FOOD SUPPLY and DISTRIBUTION to CITIES

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FOOD SUPPLYand DISTRIBUTION to CITIES

• Olivio Argenti
• Food and Agriculture Organization
• of the United Nations
• Rome

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• The task of feeding the worlds cities
  adequately constitutes an increasingly pressing
  challenge, requiring the coordinated interaction
  of food producers, transporters, market operators
  and a myriad of retail sellers. It also requires
  constant improvements in the quality of transport
  and distribution systems. Not least, it involves
  a shared understanding among city officials and
  national and international development agencies
  of the common problems and the potential
  solutions faced when seeking to feed cities on a
  sustainable basis
• Jacques Diouf
• Director-General of FAO

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Changing world population
1975 2007
2025
Urban
UN Habitat, 2007
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Years to double urban population
12 Years
Kampala Addis Ababa Nairobi Conakry Mogadishu Dacc
a Khartoum Lagos Yaoundé Abidjan Accra Lahore Ibad
an
20 Years
UN Habitat, 2007
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Urban poverty in selected cities

• Kinshasa - 70
• Kampala - 77
• Chittagong - 78
• Hanoi - 51
• Guatemala - 80
• El Alto - 87

UN Habitat, 2007
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Slum population as a of urban population (2001)
World 31.2
Developing regions 42.7
Transitional countries 10.3
Developed regions 6.0
Sub-Saharan Africa 71.9
Southern Asia 59.0
East Asia 36.4
Latin America and the Caribbean 31.9
Northern Africa 28.2
South-East Asia 28.0
West Asia 25.7
Oceania 24.1
UN Habitat
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Challenge

• Meeting increasing urban food demand,
• reducing import dependence and
• conveying safe and nutritious food
• to consumers at reasonable prices,
• while creating income opportunities
• for youth in particular
• along the food system.

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Implications of urbanization

1. Cities expand where there is space, where it is
   easier, often in an unplanned and unregulated way
2. Urbanisation give rise to fragmented areas and
   ever larger slums with no infrastructure and
   services
3. Uncontrolled urbanization impairs the efficiency
   of local food systems Food Supply and
   Distribution FSD. How?

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STATIC COMMERCIAL FOOD SYSTEM
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COMPLEX FOOD SYSTEMSMEETING URBAN FOOD NEEDS

• Components
• Urban food demand
• Food supply to cities
• Food distribution within cities

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Urban food demand (market dependent)

• Factors determining or shaping UFD
• Urban population
• Income/poverty levels
• Food culture(s)
• Urban territory
• Urban life style(s)
• Ease of accessing food
• .

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Food supply to cities

• Activities to produce and bring food to cities
• Production (urban, peri-urban and urban)
• Sorting/cleaning
• Packaging
• Processing
• Storage
• Transport

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Urban food distribution

• Activities to distribute food within urban areas
• Wholesaling
• Intra-urban transport
• Retailing
• Street food
• Restaurants

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ANALYTICAL CRITERIA

• Efficiency
• Dynamism
• Inclusiveness
• Sustainability
• Resilience

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TOPICS OF SPECIAL IMPORTANCE

• FSD policy design and implementation
• Informal food sector support policies
• Micro-small food youth-led enterprises
  development

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FSD territorial classification

• Regional
• areas on which a city relies for supplies of food
  and water
• Metropolitan
• areas used for peri-urban agriculture, wholesale
  markets, slaughterhouses, city markets, etc.
• Urban
• areas used for urban agriculture, wholesale and
  retail markets, hypermarkets, shopping centers,
  etc
• Local
• all the food retail outlets serving the
  inhabitants of a specific neighborhood

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Some questions for Urban Planners

1. Is the food supply sub-system able to satisfy the
   urban demand for food now and ten years from now?
   
2. Are urban food distribution activities in line
   with future expansion of the urban and
   metropolitan areas?
3. How to accommodate changes in food distribution
   due to expected modifications in food demand and
   purchasing habits?
4. What constraints limit the efficiency of FSDSs,
   particularly in poor urban areas ? How to address
   them?
5. What relations exist between FSDS activities and
   urban management and how do they affect each
   other?

