5th edition of the Annual Gathering and Mayors' Summit of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact

October 7, 8 and 9, 2019

Montpellier, France

2 / 84

This report has been prepared by the city of Montpellier, local organizer and hosting city of the 5th MUFPP Annual Gathering. The presentation of materials in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Milan Urban Food

Policy Pact Secretariat or its individual members. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the

MUFPP.

3 / 84

4 / 84

5 / 84

Horizon 2030!

The ambition behind the 5th Annual Gathering and Mayor’s Summit

of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact

After Milan, Valencia, FAO-Rome and Tel Aviv, the 5th edition of the Annual Gathering and Mayors' Summit of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact took place at Montpellier under the motto of sharing. The sharing of knowledge, experiences, contacts, perspectives, commitments and above all, knowing we share the same ambition. The ambition of a Summit driven by strong political motivation, supported by knowledge, which brings together cities from all continents, be they large cities or rural towns, all concerned with a single question: how to make food a leverage tool to aid in society's transition?

400 participants, including 91 city delegations, representatives of 5 UN agencies, NGOs and international research organisations exchanged views over three full days in order to come up with answers to this question. The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals served as a guiding principle throughout the meeting, so that all aspects of food systems were put in perspective in relation to each other.

The symbolism of the dominoes can be found throughout the event: issues of ecology, equity and solidarity cannot be seen in isolation when it comes to food policies. Each action can provoke a positive chain reaction, if it takes into consideration the impact it can have on others from the outset. The meeting was held according to a new approach that highlights these reciprocal interdependencies. The issues of poverty, hunger and agriculture, health, education, gender equality, water, energy, fair labour practices, innovation and infrastructures, inequalities, sustainable cities, responsible consumption and production, climate change, aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity, justice and partnerships for the achievement of the goals were intertwined to reflect on a sustainable, inclusive, resilient, safe and diversified food policy.

The Montpellier Declaration, a text that renews the commitments of the Pact

The signatory cities have taken up the challenge of the first Food Policy Pact and have given it a new ambition by linking the United Nations' Agenda 2030 with the Montpellier Declaration. This became a text written by numerous cities, with a summary of multiple points of view, and whose purpose is to put words into actions on the field. For, if this year's Summit had a solid political dimension, evidenced by the presence of 67 elected city representatives, the goal pursued since the signature of the Pact in 2015 is still that of trying to ensure the welfare of the population, respect for the planet, through urban food issues.

6 / 84

7 / 84

8 / 84

9 / 84

Introductory note: the report does not present the various events that made up the Summit in chronological order; rather, it wishes to highlight the main goals of the meeting.

Report Summary

From local to global, the new perspectives of the Milan Pact

From 45 to 209 cities: the Milan Pact, a expanding community

A valorisation of the regional working groups

The Montpellier Declaration, the synergy of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the MUFPP's main lines of action

Engaged cities: political mobilization for a Technical Summit

The Mayors' Debate

The Milan Pact Awards

The need to gather all stakeholders

Day Open to the General Public

La Nuit de l’alimentation: “How can research, NGOs and cities cooperate?”

UN agencies in action

The speech of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus

Taking stock of lessons learned: the cities share research and experience

Thematic sessions to deal with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals

FAO's technical segment

10 / 84

Report Summary

After Milan, FAO-Rome, Valencia and Tel Aviv, the 5th Annual Meeting and Mayors Summit of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact took place on 7, 8 and 9 October 2019 in Montpellier, France. 400 participants, including 91 city delegations, representatives of 5 UN agencies, NGOs and international research organizations exchanged during three full days. The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals served as a common thread throughout the meeting. The Summit was also an opportunity to reflect on the evolution of the network and to share best urban practices for sustainable, inclusive, resilient, secure and diverse food systems.

From local to global, the new perspectives of the Milan Pact

From the first 45 signatory cities in 2015 to the 209 member cities today, the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact brings together more and more cities and its governance is adapting accordingly. The steering committee composed of 13 cities elected every two years is complemented by thematic working groups launched following a call for action in 2019. The work of the Regional Forums is also highlighted: the Latin American Regional Forum, the African Regional Forum and the EUROCITIES WG Food group.

The Montpellier Declaration, approved at the end of the Summit, identifies new areas where cities can work together, particularly at a time when the effects of climate change are being felt. Cities confirm their role and commitment to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 by sending the Montpellier Declaration to the UN, which is now part of the official corpus of MUFPP texts.

Engaged cities: political mobilization for a Technical Summit

The Summit combines political reflection, made possible by the strong mobilization of elected officials, with operational considerations to lead the transition of urban food systems. During the Mayors' debate, the views of five cities intersect: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Cordoba, Argentina; Quelimane, Mozambique; New York City, United States and finally Montpellier, France. In spite of very different local contexts, the Mayors made similar observations, including low nutritional quality food. This can be linked to difficult social and economic conditions as well as to a lack of information, two levers on which cities can work to improve the health of their populations. Moreover, the issue of secure and climate-resilient agriculture is intrinsically linked to land conservation and support for farmers and peasants. Among the range of solutions put in place are green belts, the preservation of agricultural land, the development of shared gardens, the distribution of organic compost to farmers and also the structuring of transformation and distribution channels.

11 / 84

The actions of the cities rewarded at the Milan Pact Awards pursue the same objectives. The "food as medicine" program developed by Washington DC in the United States provides financial assistance for the purchase of fresh fruit in local markets. The Mezitli women's market in Turkey has created employment opportunities for women by reducing gender barriers in the markets. Tel Aviv, Israel; Kazan, Russia; Nairobi, Kenya; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Montpellier, France were also rewarded for their work on food security, urban agroecology, canteens and food waste.

The need to gather all stakeholders

On a day open to the general public, civil society was also involved in the work of the Summit. 400 children attended food-related educational workshops, while the general public had access to presentations from research organizations, foundations, city networks and associations, each with their own particular perspective on food systems. “La Nuit de l’Alimentation” was also an opportunity for Reyes Tirado, Scientific Director at Greenpeace International, David Nabarro, UN Special Envoy for Agenda 2030, and Patrick Caron, President of Agropolis International and Chairman of the UN High-Level Panel of Experts on World Food Security, to share their views on possible and desired cooperation between NGOs, research and cities for sustainable food.

Cooperation of all food actors was again addressed during the closing plenary session, with the round table "UN Agencies in Action". Marcela Villarreal, Director of FAO's Partnerships Department, Remy Sietchiping, Director of the Regional and Metropolitan Planning Unit of UN-Habitat, Simona Seravesi, representative of the Nutrition Department of WHO-FAO and Marina Bortoletti, Programme Officer for UNEP were thus able to recall the desire for greater collaboration between these UN bodies and local governments in the achievement of sustainable development objectives, in order to link health, agriculture, habitat and the environment.

An analysis of the global economic system, proposed by Nobel Peace Prize winner and entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, finally reveals another facet of food issues: finance. Especially during famines, it is not necessarily an agricultural shortage that takes place, but a blocking of access to finance for farmers and the poorest. Supporting farmers, for example through micro-credit, can then ensure food security for the territories.

Taking stock of lessons learned: the cities share research and experience

In order to direct the exchanges towards the sharing of field experience and proven solutions, twelve thematic sessions addressed food policies from the perspective of the 17 Sustainable Development Objectives and the six MUFPP work areas. For each session, an expert and a city having developed a good practice made a presentation, followed by a time of free exchange between the international delegations and participants to deepen the discussions, led by researchers.

12 / 84

Sustainable food systems and nutrition, climate change, land and urban planning, social and economic equity, these were some of the thematic sessions that allowed elected officials, technical teams from cities and researchers to explore together ways of working for our food systems.

Finally, FAO's technical segment enabled participants to deepen their knowledge by studying, in particular, the monitoring framework developed in partnership with the RUAF Foundation to assess the progress of cities in establishing more sustainable food systems. The main objective is to facilitate the development of policies and initiatives by creating evidence of results, identifying priorities for action, setting targets and monitoring progress. It is also about communicating and sharing experience with other cities: the experience of Antananarivo in Madagascar, Nairobi in Kenya and Quito in Ecuador were shared.

