From 13th to 16th June 2023, the Municipality of Milan will host the first Milan Pact Awards Retreat and welcome six cities from around the world that have been awarded for their innovative practices in food system transformation during the 8th Global Forum of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP), held in Rio de Janeiro last October: New York (USA), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Rourkela (India), Rosario (Argentina), Yeosu (South Korea), London (UK).
The purpose is to create an opportunity for meeting and exchange among the representatives of the winning cities of the Milan Pact Awards 2022 in order to accelerate the sharing of best practices among the over 265 signatory cities of the Pact.
The MPA Retreat represents the culmination of the 6th edition of the Milan Pact Awards. Since 2016, the Municipality of Milan and the Cariplo Foundation have been awarding the most innovative policies of the signatory cities of the MUFPP to encourage action.
Only in 2022, the Milan Pact Awards received 251 practices from 133 cities in 47 countries. An international evaluation committee composed of 20 experts from prominent organizations of the United Nations, the European Commission, universities, and stakeholders active in food system transformation selected the six winning cities that have been invited to participate in the first MPA Retreat in Milan.
Retreat programme
The four-day program will be characterized by knowledge sharing activities: presentations, technical meetings with the MUFPP Secretariat and the Food Policy team, and field visits to deepen the actions of Milan’s food policy. The visits will focus on Milan’s school canteens, the food aid system, the agricultural system and short supply chains, the agri-food wholesale market, as well as actions for the prevention and redistribution of food waste.
Of particular relevance, the workshop on transferability strategies, led by the team of the Horizon 2020 Food Trails project, where the six cities awarded with the Milan Pact Awards will have the opportunity to discuss and plan the transfer and sharing of their practices with the MUFPP international community of over 265 cities.
The Retreat will conclude on 16th June at 11:30 a.m. with a global webinar that will feature the presentation of the results achieved during the week, keynote speeches by experts on inclusive and sustainable food systems, and a roundtable discussion on practices replicability among the cities of the MUFPP.
Speakers will include Anna Scavuzzo (Deputy Mayor of Milan responsible for Food Policy), Carlo Mango (Cariplo Foundation), and Luca Maestripieri (Italian Agency for Cooperation and Development – AICS).
The event will be live-streamed here.
