African CITYFOOD Month 2020 Event Report

AfricanCITYFOODMonth is a platform created by ICLEI Africa, FAO and RUAF to support cross-sector, multi-stakeholder engagements and knowledge sharing about urban food systems. The platform recognises that food can be a powerful lever for solving many of our cities’ problems – it is connected to so much of how we plan and run our cities as well as our daily lives. Using food as an entry-point in Africa, we can support daily nutrition and wellbeing for millions of urban dwellers, regenerate ecosystems, connect our citizens to each other, mitigate, and adapt to, a rapidly intensifying climate crisis, end the injustice of malnutrition, celebrate local food cultures and improve economic participation.

#AfricanCITYFOODmonth 2020
Throughout July 2020, the inaugural #AfricanCITYFOODMonth Campaign was convened to share ideas, resources and actions around the theme of Repositioning Resilient and Nutritious Food Systems in African Cities. This theme reflects on our midway point through the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, the commencement of a Decade of Action for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the upcoming UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, and on strengthening 2030 Action for achieving the Paris Agreement. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting responses, this campaign was key in bringing together policy makers, mayors, urban communities, researchers, agri-food entrepreneurs and food system advocates to reflect on the immense disruptions that Africa’s food systems are currently experiencing. The crisis has made plain the many structural and deeply connected challenges that underpin our urban food systems, and reminded us that food can be a vital lever for addressing many of our city’s challenges, and shaping the equitable, sustainable cities that we seek.

#AfricanCITYFOODmonth was convened by ICLEI Africa, FAO and RUAF, with the support of Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, African Centre for Cities, WWF South Africa, Rikolto, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the South African Urban Food and Farming Trust.