Moving ahead in the city region food system of Medellin: creation of an inclusive food system governance body
In Medellin, as in the other pilot cities, FAO and RUAF are working closely with local authorities and partners to understand the local city region food system – its weaknesses, strengths and opportunities. A first situational analysis has been conducted, enabling the identification of key priorities for the city region. Further assessments will be carried out to identify the most appropriate strategies to address the following priorities:
- Governance of food systems;
- Environmental sustainability and vulnerability of the city region food system;
- Market infrastructures for food supply and distribution system (including access, capacity, quality); and
- Rural-urban linkages for more territorial integration in the city region food system.
In the city of Medellin, there has been a growing interest from decision makers, which has now spread to the public and media, in communicating on and tackling food security and nutrition issues in the city and the Antioquia region. Medellin is the first city in Colombia with a Unit dedicated to Food and Nutrition Security. It was created in 2009 and has an annual investment of about 130,000 million pesos (approximately USD 45,000,000). The role of the municipal authorities in public policy on food and nutritional security has been growing – the government of Antioquia also institutionalized the issue of food security and nutrition as public policy in 2003 through the Management of Food Security and Nutrition (MANA) programme.
Following the appraisal of the CRFS and coupling it with the existing appropriate framework for action, FAO and RUAF have facilitated institutional integration between the Government of Antioquia, Medellin Mayor's Office and the Metropolitan Area (entities in charge of designing and implementing plans, programmes and projects aiming at strengthening rural-urban linkages) by creating an inter-institutional taskforce called “El Buen Vivir”. This taskforce aims to generate political, administrative and economic synergies, in order to facilitate the implementation of actions in the city region.
Even though the in-depth assessment of the city region food system is still on-going, the city-region public authorities –, through the taskforce “El Buen Vivir”– are already starting to implement activities to build a more sustainable and resilient CRFS. More specifically, projects will follow two directions: (i) Enhancement of the agricultural production in the districts of Medellin, and (ii) improvement of the access and availability of safe and diverse produce for city region dwellers, by strengthening the food supply system.
In the news:
Tele Medellín - 12 Sept 2016. FAO presentó estudios sobre alimentos en Medellín