Conclusion

It is not possible to report fully on the 5th Summit of Mayors and Annual Meeting of the Milan Pact and on all the knowledge, ideas and solutions that were shared there to make our food systems better. Nevertheless, the report and the online videos on the official MUFPP website provide a glimpse of the exchanges that took place, looking forward to working together again during the upcoming Annual and Regional Meetings and Working Groups.

13 / 84

14 / 84

15 / 84

PART 1

FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL, THE NEW PERSPECTIVES OF THE MILAN PACT

16 / 84

From 45 to 209 cities: The Milan Pact, an

expanding community

The beginnings

In 2015, the city of Milan held the World Expo under the theme "Feeding the planet, energy for life". The Mayor of Milan used this extraordinary political arena to launch an appeal to create an international protocol on food, which would be adopted by as many cities as possible around the world.

Milan and over 40 cities from all continents began discussing the contents of this Pact, and the possibility of including recommendations and indicators and drawing on the advice of a group of eminent international experts and leading international organisations.

The text that emerged from these discussions stated that urban food policies contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthy future for the planet.

On October 15, 2015, the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact was signed by over 100 cities and the following day it was presented to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the occasion of World Food Day. It is one of the most important legacies of the EXPO 2015.

Today, the Milan Pact gathers 209 cities around the world, all different in size, context and climate, but united around common values.

After Milan, FAO-Rome, Valencia and Tel Aviv, the 5th Annual Gathering and Mayors’ Summit of Milan Urban Food Pact took place on October 7, 8 and 9, 2019 at Montpellier, France.

Ceremony of the new signatory cities

25 new cities from 15 different countries signed the Milan Pact in 2019. The following signatory cities were honoured at a ceremony which took place for the first time during this 5th edition of the Annual Gathering at Montpellier: Greater Manchester Authority (UK), Guanajuato (Mexico), Mezitli (Turkey), Pune (India), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Agadez and Gaya (Niger), Kazan (Russia), Santa Ana (Costa Rica), Araquara (Brazil), Toulouse (France), Huancayo (Peru), Glasgow and Brighton & Hove (United Kingdom), Pointe-Noire (Republic of Congo), Tamale (Ghana), Bergamo, Chieri, Livorno, Trento, Castel del Giudice and Lecco (Italy), Segovia, Carcaboso, Móstoles, Palma del Río (Spain).

17 / 84

The rise of regional working groups

For a better understanding of local realities

Yesterday, 45 signatory cities, today, 209 cities, perhaps tomorrow we will have 400 cities.

Eitan Ben Ami, coordinator of the Steering Committee of the Milan Pact, from the municipality of Tel Aviv, presents the progress of the Milan Pact. In order to remain effective and action-oriented, the network is gradually organising itself into regional and thematic groups that allow the work to continue at a deeper, finer level.

The Steering Committee of the Milan Pact, composed of 13 elected cities, sees its role strengthened to ensure that the network doesn’t shy away from local realities. Cities are best to lead the transition of food systems through leading working groups that gather around similar goals. The Milan Pact has launched a call to action, to work through thematic areas such as "food security and nutrition", "international cooperation", "indicators" or "evolution of the Milan Pact". International organisations, NGOs and voluntary organisations are also invited to join these working groups.

A specific working group will be dedicated to the Montpellier Declaration and support cities to carry out the actions it recommends.

18 / 84

Latin American Regional Forum

Antonio Cruz de Mello, Ambassador of Rio de Janeiro, looks back to the first Latin American Regional Forum of the Milan Food Policy Pact that took place in May 2019 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Natural resources, food security, nutrition and health were at the heart of the exchanges between the cities of Belo Horizonte, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Guarulhos, Lima, Mérida, Porto Alegre, San Antonio de Areco, Sao Paulo and the Central Region of Colombia, alongside organisations such as C40 and ICLEI - for the fight against climate change - and UN agencies FAO and UN-Habitat. The cities have identified three priority areas for action in a common territorial context: the fight against inequalities and the protection of the most vulnerable communities, the preservation of cultural identities and the development of more sustainable food sources. The Rio Declaration, adopted at the end of the Gathering, represents a genuine road map for Latin American cities.

Regional Forum of Africa Mr. Hassoumi, Director of Food of the city of Niamey, in Niger, looked back at the African forums that have taken place: the Dakar Forum with 7 African cities in 2016, the Brazzaville Forum with 13 cities in 2018, and finally, Niamey with 18 cities in 2019. The goal of these Forums was to create networks of African cities to enable them to exchange best practices regarding urban food policies and to set up collaborative networks. The cities have made a commitment to the progressive creation of steering instruments, recognising the need to put in place governance instruments adapted to local conditions. During the Niamey Forum, field visits made it possible to measure the effectiveness of actions related to food security with the Maison du Paysan (Farmers’ Centre) to stabilise cereal prices during the fallow period, or the control of urban sprawl to preserve agricultural land.

The EUROCITIES network Andrea Margarini, food policy coordinator in Milan, stresses that the regionalisation process facilitates the sharing of knowledge in similar contexts. Since early 2018, a specific group within the EUROCITIES WG FOOD network has been working on the food issue. Meetings take place twice a year, on various topics such as food waste, urban agriculture, climate change, etc. The working groups also provide an opportunity to work with the European Union, which takes into account the Milan Pact and the work of EUROCITIES WG FOOD in its calls for projects, events and documents.

North America and Asia North America and Asia do not have regional networks within the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact.

19 / 84

The Montpellier Declaration, a new text in the corpus

of the Milan Pact

A Declaration co-written by the cities

The signatory cities of the Milan Pact unanimously adopted the Montpellier Declaration, which is testament to the sharing and confrontation of ideas. Before the Summit, the cities drafted a series of commitments in great detail, paying close attention to the choice of words, choosing the common priorities to be followed as well as the more specific challenges that each city must face according to its local context. The cross-cutting nature of the text has been reinforced by this common drafting. The food policies are used by cities as a springboard to react to deeper changes in society, which is called for by the framework of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

20 / 84

The position of women, the cultural nature of food, plastics, waste, the use of phytosanitary products which must be replaced by agro-ecology, fair wages for farmers, respect for sanitary standards in the distribution chain, seed sharing, support for populations most vulnerable to hunger, malnutrition and obesity were discussed. Together, the cities agreed on a model of society that must be championed, beginning with food systems.

At the Summit, the Mayors and elected representatives of the cities were invited to debate the final version of the Montpellier Declaration by participating in its drafting, declaring their support for the draft or by adding commitments that were missing before the Declaration was finally adopted at a plenary session.

The Montpellier Declaration is a recognition of the legacy of the founding document of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, with the renewed ambition and the recognition of new areas on which cities must work together, particularly at a time when the effects of climate change are being felt around the world.

The Montpellier Declaration joins the official corpus of documents of the Milan Pact and builds a bridge between this network of international cities that began in 2015 and the network of States that was founded in 1945: the United Nations Organisation. Cities affirm their role and their commitment to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030 by sending the Montpellier Declaration to the United Nations.

21 / 84

A synergy between the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the pillars of the Milan Pact

We, the mayors and elected officials of the signatory cities that signed the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, meeting in Montpellier (France) on October the 7th, 8th and 9th, 2019,

We refer to the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, adopted on the 15th of October 2015 in Milan (Italy); (…)

Taking into consideration resolution A/RES/70/1*, ‘Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, also known as ‘Agenda 2030’, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in New York on the 25th of September 2015;

Acknowledging that the Sustainable Development Goals define the path to achieving a better and more sustainable future for all and for meeting the global challenges facing people and the planet; that the Sustainable Development Goals are ‘integrated and inseparable’, and that to leave no one behind, it is essential to take action to achieve each one of them; that there are multiple and complex inter-relationships between food issues and the Sustainable Development Goals; that food and urban policies are essential in the realization of Sustainable Development Goal 2 ‘Zero Hunger’; and that the respect and promotion of cultural and intercultural diversity is essential; (…)

Acknowledging that as elected representatives of cities we fully endorse the 2030 Agenda, and that we are major actors in the realization and appropriation, through local communities and local territories, of the Sustainable Development Goals;

Recognizing that cities have levers for action to create, promote and maintain links between urban food policies and the Sustainable Development Goals,

We declare that as elected representatives of cities, municipalities and local governments, we can contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, under the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, by taking the following actions:

- Prioritizing awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals when developing, implementing and monitoring urban food policies so as not to forget any social, economic or environmental aspect of these policies,

- Measuring the impact of urban food policies in the light of indicators from the Sustainable Development Goals;

- Sharing the good practices that have been implemented for the Agenda 2030 under the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, and contributing to the informing of the general public on this subject;

22 / 84

- Promoting training and awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals for

those people in charge of developing, implementing and monitoring urban food policies.

