Food for the cities programme

City Region Food System Toolkit

Click the above image to navigate your way through the toolkit content.

The CRFS Toolkit is an online repository of resources to assist project teams as they implement the CFRS assessment and planning process detailed in the CRFS Handbook. It contains supplementary explanations, how-to tools, training materials, technical examples, and workshop resources related to activities within each of the project module.  

The CRFS Toolkit is designed to be used in conjunction with the Handbook. For orientation purposes, each page of the Toolkit contains a short summary of the Module and activities to which the listed resources relate.  

Users are strongly recommended to download the CRFS Handbook [link to Handbook], which will guide them through the CRFS process.  

The Toolkit and Handbook follow the same structure. The menu on the left corresponds to the modules contained in the Handbook, with sub-pages for each activity.  

A modular process: The CRFS assessment and planning process is modular. This means that the project modules need not necessarily be followed in a linear order, but project teams may implement them in the order that makes most sense, considering local context, previous food systems work in the city and/or surrounding area. Some modules may even be omitted if, for example, it is possible to draw on results of previous projects, or if there are resource or capacity constraints.  

An indicator-driven process: The CRFS indicator framework is a crucial element of the CRFS process. It is used and referred to throughout the whole assessment and planning process. This is an unusual way of using indicators. In addition to the usual practice of defining (or re-defining) indicators as part of action planning in order to monitor progress and assess impacts of interventions, in the CRFS process indicators are used to clarify where attention should be focused from the start.   

Multiple project tracks: The general process described in the Handbook relates to the overall sustainability of the CRFS. However, some project teams may wish to look in more detail at the risks to the CRFS from climate- and pandemic-related hazards, with a view to reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience capacities. This may be done either at the same time as conducting the general assessment or, in city regions where food systems assessments have been carried out in the past (using the CRFS approach or other methodologies), as a bolt-on project.  

Resources concerning additional or alternative activities and outputs relating to climate- and/or pandemic resilience are denoted using the symbols:

Mapping and spatial analysis: All modules include activities that require some mapping and spatial analysis. These activities allow for visual representation of the CRFS, including key stakeholders, assets and infrastructures, as well as blockages, problems and vulnerabilities. 

 

Tool: CRFS Resilience Indicator Framework  

The CRFS Resilience Indicator Framework is a practical assessment and planning tool to help explore the specific needs of different parts of the food system in relation to building resilience capacities to climate and pandemic-related shocks and stresses. 

Tool: CRFS Sustainability Indicator Framework

This City Region Food System Indicator Framework is part of the City Region Food Systems (CRFS) toolkit to assess and plan sustainable city region food systems.

Guidance: Relationship between the CRFS Sustainability and CRFS Resilience indicator frameworks  

An explanation of the common monitoring framework design approach between the CRFS Sustainability indicator framework and the CRFS Resilience indicator framework, followed by description of each.

Guidance: Step-by-step mapping and spatial analysis in the CRFS process 

[Available soon]