We invite you to join us for the webinar series titled The potential of urban food policies in Latinoamerica and Caribbeans, starting in September 2024 and continuing through the first half of 2025. This series will explore the role of urban food systems in building sustainable, resilient cities and offer valuable insights from leading experts and practitioners.

The series is developed in collaboration with Mercociudades, a network of more than 370 cities in Latin America committed to urban resilience and supported by Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. The initiative is the first project included in a collaborative framework between MUFPP and Mercociudades, which aims to present examples of urban food policies to cities of both networks, to create possibilities of networking and to work as a platform to design new ones. 

The series will be articulated in 7 webinars, one for each of the Milan Pact’s six categories.
Here’s an overview of the series:

• Webinar #1 – Introductory webinar – 4 Sep 2024
• Webinar #2 on the “Governance” category – 22 Oct 2024
• Webinar #3 on the “Sustainable Diets and Nutrition” category – 17 Dec 2024
• Webinar #4 on the “Social and Economic Equity” category – 11 Feb 2025
• Webinar #5 on the “Food Production” category – 25 Mar 2025
• Webinar #6 on the “Supply Chain and Distribution” category
• Webinar #7 on the “Food Waste” category – TBA

The webinar is primarily directed at authorities and technical staff from Mercociudades member cities, as well as Latin American cities already associated with the Pact. However, representatives from social organizations and other institutions interested in the topic are also welcome to participate.
The language of the webinar is going to be Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation in Portuguese.

The introductory webinar

The introductory webinar, moderated by the Head of Mercociudades, Jorge Rodriguez, started with the institutional greetings by Maria Auxiliadora Executive Secretary of Mercociudades, São Paulo City Hall, and the MUFPP, followed by a presentation about the Pact by the Filippo Gavazzeni, Head of MUFPP. We had the great pleasure of having Jorge Meza, from FAO Brazil, giving a speech called “The potential of urban food policies in Latinoamerica”. Finally, the two MUFPP leaders for the South American Region, Rosario and Belo Horizonte, spoke about their experiences through the words of Rogelio Biazzi, Chief of Cabinet, Municipality of Rosario, and Chyara Sales Pereira, Deputy Municipal Secretary of Economic Development and Responsible for International Relations, Municipality of Belo Horizonte.

WEBINAR #2 — Governance: Intergovernmental Processes and Civil Society Engagement for the Sustainability of Urban Food Systems

On October 22nd, it took place the 2nd webinar of the 7-part series ‘El potencial de las políticas alimentarias urbanas en Latinoamérica’, developed in partnership with Mercociudades. This second webinar regarded focused on the 1st category of the Pact “Governance“, through a theoretical introduction and 3 concrete practices. Jorge Rodriguez, Head of the Mercociudades Secretary opened the webinar which was then moderated by Maria Eugenia Hulten, Food Security and Nutrition Coordination from Rosario, and Darklane Rodrigues Días, Undersecretary of Food Security and Nutrition of SMASAC, from Belo Horizonte.
Filippo Gavazzeni introduced the Pact’s recommended actions about the Governance category as well as providing an overview of helpful workshop tools that can be used by cities and developed throughout the Food Trail project. Then three cities from the MUFPP network presented three good practices, in particular we enjoyed the following presentations:

• ‘Food Sovereignty in an insular context’ – Facundo Armas, Undersecretary of Productive Development – City of Rio Grande (Ar).
• ‘Agrifood Pact of Quito: actors, processes and action plan 2024’ – Pablo Garofalo – In charge of the AGRUPAR project of ConQuito – City of Quito.
• ‘Araraquara Without Hunger’. – Silvani Silva – Food security coordinator, from the Prefeitura de Araraquara, Brazil.

The webinar saw the participation of more than 80 delegates from around Latin-America, re-watch the webinar below or by clicking this link.

WEBINAR #3 — Sustainable Diets and Nutrition. Local Actions and Policies for Promoting Healthy Eating

Participation is open for the third webinar in the series on the theme “Sustainable Diets and Nutrition: Local Actions and Policies for Promoting Healthy Eating,” which will take place on Tuesday, December 17, starting at 12:00 PM – GMT-3. The event will present the second category of the Pact through a theoretical introduction and four concrete practices. Additionally, authorities from both organizations and representatives from four Latin American cities will share their practices on the topic. Register now!

Moderated by Maria Eugenia Hulten from Rosario, the webinar started with an introductory presentation by Filippo Gavazzeni, Head of MUFPP who introduced the recommended actions within “Sustainable Diets and Nutrition”. These actions aim to ensure a sustainable diet (healthy, safe, culturally appropriate, environmentally friendly, and rights-based) through relevant programs in education, health promotion, and communication, with special attention to schools, care centers, markets, and media.