- Implementing the human, technical and financial resources — in accordance with our prerogatives and to the extent of our respective capacities — in order to mobilize the levers listed above and thus contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in the framework of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact. These courses of action may take the form described in the appendix.

- Mobilizing all food stakeholders to ensure food hygiene (stemming from mass distribution) and food health, and stating that our common intention is to eliminate plastic.

Examples of mandates of the Montpellier Declaration

SDG 1 "no poverty": implementation of social pricing in school canteens, development of agro-ecological farms for direct sale to protect smallholders.

SDG 2 "zero hunger, sustainable agriculture": financial support for local food agriculture, institutionalizing a dialogue between urban and rural areas for land sharing.

SDG 3 "access to health and well-being": establish food quality controls; ensure the distribution of drinking water, fight against malnutrition, undernutrition and obesity, set up social protection systems.

SDG 4 "quality education": provide access to school canteens for all, promote education regarding nutrition.

SDG 5 "gender equality": ensure equitable distribution of resources, support women's agricultural cooperatives and women's entrepreneurship.

SDG 6 "clean water and sanitation": establish wastewater treatment facilities and recycling systems, ensure balanced distribution between human consumption and agricultural needs.

SDG 7 "affordable and clean energy": turning organic waste into energy, relying on research for cleaner agriculture.

SDG 8 "decent work": support the social and solidarity economy, ensure producers' access to infrastructure and institutional services for their activity, and ensure a fair distribution of the wealth created.

SDG 9 "innovation and infrastructures": connecting all the stakeholders in the production and distribution chain to the consumer through information systems.

23 / 84

SDG 10 "the reduction of inequalities": regulating prices for access to food and water for all, supporting social and solidarity initiatives

SDG 11 "sustainable cities and communities": organizing governance around agriculture and food, supporting community initiatives, developing cultural diversity.

SDG 12 "responsible consumption and production": support local markets, develop local urban and peri-urban food production, re-distribute uneaten food, and recycle organic waste.

SDG 13 "fight against climate change": adapt school menus to better respect the environment, raise citizens’ awareness with regards to a low-carbon and low-meat diet, support local agriculture to avoid long transport journeys.

SDG 14 "protection of aquatic wildlife and flora": support sustainable fish farming and fishing, ensure traceability of the species fished.

SDG 15 "protection of the Earth’s wildlife and flora": supporting environmentally sound agricultural, livestock and agroforestry practices, allocating land to reconcile agriculture and biodiversity conservation, establishing natural protected areas, preserving seed and seed diversity.

SDG 16 "justice and peace": develop a city policy for sustainable food systems; promote dialogue between producers, consumers, civil society and institutions.

SDG 17 "partnerships for the achievement of the goals": organise consultation with the private sector, research institutions and civil society to establish best agricultural and food practices, promote collaboration between the signatory cities of the Milan Pact to enable the sharing of experiences.

24 / 84

25 / 84

PART 2

The cities engaged: a political mobilization for a

technical summit

26 / 84

The Mayors' Debate

Excerpts

America, Europe, Africa: the perspectives of five cities converge for the traditional Mayors' Debate, a plethora of differences and similarities. Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso in the heart of West Africa, with a population of 2 million people; Córdoba, regional capital of northern Argentina, with 1.3 million people; Quelimane, port city of Mozambique on the Indian Ocean in southern Africa with 200,000 people; New York City, economic and cultural capital of the East Coast of the United States, with 8.6 million people and finally, Montpellier, a city in southern France with 465,000 people.

Armand Bédouiné, Mayor of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

The low standard of living forces people to work long hours and they tend to eat meals bought on the streets that are prepared with a lot of salt and sugar instead of home-cooked meals. A campaign has been launched in the city to raise awareness with regards to the nutritional value of food.

In terms of land, the government had created a green belt around the city to slow down the advancement of the desert, which is now filled with rubbish the population has disposed of. For the past two years, the city has reclaimed this green belt by planting trees during the rainy season from May to October, calling on women's associations. These women water the trees and grow vegetables on the belt, and they get paid for that.

27 / 84

Ramón Javier Mestre, Mayor of Córdoba, Argentina

The Annual Gathering of the Milan Pact is a unique opportunity to meet with Mayors and City Councillors and exchange views on food policy issues. Radical changes are needed, which is why public policies have been put in place in Córdoba to combat diseases such as obesity. Besides from education, what matters is good food quality in the school canteens. 27% of 4-year-olds are obese or overweight. In both private and public schools, children are eating more vegetables, not drinking sugary drinks and eating less fatty foods. The city has also set up collective allotment gardens. It is a big change to eat the food we produce ourselves! There is also the huge challenge of food waste. The city has set up a food bank, similar to the one in New York, and 1,500 tons of unused food is re-distributed to fight hunger and food insecurity. If we do nothing, in 15 or 20 years’ time, we will be facing huge problems with regards to food, in the context of climate change that we are already experiencing.

In conclusion, a lot of work has been carried out by cities, federal, regional and sub-regional governments and countries, but a greater commitment, and a real cultural change is needed, at city level, in order to have a better impact on the populations and in order to achieve the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals.

28 / 84

Philippe Saurel, Mayor of Montpellier, France

Mayors face different local issues but share a common closeness with families and residents. At Montpellier, two-thirds of the territory is preserved as agricultural land and natural areas, despite its rising population. The city wants to achieve food self-sufficiency by 2050 through the National Interest Market and the relationships forged with rural neighbouring areas. At the school canteens, we will serve 50% of sustainable, organic and local products next year. We could say 100%, but that would be demagogy because there are rules of law that we must respect, such as land property. We must act as quickly as possible against climate change, but within a legal framework that respects a delicate balance, especially at human level.

But we must change our behaviours and our way of thinking, and have a little inner revolution. For example, when we travel by plane, we assess our carbon footprint to ensure compensation in terms of planting of trees through associations. The canopy of trees is often too weak, especially in a context of major disasters with the fires that the Amazon is suffering today.

29 / 84

Manuel de Araujo, Mayor of Quelimane, Mozambique

In Quelimane, the question is not only obesity but, rather, hunger. The city is promoting a unique project because it has an impact on both sides of the equation: production and consumption. Thanks to the compost we distribute, we enable farmers to increase their production and productivity. We train farmers in more sustainable farming practices that allow them to have a better income and we support them in transporting their goods to the markets in clean vehicles. We also work with the buyers of farmers' products, training them to improve the sanitary quality of the distribution chain, the method of storage and the management of food products to avoid losses. By helping farmers throughout the chain, we have ensured better nutrition for the population and succeeded in combating malnutrition.

We need a change of paradigm, there is overproduction, overconsumption, we need a better society, no longer based on industry but on sustainability. To protect against climate change, we need to change our consumption and production patterns, starting with food systems.

Erin McDonald, Director of Innovation and Strategy, New York City, USA

The New York government is the second largest food producer in the United States, just behind the US military. This means that 238 million meals are distributed every year at a cost of $700 million, in schools, nursing homes, canteens, hospitals, etc.

The "Why NYC" strategy is a general forward-looking plan for the city that is built around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Achieving greater equity among the inhabitants is Mayor Bill de Blasio’s guiding principle. The food policy is based on this principle and revolves around three issues: food equity - everyone must have access to food, human rights - inclusiveness - every voice counts in decision-making - and the creation of wealth for all communities. Actions embody these ideas: many agencies are working on the circular economy, on how to guide consumers towards good food, on recycling organic waste into compost, or on collecting sociological data to analyse people's behaviour in order to understand what influences their choices.

The way we work together is crucial, especially nowadays at an international level by sharing our ideas that stem from different contexts.

