Urban Food Resilience under Climate Change Challenges – URBANFOSC

URBANFOSC addresses the triple challenge of achieving food and nutrition security in African (secondary) cities by addressing the interaction between rapid urbanization, climate change and the increased production for international value chains. The project aims to contribute to transformative adaptation strategies that enhance the resilience of urban food systems in connection with climate impacts on agricultural production in the urban hinterlands. The project uses a food systems mapping and modelling approach to identify critical linkages, actor networks and leverage points in urban food systems. Network models allow to understand the cascading impacts of climate change on the urban food system. Using such food system understanding, the project aims to co-design with stakeholders in government, the private sector and civil society, possible interventions and governance processes that contribute to improved urban nutrition and a higher resilience of urban food systems to climate change. Specific attention will be given to the role of international value chains operating in the sourcing regions of urban fresh produce in terms of competition for land and water resources, or as leverage points for new value chains feeding into the urban food system. The consortium will work in 3 African secondary cities that differ in anticipated climate change impacts and types of international value chain interaction. This allows developing a generic approach that has high transferability to other (secondary) cities across Africa. A transdisciplinary approach is chosen in which stakeholders are playing a role throughout the full project life-time and where consortium members provide complementary expertise to address the multi-dimensionality of urban food systems in an integrated manner.