Following the theoretical introduction, four signatory cities introduced practices from the MUFPP network:

• “Food during school vacations: Ensuring food security for vulnerable populations” – Beatriz Leandro de Carvalho, Emergency Actions Coordinator, Belo Horizonte City Hall, Brazil.
• “Incorporating the planetary diet in Guadalajara: Experience in child care centers, community kitchens, and food programs of the DIF Guadalajara System” – Mariana Soto, Head of the Nutrition Department, and Enedelia Santana, Head of Community Kitchens, DIF, Guadalajara, Mexico.
• “New model for school supplementary feeding in La Paz, Bolivia” – Jacques Alcoba Barba, Municipal Secretary of Education and Social Development, Autonomous Government of La Paz, Bolivia.
• “School cafeterias in Medellín: Strategy for sustainable and healthy eating” – Cesar Augusto Trujillo Morales, Leader of projects, Secretary of Family, Social inclusion and Human Rights, Medellín City Hall, Colombia.

The webinar saw the participation of more than 80 delegates from around Latin-America, re-watch the webinar below or by clicking this link.

WEBINAR #4 — Social and Economic Equity. Addressing food poverty and promote good jobs in the food chain at a local level.

On February the 11th, the fourth webinar of the “El potencial de las políticas alimentarias urbanas en Latinoamérica” took place online. It had per theme the third category of the Pact: “Social Economic Equity”.

In the first place, Lautaro Lorenzo, Mercociudades’ Executive Secretary, opened the webinar with initial remarks and an introduction on hunger in the Latinamerican region. He then left the word to Maria Eugenia Hulten from Rosario who moderated the webinar.

Initially, Francesco Cagnola, MUFPP’s focal point for Latinamerica, introduced the Social and Economic Equity category highlighting the recommended actions falling into its category consisting in all the ways cities can support vulnerable citizens and communities as well as promoting community based activities and creating good jobs in the food chain. KPIs to monitor progress stated by the MUFPP’s monitoring framework were introduced as well.

Following the theoretical presentation, three signatory cities presented their experiences related to this field:

• “The contribution of La Habana’s local food sistems to building Social and Economic Equity” – Elexis Legrá Calderín, Agricoltural delegate – La Habana
• “ABC Food aid, a strategy to overcome the emergency” – María Eugenia Oholeguy, Social development Department – Montevideo
• “Food and nutritional security in São Paulo: an overview” – Pamela Di Christine Franco de Oliveira, Nutritionist/Máster in Public Policies/Advisor- São Paulo

The webinar saw the participation of more than 60 delegates from around Latin-America, we had also someone peeking from Canada! Re-watch the webinar below or by clicking this link.

WEBINAR #5 – Food Production. How cities and their surroundings contribute to the food and economic sustenance of their communities, and foster the city-country relationship that strengthens nature and resilience

On March the 25th, the fifth webinar of the series“El potencial de las políticas alimentarias urbanas en Latinoamérica” took place online and covered the fourth category of the Pact: “Food Production”.

Bruno Pimienta Starling, International cooperation adviser for food and nutritional security for the Preifetura of Belo Horizonte, moderated the webinar and, in the first place, gave the word to Lautaro Lorenzo, Mercociudades’ Executive Secretary, who opened the webinar with initial remarks and an introduction on the relationship city-countryside in the Latinamerican region.

The first intervention was by the MUFPP Secretariat with Francesco Cagnola, MUFPP’s focal point for Latinamerica, who introduced the Food Production category highlighting the recommended actions falling into its category consisting in all the ways cities can support vulnerable citizens and communities as well as promoting community based activities and creating good jobs in the food chain. KPIs to monitor progress stated by the MUFPP’s monitoring framework were introduced as well. Since, Curitiba’s “Urban farm” won a special mention at the last MPAs, the project was briefly introduced by the Secretariat.

Following the theoretical presentation, three signatory cities presented their experiences related to this field:

• ‘Sustainable Chone’ – Fernando Mendoza, Director of Economic Development – GAD Municipal del cantón Chone.
• ‘Agroforestry systems, collaborative governance and food production in Porto Alegre’ – Olivia Bertolini, Secretary of Governance – Prefecture of Porto Alegre.
• ‘Vegetable Garden Parks and Green Belt’ – Luciana Bassi, Director of SME Competitiveness, Raul Terrile, Coordinator of the Food Programme, Municipality of Rosario.

The webinar saw the participation of more than 40 delegates from around Latin-America, we had also someone who joining from Quelimane, Monzambique! Re-watch the webinar below or by clicking this link.