30 / 84

Awards for best practices in cities and the sharing of them

The goal of the Milan Pact is to share knowledge amassed by cities and their successful experiences in achieving sustainable and inclusive food systems. Above all, the annual Milan Pact Awards are one of the most important tools to involve cities around the world in the Pact's Framework for Action (governance, sustainable diets and nutrition, social and economic equity, food production, food supply and distribution and food waste). The Milan Pact Awards are promoted by the City of Milan with the support of the Cariplo Foundation. Participation in this 4th edition of the "Milan Pact Awards" was very high in terms of the number of practices presented - it doubled from around 50 in previous years to 104 practices in 2019. There were practices from all over the world, with 45 projects from Europe, 23 from Latin America, 20 from Africa, 9 from North America and 7 from Asia. Eight cities were rewarded this year for the innovative actions and projects they implemented.

31 / 84

Highest Score Award: Washington DC, USA

The city of Washington DC developed a powerful program “Food as medicine” that provides subsidies to residents participating in government health programs, for fresh fruit purchase in local markets. The initiative developed educational and volunteering activities and mobilized an impressive number of people. It reached over 9500 persons, mainly low-income residents, and catalyzed cross sector public/private partnership.

Challenging Environment Award: Mezitli, Turkey

The city of Mezitli, first city of Turkey that signed the Pact and participated to the Award, developed a very important action called “Mezitli Women Producers Market” that reduces gender-based barriers and increase working opportunities for women through food markets. This initiative strengthened local female food producers: 650 women were able to develop the skills necessary to produce and sell food in 9 different female markets.

32 / 84

Governance - Tel Aviv (Israel)

The practice aimed to find sustainable solutions to the environmental impacts of food festivals and create guidelines for sustainable large-scale events. The initiative involved 50 food vendors, diverted 17 tons of waste from landfills, saved and donated food losses, collaborating with 60 chefs during an event with 500.000 visitors.

Finalists of this category: Berlin, Tel Aviv, Capannori, Mouans Sartoux

Sustainable diets and nutrition - Kazan (Russia)

The city established a “Department on Food and Social Nutrition” to launch a reform in school canteens to improve sustainability and health, to fight obesity and other diseases. As part of this reform, the city built 2 centralized cooking centers, serving 160 schools and 150.000 meals per day, while maintaining a price control for breakfast and lunch – the lowest prices in the country.

Finalists of this category: Grenoble, La Paz, Kazan, Mouans Sartoux

33 / 84

Social and economic equity - Nairobi (Kenya)

The city defined a urban early warning initiative to assess food insecurity levels in neighborhoods, thanks to a set of 5 indicators. This tool identified 203,000 households at risk in the city, providing them with an innovative food security surveillance.

Finalists of this category: Curitiba, Rio De Janeiro, Baltimore, Nairobi

Food production - Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

The city encouraged actions that promote urban agroecology and quality food production, at affordable prices and creating jobs opportunities. The initiative created 39 urban gardens that produce about 50 tons of organic food per year, involving about 100.000 citizens.

Finalists of this category: Abidjan, Belo Horizonte, Santa Ana, Rio De Janeiro

Food supply and distribution- Montpellier (France)

The city improved the sustainability of the whole food supply chain, by focusing on school canteens. This initiative reached 50% of local, sustainable and organic products, replaced plastic trays with compostable ones, provided 14.600 meals per day in taking into account vulnerable groups through social tarification and reduced food waste by 59 tons a year, the rest of the meal being redistributed to food banks.

Finalists of this category: La Paz, Montpellier, Paris, Sao Paulo

34 / 84

35 / 84

PART 3

The need to gather all stakeholders

36 / 84

Day for the General Public

The Annual Gathering and Mayors’ Summit of the Milan Pact was open to civil society, with a day dedicated to the general public. In the different rooms of the Corum Palais des Congrès, 400 children attended educational workshops related to food, while the general public had access to presentations by research organisations, foundations, city networks and associations, each bringing their own perspective on food systems.

Let’s Food Cities International cooperation for sustainable food systems

The Let’s Food association studies the ability of cities to feed their inhabitants in a healthy and sustainable way and supports them in the implementation of territorial food policies co-constructed with local actors. The Let’s Food Cities project (2017-2020) aims to encourage the exchange of experiences between 14 cities in order to accelerate their agroecological transition. In partnership with the MUFPP, Let's Food thus proposed to the 7 French cities signatories of the Pact to build a cooperation on sustainable food with one of their twin city.

37 / 84

On the occasion of the 5th Mayors Summit, Let's Food highlighted the results of the cooperation between Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and the city of Fez in Morocco (cooperating since 2003): results of the food system assessment, presentation of the film illustrating the main issues and solutions in place, first cooperation projects identified. Mylène Fourcade, vice-president of the Montpellier Metropolis din charge of agroecology and sustainable food and Hatem Belhouchette of the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier were then able to shed light on the multiple climatic, agricultural and cultural parallels between the two territories. This event was also an opportunity to present the "Let’s Food Ideas" platform which brings together all the food initiatives (translated in French, English and Spanish) identified during the 14 regional assessments. These initiatives are classified by territory, by actors (local authorities, businesses, NGOs) and according to the 6 themes of the Milan Pact in order to spread good practices and develop sustainable territorial food systems all over the world.

www.letsfoodcities.com / www.letsfoodideas.com

Food Systems Dialogues

Discussions to encourage collective action to transform food systems The Food Systems Dialogues are designed to make a unique significant contribution to the transformation of food systems in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

They were launched in June 2018 by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the EAT Foundation, the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) and the Global Alliance to Improve Nutrition (GAIN).

The FSDs encourage greater alignment and synergy of action among diverse actors. They are a succession of facilitated small-group interactive debates on the future for food systems. In each setting participants explore actions to be prioritized and the trade-offs to be considered. FSDs are now advancing in multiple locations, worldwide, using a standardized approach and reporting system.

In the last 18 months 29 FSDs events have been co-organized in 21 countries: they have involved at least 1700 practitioners who met for facilitated dialogues. They developed more than 200 proposals for action which have been synthesized as 10 red thread themes.

The FSDs session at the 5th MUFPP Annual Gathering and Mayors Summit took place on the 7th of October 2019. The event offered the 80 participants an overview of the FSDs process and options for organizing FSDs events in their own locations.

Independent FSDs are now being taken forward in multiple locations using the “FSDs in a box” toolkit designed for those who want to organize FSDs events independently.

For more information, contact the FSDs secretariat: info@foodsystemsdialogues.org

38 / 84

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

Urban food waste interventions : progress and lessons from the US

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the largest environmental groups in the U.S., held a workshop that highlighted current work around food waste in U.S. cities and how food waste fits into broader food systems as part of its Food Matters project. Yvette Cabrera, Deputy Director of Food Waste at NRDC, discussed how the Food Matters project is working with cities, particularly Denver and Baltimore, to achieve meaningful reductions in food waste through comprehensive policies and programs. In Denver, the city is working to advance progress on expanding the capacity of food rescue organizations, engaging businesses on food waste reduction, and city-wide composting. Holly Freishtat, Food Policy Director for the City of Baltimore presented the work the city is doing to drive action on local food scrap collection, engage major institutions to improve their food waste practices, and educate their residents on food waste prevention solutions. Workshop participants were extremely interested in local efforts in Denver and Baltimore around business engagement and food scrap collection and processing, in addition to how both of these cities are working on food waste as part of their commitment to the broader goals of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact.

RUAF Fundation and HIVOS

Sustainable Food Systems, Food Labs and Policy Councils. Lessons learned in African Cities

The session discussed different forms of multi-stakeholder interaction on resilient city region food systems. Representatives from Lusaka and Nairobi shared their experiences, and comments was provided by RUAF partners and FAO. In the discussion other cities, some with longer experience, brought in their lessons. The session discussed lessons regarding lead organisations, citizen or government driven platforms, inclusiveness and lessons regarding policy impact, both at city and national level. The session was organized by RUAF partnership and Hivos, facilitated by René van Veenhuizen (Hivos, RUAF rvanveenhuizen@hivos.org). Presenters were Jane Zulu from CUTS Zambia on Lusaka and Diana Lee-Smith of Mazingira with Winfred Katumu on Nairobi, reflections were given by Barbara Emanuel of the city of Toronto and Guido Santini of FAO. Related information can be found at www.ruaf.org, or the UA magazine no. 36 at. https://ruaf.org/document/urban-agriculture-magazine-no-36-food-policy-councils/

39 / 84

The UNESCO Chair in World Food Systems

A round-the-world perspective of the urban food landscapes: Accra, Hanoi, Mexico City, Montpellier, Nairobi

The UNESCO Chair in World Food Systems organized a public session to present a round-the-world vision of urban food landscapes with researchers involved in the Foodscapes and Urbal projects.

