City Region Food Systems

Image credit: FAO

The City Region Food Systems (CRFS) Toolkit was developed through a partnership between the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), RUAF an international organization supporting urban agriculture, and the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (LCSFS). Launched in 2018, the toolkit provides guidance on how to assess and build sustainable city region food systems. It includes support material on how to:

• Define and map your city region.
• Collect data on your city region food system.
• Gather and analyse information on different CRFS components and sustainability dimensions through both rapid and in-depth assessments.
• Use a multistakeholder process to engage policymakers and other stakeholders in the design of more sustainable and resilient city region food systems.

The toolkit outlines the approach, techniques and tools used by seven cities that engaged in a CRFS assessment and planning process in the period 2015-2017. It tells the story of why and how they have been implementing this process and what outcomes they achieved. It is a resource for policymakers, researchers, other key stakeholders, and participants who want to better understand their own CRFS and plan for improvements.

A follow-up City Region Food System project targets climate resilience and works directly with cities to increase the capacity of city regions to utilize food to reduce and deal with climate change shocks. The project will provide online and in-person training resources to the existing toolkit.

Project Partners

The support of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems for the RUAF Foundation is being acknowledged.