In the context of the World Sustainable Food Capital 2021, between 19th – 21st October the City of Barcelona hosted the 7th MUFPP Global Forum on the topic of Growing Resilience: Sustainable Food to tackle the Climate Emergency. The Forum was an excellent opportunity for cities and partners to re-connect, exchange experiences, challenges, knowledge, and best practices after two years of virtual exchanges. In light of the critical UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) to be held in Glasgow just a couple of weeks later, the Forum represented a strategic moment to raise cities’ voices on the need for ambitious climate targets and urgent effective actions as well as to inspire and get inspired with the shared goal of fixing our urban food systems.
Given the focus of the event, the Forum saw also the launch of The Barcelona Challenge for Good Food and Climate, a call for cities and their citizens to transform their food systems as a way to tackle the climate emergency. Drawing on the C40 Good Food Declaration and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Framework for Action, the Barcelona Challenge is a pioneering process initiated by cities leading climate actions through food policies.
The event was a great success in terms of participation, gathering 500 attendees from over 150 cities committed to food systems transformation for further sustainability and inclusion. A key moment for our community that brought together city delegates, experts and civil society organizations from all around the world to foster cooperation and best practices’ exchange. The Forum hosted over 25 sessions, among side events, parallel sessions and plenaries, saw the involvement of 40 political leaders bringing the voices of MUFPP signatory cities and benefitted of the valuable contributions of more than 100 speakers, both online and in-person, spurring knowledge on food system transformation.
Regional sessions were also organized to give the chance to cities to focus on their common challenges and seek appropriate solutions for their geographical and socio-economic context. The aim was also to reinforce the network among cities within the same region and facilitate the sharing of best practices and experiences. The Steering Committee members took the lead and shared with fellow member cities their leadership plans for the two years ahead.
This Global Forum was possible thanks to the over 15 partner organisations and stakeholders that continuously support our work and that helped us develop and structure such insightful sessions, presenting the great challenges as well as achievements of our signatory cities.
During these fruitful three days, there was also the opportunity to discover first-hand the excellent projects that the city of Barcelona is carrying out through several field visits. On the last night in the beautiful setting of Museu Marítim de Barcelona the institutional dinner was held, where Slow Food Barcelona brought together five great chefs who created a 95% vegan menu which perfectly reflected the values of our community.
The Forum was also the occasion for the announcement of the next Global Forum Hosting City: the 8th MUFPP Global Forum will be held for the first time in South America in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro.
On behalf of the MUFPP community, we would like to sincerely thank Mayor Colau for the strong commitment put in the organization of the very successful 7th MUFPP Global Forum. Thanks to such a valuable moment, our community can leverage our impact worldwide.