The following projects and experiences were presented:

- « Urban foodscapes: relationships between the food environment and food procurement practices. First results in Montpellier metropolis", by Christophe Soulard and Coline Perrin, INRAE Montpellier.

- « Lessons learned from urban food environments in Ghana and Kenya", by Michelle Holdsworth, IRD and University of Sheffield.

- « Changing the Food Landscape of UNAM Campuses in Mexico", by Ayari Pasquier Merino, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City

- « Changing cities, changing urban food environments: The case of Hanoi (Vietnam)", by Denis Sautier, CIRAD

40 / 84

Agropolis International

Local participative governance of food policies : lessons and international projections

With growing awareness of citizens about the limits of our food systems in relation to the three dimensions of sustainable development, a number of innovative initiatives arise from various stakeholders of the food system. To achieve a real transition to sustainable food systems, with a significant impact, virtuous initiatives must spread and be adopted and adapted in different contexts. This scaling-up requires a geographical or "horizontal" transfer, with the concept circulating from one place to another; but also a "vertical" transfer, meaning that actors involved upstream and downstream must be ready to receive innovation. Networks play a key role in horizontal transfer, i.e. the dissemination of ideas, models and lessons learned from their implementation, in order to adapt them to others contexts. While public policies and multi-stakeholder platforms play a vital role in vertical transfer, by creating an enabling environment for the feasibility and acceptance of innovations. Agropolis International organised a session to share various experiences and analyses of networking (from the local to the international level), enabling policies and multi-stakeholder dialogue: Elodie VALETTE, researcher at Cirad, presented the URBAL project – a participatory multi-stakeholder evaluation of the impact of urban food innovations on sustainability; Jean-Claude LEMASSON, vice-president of Nantes métropole and mayor of the city of Saint-Aignan de Grand Lieu talked about the Terres en villes network of French cities, of which is the co-chair; Jorge MOLERO spoke about the Network of cities for agroecology in Spain of which he is the Secretary; while Marijke DIJKSHOORN, researcher at Wageningen University, shared her experience in supporting multi-stakeholder processes. In conclusion, the combination of a rich network of stakeholders, supported by an enabling environment, sharing ideas through networks, is conducive to innovation and change.

41 / 84

42 / 84

La Nuit de l’Alimentation «NGO, Research Institutions, Cities: how can

they cooperate for a sustainable food source?»

The day for the general public concluded when the Hôtel de Ville in Montpellier gathered the general public and the international delegations to celebrate the Nuit de l’Alimentation. The representative of a large, international non-governmental organisation, a special envoy from the UN and the president of an important international research organisation took to the stage to discuss their perspectives.

Excerpts

Patrick Caron, President of Agropolis International, Chair of the United Nations High-Level Panel on World Food Security, Vice-Dean of the University of Montpellier

Research can serve several functions to support the creation of sustainable food systems: it enables the development of solutions and technologies, within the constraints of ethical considerations.

43 / 84

It also enables the deployment of scientific measurement tools, such as carbon footprints. It also offers the chance to imagine future prospects by being able to notice trends according to different scenarios, to identify priorities for action and estimate the costs, and finally to involve scientists in the decision-making processes.

3,000 researchers are working on the relationship between food, agriculture and health in the city of Montpellier. This is extraordinary, and to be able to be part of this adventure today is truly great.

David Nabarro, medical doctor and diplomat, Special Envoy of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Climate Change, co-facilitator of the working group on nature-based solutions for the UN Climate Summit

In September, the second Climate Summit was held within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly, bringing together all Member States, including those that are not signatories to the Paris Agreement. It was a very important Summit, during which Antonio Guterres set the tone: raising ambitions. Something crucial happened because it was also the first time that a Youth Climate Summit was celebrated, attended by women and men under 25 years of age. For this reason, this meeting was unlike any other. Young people discussed the inadequacy of current action and the urgent need for governments to act in order to meet the current challenges. And this pressure from young people is gradually pushing governments to change.

44 / 84

Food is a crucial climate and health issue. It is vital for cities to exchange ideas and encourage each other to move forward, inspired by each other.

Doctors have realised that a third of all deaths in the world can be linked to people’s diets. That's a big change from 30 years ago. Diabetes, obesity and malnutrition have become a real epidemic. And the cost of the diseases caused by diet is in the billions. In the last 10 years, we have realised that the way we produce our food is destroying water tables, reducing biodiversity and affecting terrestrial and ocean ecosystems. In the last decade more and more farmers have taken their own lives crushed by debt and hard work. In the last ten years, we have learned that food contributes to nearly one-third of greenhouse gas emissions.

We all know that the food systems we have today must change and that it will be the responsibility of national and local leaders to lead that change. This will require constant debate, generate terrible disagreements and unleash great passions. But you will be and already are the main stakeholders.

It’s most important to support the people we are asking to change. We mustn’t leave them alone. We mustn’t ignore their anxiety. We must walk with them. Because some

Reyes Tirado, Scientific Director at Greenpeace International, Ph.D. in Biology, University of Seville and Drylands Experimental Station in Almería, Spain, Stanford and Berkeley Universities, USA.

NGOs are helping us to accept the idea that we need to review our model. There are several lessons to be learned from the analysis of our food model, some impacts are more important than others. The industrial impact of overproduction of meat, for example, is considerable when we consider the issue of climate change. Of course, meat production cannot be suspended, it is a question of consuming less and in a better way. Eating less meat will also benefit our health. This means working with farmers to find ways to improve production so that it benefits all communities, at a time when we don’t have equal resources, for example in terms of access to water. Scientific research points in this direction, we must improve livestock production and one of the solutions is to consume less but in a better way.

We must give much more importance and value to food in general and give more value to the work of farmers in particular.

Patrick Caron

This is an excellent example of a subject that until now has been taboo and is now the subject of debate in our societies. It cannot be summed up as a "must or must not" issue. There is a tendency to hide behind the complexity of the subject, but science makes it possible to go beyond that. In some cases, animal husbandry has virtues in terms of maintaining the quality of soil, and in some parts of the world meat consumption is too low.

45 / 84

The challenge is therefore to understand what is at stake in each context: intensive farming in a context of over-consumption is obviously not the same as extensive farming with balanced consumption of meat.

Intervention by the Mayor of Kitwe in Zambia "Industrialisation is perceived as positive because it creates jobs and increases GDP. How can we find a balance between the demands of our national government in favour of industrialisation and the new development scenario presented to us here?"

David Nabarro

In future, we must find a balance between the consumption of available natural resources and their regeneration. When I was the UN special envoy I held talks with leaders of the African Union or of nations such as yours. I was able to see that there is an awareness and that these two points of view are no longer considered incompatible.

Finally, I would like to say that cities have enormous power. Governments listen to cities more than they listen to anyone else. That is why the Milan Pact is so important: you have the power to change many things.

46 / 84

UN Agencies in Action

On the strength of shared projects and synergies, four UN bodies met at the round table "UN Agencies in Action" to compare their points of view: Marcela Villarreal, Director of the Partnerships Department of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Remy Sietchiping, Director of the Regional and Metropolitan Planning Unit of UN-Habitat, Simona Seravesi, Representative of the Nutrition Department of the World Health Organization (WHO-FAO) and Marina Bortoletti, Programme Officer for UNEP, United Nations Environment Programme. This is a chance to remember the desire for greater collaboration between these UN bodies and local governments to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Although the UN is, in essence, "a coalition of national governments", Marcela Villarreal (FAO) insists on the need for greater collaboration between the UN and local governments, allowing programmes and projects at varied and complementary scales to be presented.

Already involved in more local action programmes, Rémy Sietschiping (UN-Habitat) recalls the liaison work that exists between urban and rural territories, and the ever-growing need for collaboration between the UN agencies themselves in order to be able to propose comprehensive frameworks to decision-makers and policy-makers.

Returning to the Decade of Nutrition and its platform for action and interstate reflection, Simona Seravesi (WHO-FAO) continued by stressing that the modalities of action and technical support proposed to central governments are entirely adaptable to a more local context. Through work guides, training and other frameworks for action, the agencies represented show their burgeoning commitment to cities and their ability to bring together and put into contact different representatives of local authorities around projects or during workshops.

