In the last few years, the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact has been working hard towards the goal of strengthening its relations in the Asia Pacific region. This has been made possible thanks also to the International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) programme, an EU funded project in which Milan has been selected to work for the next year with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
Within the broader programme, the city of Milan will lead the cluster on urban food policy through the organization of a series of webinars titled Asia Pacific Food Policy Training.
On the 2nd of March 2022, the MUFPP Secretariat and IURC organized the introductory webinar with the aim of promoting the development of food policies in Asia Pacific, as food is a fundamental entry point to address many challenges of growing cities. Indeed, IURC aims to lead and develop a form of decentralized international urban and regional cooperation in the fields of sustainable development and innovation.
The webinar was aimed at those cities of the region that are willing to enrich their knowledge following the 6 categories of the Pact. The training is based on the logistic approach of peer-learning: a multilateral relationship is formed between cities that take on the roles of both mentors and mentees allowing the transfer of knowledge, experience and skills.
The introductory webinar started off with an overview on the IURC programme, followed by a keynote speech on the power of a sustainable food system in order to transform our cities within the framework of the EU Green Deal. Coming next, we had an overview on the Milan Pact and, lastly, a survey was held to appoint the cities’ aspirations and learning needs. Below you can watch the recording of the session
The aim of the webinar was to identify and showcase the most relevant and innovative policies in Asia Pacific. Indeed, participating cities will be asked to take the lead and intervene as speaker in one of the upcoming webinars.
Each webinar will focus on one of the 6 Milan Pact’s categories (Governance, Sustainable Diets & Nutrition, Social & Economic Equity, Food Production, Food Supply & Distribution, Food Waste).
The involvement was impressive: the webinar saw the participation of over 70 city officers coming from different Asia Pacific countries, moving from South Korea to New Zealand.
