus of this report. »