47 / 84

Marina Bortoletti announced that UNEP has just been mandated to work alongside local governments, particularly on the issue of food waste management.

The meeting of UN agencies dedicated to agriculture and health and housing, to the human planning and the environment is the indicator of the mainstreaming of the issues to do with sustainable food. Marcela Villarreal insists on the need to work in a non-sectorial way but rather by themes, she underlines the ability of local governments to create the necessary synergy to create global projects gathering all stakeholders. She stresses that cities hold a favourable position to be able to push central governments into action. Remy Sietchiping reminds us of the central role played by cities in innovation when it comes to public policies and encourages them to continue with their actions at varied scales in order to multiply their effects. UN agencies have «a lot to learn from cities » and must, according to Marina Bortoletti, recognize their central role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Due to a question from Mr. Francisco Durañona, Mayor of San Antonio de Areco in Argentina, on the tangible programmes and subsidy funds that the UN agencies intend to set up with local governments, Marina Bortoletti stressed the difficulty of allocating funding to local governments when the agencies themselves depend on state financial participation. However, although their privileged stakeholders are central governments, Simona Seravesi reminded us that the implementation of certain targeted programmes, such as the WHO programmes for school canteens, make it possible to bring the UN closer to cities and rural areas. Remy Sietchiping insists on the role of facilitator and connector that can be played by UN agencies, present in many cities around the world. Finally, Marcela Villarreal talked about funding possibilities by explaining that there are two types of UN bodies: agencies intended to provide technical support to governments (such as the FAO) and grant funds (such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD). In this case, the role of the FAO is to support local policy decision-makers so that they can develop projects that can have access to these funds.

Demonstrating the ever-growing need for closer ties between the UN agencies themselves, but also for the recognition of cities and rural territories as stakeholders to be given priority in the implementation of SDGs, this round table of UN agencies is intended to be a cornerstone in the development of cross-cutting and multi-scalar cooperation programmes in collaboration with local governments.

48 / 84

Dr. Muhammad Yunus « Banker to the poor » Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus shared an economic and financial perspective of food systems through his experience

It was following a major famine in Bangladesh in the 1970s that the economics professor became interested in agronomy. His research then focused on the difficulties faced by poor farmers in a Bangladeshi village, Jobra, which inspired him to create the Grameen Bank, the world's first microcredit institution. The plots of village farmers were so small that they could not access financing from banks, since they were not worth enough to secure a loan. As for the local loan sharks, their high interest rates led the farmers into a vicious circle of financial dependence. By creating a micro-loan of a few dollars, Muhammad Yunus made it possible to satisfy the immediate material needs of farmers, who are then able to repay their micro-loan. Now known as a true financial institution, the Grameen Bank has enabled 130 million people around the world to benefit from micro-credits since 2009, in a wide range of fields.

49 / 84

“I am absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to meet the entire world gathered here today.”

This gives me the opportunity to share my experience with you, because it coincides with the issues discussed here today. All my experiences bring me back to one thing: the famine in Bangladesh. In 1974, the famine was terrible. Almost 100,000 people died in a few years. Those who survived saw their life expectancy drop, their living conditions and their health deteriorate. That was when I was pushed to do something that I never thought I would do. Famine in Bangladesh is not news, it is also happening in other countries with all the terrible tragedies that go with it. There are many studies on the issue. Findings emerge each time. In the majority of cases of famine, there is no shortage of food. But people cannot feed themselves because they cannot afford it. Food is on the shelves of shops, but they cannot buy it.

In 1971, Bangladesh became an independent country and split from Pakistan. In 1974, I came back from the United States where I was a professor of economics, I wanted to see if I could be of some help in Bangladesh. I had no idea that I was going to arrive in the midst of a famine. As the famine progressed, people around me were dying. That shocked me. And I was wondering about the economy. If the economy is so good, why are people dying around me? How can someone who had studied the economy as deeply as I had, have no idea how to help people? I started going to nearby villages. After months and months of work, I understood how peasants are gradually dispossessed of small amounts of money, which accumulate as they become victims of ill-intentioned loan sharks. That's when I started to lend money from my own personal funds. It was not a bank, rather just helping people to achieve what they wanted so they could work. The system was started in 1986 and became a bank in 1993. Gradually, the lending system grew and became threatening to the banks. The other banks said I couldn't do it, I told them I could. They told me it wouldn't last. I began to question the banking system, which only lends to those who already have a lot of money. They don't lend to those who need it. I told them they were wrong. We first should lend to those who don't have money before lending to those who do. Of course the banks did not care about that. I began to say that this should be a human right. Because the banking system leaves out half of the world's population. Leaving 4 billion people out and saying we're a banking system is not right. It's our responsibility.

Even if people are poor, the right to food, to energy, and to work are fundamental rights... Before establishing the right to food, the right to energy, the right to health, your responsibility is to establish the right to credit. As soon as you establish the right to credit, the person can get back to life, and be active. Credit is like economic oxygen. If you have no oxygen, you can't breathe, you collapse, you lose your abilities. That's what happens when people don't have money in their hand, when they don’t have credit.

Credit is like financial oxygen, those who are hungry cannot satisfy their hunger when they don't have any credit. As soon as they are connected to financial oxygen, they become active and creative. People forget that the poor are quite capable. Poverty is not created by the poor. Poverty is created by the system we have established. We have created a system where the mission of institutions is not to help others but to generate money for themselves. You have to create institutions that help people, and credit is one of them. Today I can say with complete confidence, that in Bangladesh, famine is now ancient history, there will be no more famine. Because this has

50 / 84

transformed the whole of society. You mentioned 8.5 million borrowers today, it will soon go to 9 million and rising. We work in every village in Bangladesh, no poor family is left out of our system. The main beneficiaries of our system are women. They are the ones who suffer the most from famine. When famine starts in an area, the men leave and leave their families behind. They take care of themselves. Mothers stay with their children, they do not abandon them and they face their fate together. Famine offers them the chance to become the best fighters. That's what happened when we brought credit to them. 97% of the 9 million borrowers are women. This has transformed Bangladesh and many other countries.

When it comes to food, it's not something you have to give them directly. You have to give people the ability to get it on their own. There is no shortage of food, there is a lack of means to buy it or produce it.

This is one of the issues I wanted to mention to you.

The second question I wanted to address, as you are all Mayors of major cities around the world, is this: where do the newcomers to your cities come from? From rural areas. They see it as an opportunity to improve their lives. And if they think they can find something better in a bigger city, they go there, all the way to the capital. It's the displacement of people from rural areas to small towns to megacities. What motivates them to leave? Frustration is one of the reasons, I don't have enough where I live, there are more opportunities elsewhere for me and my family. Many countries are experiencing this situation, I am sure many of you are aware of it: villages are becoming empty. It is a recurring problem for villages. Only the elderly live in the countryside. It is the same in China. It is the same in many countries. And generally speaking, people leave their country to go to countries they think are more appropriate. What is the reason for this? Poverty is not created by the poor, poverty is created by the system that has been devised and which generates huge disparities. 1% of the world's population owns 99% of the world's wealth. 99% of the rest of the population has to make do with what is left. I like to mention this example. When you have a healthy body, the blood flows well. But in our case, we have a body where the blood is concentrated in one little finger. It is a sick body. A few lucky nations, a dozen countries, and a few people in those countries have great advantages. It's enthralling, the rest of the population wants to join them. It's called migration. And immigration is not going to go away, it is going to become more and more prevalent.

Because the concentration of wealth is becoming more and more pressing, every day, every moment that passes. 26 people in the world hold more than the wealth held by half the world's population. We know their names. They're not bad people: Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, you name it, there are only 26 of them. Together they hold more than half of the world's wealth. When money is scarce, there is a shortage of food, of everything. We have to rebuild the whole system.

Finally, there is the issue of the environment. The food issue is directly related to it. It is not a stand-alone issue. We have produced a lot through agriculture, but we are damaging the planet at the same time. Agriculture has used fertilizers and pesticides, insecticides, you know all that, I don't need to say it. Every step of the way, it harms the health of people and the environment.