WEBINAR #6 – Food supply and distribution – Rural-urban linkages for the promotion of a more equitable, resilient and sustainable food system

On May the 27th, the sixth webinar of the series“El potencial de las políticas alimentarias urbanas en Latinoamérica” took place online and covered the fourth category of the Pact: “Food Supply and Distribution.

Bruno Pimienta Starling, International cooperation adviser for food and nutritional security for the Preifetura of Belo Horizonte, moderated the webinar and, in the first place, gave the word to Lautaro Lorenzo, Mercociudades’ Executive Secretary, who opened the webinar with some institutional remarks.

As usual, the MUFPP Secretariat gave a theoretical introduction of the category, through the words of Francesco Cagnola, MUFPP’s focal point for Latinamerica. “Food supply and distribution” is the category regarding how cities engage with their surroundings to provide availability and access to food to their citizens by providing physical and legislative structures to get food in downtowns. Both wholesale markets and farmers markets have something to do in this context: managing physical infrastucture to welcome the goods, checking the safety of the foods, administrating relationships with producers and set up locations where citizens can go to buy are the fundamental tasks of what cities can do.

More details about the role of wholesale markets and the strategic role they can play but uniting peri-urban production, public procurement and management of surplus food is described in the report “Wholesale markets: public spaces for interconnected food policies” produced jointly with the World Union of Wholesale Markets.

Following the theoretical presentation, three projects were presented by representatives of MUFPP signatory cities.

• ‘Food Supply System Building Food Citizenship’ – Dora Lucia Rincon, Deputy Director Food Supply, Bogota
• ‘Potatoes as the Axis of Food Supply: Strategy and Management in the Wholesale Market of Lima’ – Néstor Luyo, Operations Manager, Empresa Municipal de Mercados (EMMSA), Lima
• ‘Portoviejo; a sustainable and resilient city’ – Karla Astudillo, Director of Economic and Productive Development, GAD de Portoviejo, Portoviejo.

The webinar saw the participation of more than 60 delegates from around Latin-America: the conversation was very interesting as the theme is really relevant for cities in the region.
Re-watch the webinar below or by clicking this link.

WEBINAR #7 – Food waste – How cities can minimise food waste or value food waste and raise awareness among the population so that food is not thrown away.

On June the 25th, the sixth and last webinar of the series “El potencial de las políticas alimentarias urbanas en Latinoamérica” was held having the sixth category of the MUFPP “Food waste” as a topic.

Olivia Bertolini, , moderated the final webinar to highilight the role of Porto Alegre in co-leading the opening of the thematic unit “Urban Food Policy” within Mercociudades

In occasion of the last webinar of the series, the webinar has been opened by the president of Mercociudades, the mayor of esteban Echeverria, Fernando Gray and by the vice-mayor of Milan, Anna Scavuzzo. Fernando Gray thanked the people involved in the development of the webinar serie as well as reminding everyone of the challenges the collaboration between MUFPP and Mercociudades should look into, such as climate change, poverty amongst others. Anna Scavuzzo herself, thanked organizers as well as the cities of Rosario, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre. Scavuzzo recalled the invitation for all signatory cities to the MUFPP Global Forum in October and indicated it as a great occasion to renew the Letter of Intent between Mercociudades and the MUFPP.

After the institutional introduction, the MUFPP Secretariat introduced the Food Waste category through the words of Francesco Cagnola, MUFPP focal point for Latinamerica. The four recommended actions of this category address the need of mapping the current system, from production to disposal, together with stakeholders in order to have a clear view of waste flows and then collaborate to introduce new or amended policies to reduce the flows or redirect them away from the incinerator or the streets. One of the most important action that can be taken in this context is spotting food still fit for consumption and redirecting it towards channels that allow it to be eaten. Finally, raising awareness through campaign and educational project is a key aspect to favour a behavioural change in the population in the way the buy, prepare and what they leave in the plate.

The proximity of municipalities to citizens and the operational aspects of most services is one of the main reasons that makes urban food policies effective and the food waste category shwos it particularly well.

After the theoretical presentation, three cities introduced their work

• “Kitchens for learning. Organic waste management and composting in school canteens”. – Angélica Gómez Pizarro, Manager of Education for Sustainability, Ministry of Education of the City of Buenos Aires.
• ‘Project to fight food waste’ – Dayane Bordignon Xavier, Nutritionist, Preifetura de Curitiba
• ‘Re-Collection Project’ – Adriana Figueira, Executive Secretary of Urban Agriculture of the Preifetura de Recife.

The webinar saw the participation of more than 70 people from around the region.
The MUFPP and Mercociudades will be working on more projects together to streghten food policies around Latinoamerica and deploy their full pontential!

You can rewatch the webinar at this link.