What is food? Cereals? Grain to feed the livestock to feed us? To produce grain, we destroy the forest. We could see the Amazon fires on every TV station in the world. How

51 / 84

helpless we are to have to watch our rainforests burn down without being able to do anything, when one of the causes is deforestation to grow crops. People are wrong. Whole sections of the economy are turned towards profit maximisation as if human beings were born to maximise profit. That's not what humans are for. Humans are not born centred on themselves, contrary to what the economy has shown us. If you stay centered on yourself, yes, you harm what is around you because you no longer see it, it is replaced by the dollar sign. You have to take the blinkers off. Something new is coming. We've created an economy that's designed to provide solutions to our problems: health, education, sanitation, housing, clean energy. We are taking away the possibility of creating money for ourselves and we are creating a social economy. The economy is our problem. We are not necessarily selfish beings, we are not motivated only by self-interest, as the economy has shown. The interest must be collective. If you go to the supermarket, there is no collective interest, you only see what your money can buy.

Is it necessary to raise livestock? Is it necessary to grow tons and tons of food, with which we could feed ourselves but which feeds the livestock and can destroy the planet in the process? Supermarkets are full of unhealthy food, produced in unhealthy conditions. Food is not just what we perceive directly, we need to go deeper in order to understand how it was produced. Safeguarding the planet and the well-being of people depends on it.

We must change the system for the one we are dreaming of, otherwise we have no future. Either the environment will destroy us in 30 or 40 years’ time, or the concentration of wealth will do away with us in 30 or 40 years’ time. Or food will destroy us. This is a challenge for all of us. We need to wake up and become leaders for this world, rather than losers.

Thank you very much. »

52 / 84

53 / 84

PART 4

Summit teachings: when research and the cities’

experiences converge

A simple analysis

54 / 84

Thematic sessions that covered all 17 UN SDGs

To guide the exchanges with regards to the sharing of field experiences and solutions that have worked, the thematic sessions allowed us to study the food policies with regards to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. For each theme, an expert of the field and a city that has developed a good practice have offered us a presentation followed by a Q&A session between the international delegations and the participants in order to have deeper discussions. Presentation videos will be soon available in the Milan Pact official website. Sustainable food diets and nutrition Excerpts of exchanges between participants from Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), United States (New York City), Zambia and Spain (Seville). In terms of the sustainability of food systems, the delegate from Rio stressed the potential conflicts that may exist over access to land, leading to costly imports of products from far away. The delegate from Seville went on to discuss the nutritional angle and demonstrated that the priority is to define what constitutes a good diet: a dietary guideline adapted to local contexts is thus essential. It was noted that balanced diets required local production, and therefore a more diversified food supply, combined with good information for the population, which meant integrating food policy with other policies, such as education, for example. This can help to bridge the gap between what people want to eat and what is good for their health. Moreover, there is sometimes no platform bringing all the stakeholders together in a food policy drafting (farmers, dieticians, shopkeepers, etc.) that would allow for a better dialogue between the different stakeholders. For cities in Africa, the delegate from a city in Zambia noted the need to change the culture and convince people to put aside their preconceived ideas that local food is no good. It is difficult for producers to diversify and find a market for their products. The Milan Pact can help facilitate this link between the local and the national. Finally, the delegate from New York City noted that people's consumption choices are changing: how can we influence shops and distributors to keep up with these changes? What is the position of delivery and e-commerce services in Western cities when it comes to accompanying these changes?

55 / 84

Sustainable diets and nutrition Excerpts of exchanges between participants from Montpellier (France), Brussels (Belgium), Nairobi (Kenya), Maputo (Mozambique) and the WHO-FAO Consuming local products is not enough, they must also be of good quality. Food that is local but comes from agriculture that uses pesticides will not be fully sustainable or healthy. The challenge is to extend agro-ecological practices and limit the use of pesticides, an idea defended by a delegate from Montpellier. Another issue, identified by a delegate from Brussels, is the proximity of inhabitants to the places where food is produced. The development of urban agriculture and education with regards to this, can be part of the answer. A delegate from Nairobi raised the question of child malnutrition, the solution to which - cooking at home - takes time in a context where the population does not have any extra time because of work constraints. It is therefore also an issue of inequality that must be taken into account: to cook and for children to have nutritionally good food takes time and therefore requires having more reasonable working hours. This is demonstrated especially by the "Animal Sauce Food" study conducted by the Urban Agriculture Research in Kenya. Finally, a delegate from Maputo pointed out that another issue is food distribution (there are one million people living in Maputo).

56 / 84

Distribution can be analysed in both formal and informal markets: food security depends on good supply and price stability. On the other hand, the education of citizens regarding food must be reinforced, both in the productive sector, in order to limit the use of pesticides that generate long-term diseases, and in the education sector, to inform consumers about the nutritional value of their meals. Climate Change Excerpts of exchanges between participants from Adelaide (Australia), Shanghai (China), Manchester (UK) and Montpellier (France) To introduce the exchanges, a question is put to all participants: What does climate change make you think of? There were many answers: the problems it represents for my community, the issues of "will Shanghai still exist in the future?", denial, the urgency to act, or the difficult pollinization of plants. All sectors are affected by climate change and require policies to initiate their transition, particularly through incentives. For example, agriculture emits gases due to intensive livestock farming and the use of pesticides, but farmers need financial support to change these practices. The mass distribution sector does not take small producers sufficiently into account; they need to be encouraged to do more. Besides the sectors of activity, the culture of the consumer needs to change, because consumption is oriented towards what is simplest, most affordable and most attractive. Offering responsible alternatives will enable consumers to adopt them: for example, to make good food more accessible or with a simplified sorting system for waste. One of the solutions is also to offer healthy, organically produced meals in school canteens at an affordable price. It is crucial to have accurate information for citizens and support for the transition of all sectors. Beyond consumers and citizens, it is also the political culture that needs to change by educating governments on the causes and consequences of climate change, so that they can make sound decisions.

57 / 84

Land and urban planning

Excerpts of exchanges between participants from Turin (Italy), Montpellier (France), UN-Habitat and FAO.

Land zoning is the first solution to identify and revitalize wasteland, for example by renting the land to farmers. The protection of agricultural land must be supported by the struggle against urban sprawl, which necessarily involves the densification of cities and the control of urbanization in order to concentrate it rather than allowing it to spread.

There is an important source of agricultural wasteland. The issue is to know who owns the plots and what urban planning tools are available to organize agricultural land.

Mountainous regions have a particular problem, since they have scarce agricultural land that specialises in meeting the demand for food products instead of moving towards food autonomy in the surrounding area. Interactions between territories also make it possible to sell surplus products: the territory must be thought of in a wider scale. This is the idea defended by the delegate from Turin.

Remy Sietchiping, Director of the Regional and Metropolitan Planning Unit of the Urban Planning Department within UN-Habitat, posits the idea of an "ecological continuum" policy that links the rural to the urban landscape, with an emphasis on the peri-urban.

58 / 84

An integrated and proximity economy solves a large part of the problem by producing food close to home, reducing the territorial divide by bringing rural and peri-urban producers closer to cities, creating jobs in markets and seeking food autonomy.

Social and economic equity Excerpts of exchanges between participants from Canada, from Qardho (Somalia), Funchal (Portugal), Adelaide (Australia), Wegeningen (Holland) and Zurich (Switzerland) Women have an important role to play in domestic work, these taks can be linked to food but they are not properly valued. It’s possible to create policies to favor women’s tasks outside the home and that correspond to the local culture (for example, a women’s market) and on the other hand for us to review our public policies in order to value domestic work properly. When it comes to food security for the people, small gardens agriculture or public spaces gardening close to school canteens is an important element. The equity in producers’ revenue is another challenge: an efficient solution is to create producers networks in order to share equipment, to facilitate access to markets and to favour the training of young agricultural producers. The access to land is also a key condition for farmers in order to adopt sustainable practices, especially because the rotation of crops demand more land. There are partnership models that allow the producers to have access to public and private land, but this model requires facilitation from public policies. Access to water is also an issue because it determines the ability to produce. In summary, the sharing of knowledge and creativity to come up with new solutions is crucial.

59 / 84

Climate change

Excerpts from exchanges between participants from United Kingdom, Warsaw (Poland), Paris, Lille, Toulouse and Rennes (France).

The part food plays when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions is significant. The City of Paris created a climate plan in 2018 which draws up a carbon balance for school canteens, with the awareness of the impact of over-consumption of beef. In addition, the city has noted that the different farming methods between South America and France translate into a lower carbon impact for meat even though it has to cross the Atlantic. One of the solutions deployed to minimise the carbon footprint of school canteens is to serve two vegetarian meals a month. Many other French cities have also followed suit.

On the other hand, the small ring road corresponding to the old railway line is used for food production, particularly in the social and solidarity economy sector. The organic farming label cannot be awarded here because it deals with above-ground or cellar growing crops (mushrooms), but there is still a demand for quality. Ultimately, the city buys land and helps farmers to ensure water is better protected.

In Toulouse, the public agricultural management programme has converted to organic farming to limit the impact on climate, this allows to supply part of the school canteen demand through local production.

60 / 84

The technical segment of FAO

In 2015, Giuliano Pisapia, the Mayor of Milan, met the General Director of the FAO to ask him to become a partner in the Milan Pact. Marcela Villarreal, director of partnerships of the FAO, stated that the idea of having a framework of indicators to follow the activities of the Pact was present from the beginning in order to assess the efficacy of the actions taken by the network of cities and to see how they contributed to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Guido Santini, technical advisor and coordinator of the «urban food» programme, FAO

Together with the FAO and the RUAF Foundation, the Milan Pact has established a follow-up framework to assess the progress that cities have made in establishing more sustainable food systems.

The main goal of this follow-up framework is to facilitate the drafting of policies and initiatives creating assessment spreasheets, identifying the priorities that must be put into action, defining the goals and ensuring a follow-up of the progress achieved. It’s also in order to mobilize internal and external resources for the good of food policy of the city and in order to communicate and share its experience with other cities.

61 / 84

The goal is to develop adapted indicators and an implementation guide so that cities can collate data. Before expanding this programme, pilot cities have been selected to check the viability of the follow-up process.

15 cities have been selected : Antananrivo (Magadascar), Austin, Washington, DC and West Sacramento (USA), Copenhagen (Denmark), Ede (Holland), Funchal (Portugal), Gand (Belgium), Milan (Italy), Quito (Ecuador), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Tirana (Albania), Toronto (Canada), Windhoek (Namibia), Nairobi (Kenya)

he data collected is both quantitative (tons, number) and qualitative (existing policies, governance) in six areas: governance, food production, food supply and distribution, food waste, social and economic equity, and healthy and sustainable diets. The idea is to obtain a holistic picture with 44 interrelated indicators.

Explanations accompany each of the indicators to show how they work. Finally, the Milan Pact recommends voluntary actions to improve urban food systems.

FAO's support consists of a series of webinars, training sessions at FAO headquarters and local workshops during which each city develops a plan of indicators adapted to their local context.

To select the cities, several criteria are used: an initial commitment to the development of the indicators, a willingness to allocate human and financial resources to their food policy, an ability to exchange views in English and to mobilize local stakeholders quickly. A final criteria is the similarity between projects proposed by certain cities to allow for exchanges.

Presentation of Antananarivo in Madagascar by Tokiana Rakotonirainy, the city's project officer Before becoming a signatory to the Milan Pact, Antananarivo had developed urban agricultural projects but did not have a cross-sectional food policy. The goal was to boost existing projects through a monitoring framework and to create a working team composed of stakeholders from several city departments and external stakeholders such as civil society, NGOs and institutions. The main result was the constitution of a Food Policy Council. To select the indicators, the city used the following three criteria:

- Evaluation: the ability of the indicators to provide direct information on the effectiveness of existing actions,

- Accountability: to increase and preserve access to data within the City Council,

- Resources: evaluation of the efficiency of existing actions and analysis of external resources that can be mobilised for future actions (low-cost strategy).

62 / 84

The indicators chosen by the city are listed above and adapted to the local context.

In defining its indicators, the city has learned several lessons:

- Improved coordination between the different departments and stakeholders, in particular through the Food Policy Council,

- Identifying a priority: nutrition

- The need to move from data collection to project management,

- The importance of exchanges at local, regional and international levels (in particular with Nairobi, Quito and Milan).

Several risks have also been identified that could hinder the successful implementation of food policy: political risk (upcoming elections and dependence on the central government), lack of resources, lack of coordination and finally the possible lack of interest of the population, which is facing other difficulties deemed to be of higher priority.

63 / 84

Winfred A. Katumo’s presentation, Nairobi, Kenya The choice of indicators is focused on: the establishment of a food policy, nutrition for young children, children's milk intake at school, the presence of policies promoting urban food production, the number of local producers (17,491 producers), the consumption of fruit and vegetables according to the economic and social situation of the population, the presence of municipal laws ensuring food safety, the collection of organic waste and the prevention of food wastage. The indicators were selected on the basis of data availability and to be able to take swift and effective action to improve Nairobi's food policy.

The lessons learned from the indicators are as follows:

- Nairobi City County is implementing the Milan Pact correctly,

- Some of the actions have resulted from government measures, while others have been carried out through the establishment of the Milan Pact monitoring framework,

- Some actions have worked well, while others need to be reassessed,

- Institutionalizing the indicators will ensure the operational nature of food policy monitoring.

The main challenge faced by the city was the low number of stakeholders within the municipality or external stakeholders who were aware of the Milan Pact. In this sense, the project raised awareness among 40 government officials and 50 stakeholders. Limited resources may also have been a problem, but the support of FAO and the RUAF Foundation helped to overcome this.

Thanks to this indicator-based work, the city was able to create better collaboration between the different sectors of the food systems (production, processing, distribution, etc.).

Alexandra Rodríguez Dueñas, Quito, Ecuador

The choice of indicators focused on the presence of a multi-partner food policy, actions in favour of more sustainable diets, the number of actions or campaigns to reduce food wastage and the volume of food surplus re-distributed for consumption. The indicators were chosen for the following reasons:

- They provided added value compared to the agri-food strategy already deployed in Quito,

- They were considered a priority for stakeholders,

- They raised awareness about the right to access food,

- They were the starting point for solving problems that the city had never worked on before,

- They made it possible to move forward on other indicators, especially health,

64 / 84

- They invite innovation and ethical questioning,

- They make actions that had already been carried out but which lacked impact by not sufficiently reaching their target more visible.

Together with obtaining data, the project also allowed a conceptual redefinition of the indicators. For example, the issue of sustainable diets, linked to that of the environment and food production in the sociological and geographical context where Quito is located in the Andean region. The indicators made it possible to better analyse the practices of the city of Quito by producing data and knowledge. To refine the analysis, sub-indicators and a regular evaluation of their progress were established. As a result of the project, the city of Quito has learned several lessons:

- The population has taken ownership of some initiatives but no data has been collected to measure their effectiveness,

- The limitations of some national and local measures were revealed by the indicators on sustainable diet and food wastage.

- The indicators have helped to identify areas where the city needs to focus its efforts,

- Now the stakeholders and persons-resources have been well identified, as well as their know-how, convictions and priorities,

- Sometimes it is not useful to focus on existing data, it may be more interesting to create new data.

- The main challenges faced by the city of Quito were the following:

- Drawing the attention of local government authorities to food policy and the need to focus on governance, sustainable diets and food waste.

- The city had to set up an institutionalised system to collect and transmit quality data,

- In order for all actors to participate, certain issues need to be addressed in an open way,

- All data must be analysed in the context of the overall food system,

- A lack of ownership on the part of the actors is often due to incomplete information and a lack of knowledge of the subject,

- Adopting a systems approach allows for a more complete analysis.

Through the project, the city has benefitted from the increased participation of civil society, the private sector, small producers and different levels of government in the governance bodies. The project was also able to uncover problems that had been overlooked, thanks to a comprehensive approach that goes beyond simple data collection and takes stakeholders to task in order to drive them towards more responsible behaviour.

65 / 84

Press review Selected pieces

66 / 84

67 / 84

68 / 84

69 / 84

70 / 84

71 / 84

72 / 84

73 / 84

74 / 84

75 / 84

76 / 84

77 / 84

78 / 84

79 / 84

80 / 84

81 / 84

82 / 84

83 / 84

84 / 84

85 / 84

86 / 84

87 / 84

88 / 84

89 / 84