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Role of Urban Planners - Regional

• Conditions for adequate food production and
  supply
• Construct and rehabilitate assembly markets, food
  warehouses, docks, ...
• Infrastructure and transport services
• Communication systems linking rural and urban
  areas
• Sanitary and hygiene conditions and regulations

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Role of Urban Planners - Metropolitan

• Conditions for efficient wholesale distribution
  of food
• Development of wholesale markets and
  slaughterhouses outside urban centers
• Monitoring of food processing standards respect
• Public and private investment
• Environmental impact of wholesale market and
  slaughterhouse activities

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Role of Urban Planners - Urban

• Protect land resource, balancing the need for
  land for cultivation against the demands of
  urbanization
• Urban agriculture on suitable land
• Intra -urban food transport
• Public and private investment retail markets
• Conditions for efficient retail distribution
• Hygienic street food
• Environmental impact of wholesale activities

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Role of Urban Planners - Local

• Conditions to allow food to reach all areas of
  the city at low cost
• Conditions for the development of retail outlets
• Support informal food activity including street
  food
• Conditions to preserve safety of food

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What LAs currently do for FSDSs (1/2)

• Design and implement urban development policies,
  strategies and plans
• Execute development and investment programmes
• Plan and construct markets, loading and unloading
  areas, slaughterhouses, fish docks and transport
  infrastructure
• Develop, maintain and upgrade public
  infrastructure (transport, slaughterhouses,
  markets, ...)

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What LAs currently do for FSDSs (2/2)

• Provide water, toilets, lighting, sewage, waste
  disposal, etc.
• Regulate public land occupancy and construction
• Levy municipal taxes
• Food quality control, food sale points hygiene
• Garbage disposal
• Control of informal food trading activities
• Services training and facilities for market users
• Security around markets

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Constraints faced by LAs

1. Decision makers are not aware of the issues
2. Too many problems ... insufficient resources
3. Increasing responsibilities not matched by
   resources
4. Cumbersome financial disbursement procedures
5. Pressure exerted on the urban space
6. Insufficient and /or inadequate available
   infrastructure
7. Unclear role of municipal agents
8. Insufficient technical staff
9. Inadequate technical skills with respect to FSD
   issues
10. Inadequate interinstitutional co-ordination
11. Inadequate dialogue between LA and private sector

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What LAs should do for FSDSs (1/2)

1. Recognise the importance of an efficient and
   dynamic FSDS
2. Develop an interdisciplinary and dynamic
   understanding of FSDS
3. Integrate FSD aspects into urban management and
   planning policies and programming

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What LAs should do for FSDSs (2/2)

1. Ease access to market places to reduce
   operational costs
2. Adequate facilities for the well functioning of
   markets
3. Monitor formal and informal food processing and
   distribution activities at all levels
4. Promote productive employment in FSD activities
5. Train municipal staff at all levels
6. Promote private sector organizations and dialogue
   with them
7. Promote private investment

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FSD policy definition

• Set of goals, objectives and programmes, set
  within a specified time frame, formulated in
  collaboration with all stakeholders, that guide
  CLAs in the use of resources under their control
  and through private investment to improve access
  by urban households to stable supply of low-cost,
  good quality and safe food through more
  efficient, dynamic, hygienic and environmentally
  sound FSDSs

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FSD policy goal (example)

• Within ten years,
• all urban low-income households in my city
• will have adequate access to
• stable supplies of low-cost good quality and safe
  food, through efficient, dynamic, hygienic and
  environmentally sound FSDSs

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FSD policy why?

• Growing urban areas, poverty and food insecurity
• Need a systemic view of how cities and fed and a
  strategy
• Lack of FSD focus in urban planning
• Misinformed decision makers
• Fragmentation of responsibilities
• Need to account to electorate and Central Govt.
• Limited resources
• Too many problems to solve

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FSD policy objectives

• Economic
• To promote efficient FSDS so as to ensure stable
  low cost food supplies to urban consumers and
  generate food production incentives
• Social
• To minimize food insecurity in poor urban
  households so as to improve equity, reduce social
  disruption and increase productive employment
• Health and environmental
• To eliminate food-related health problems and
  minimize negative impact of FSDS activities on
  the environment

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Role of FAO (1/2)

• Facilitate information and discussion on urban
  food security matters
• Provide normative guidance to members governments
  - and local governments in particular - on
  analyzing challenges to, and identifying
  strategic options for, urban food security in the
  face of expanding urbanization and increasing
  urban poverty levels
• Provide technical assistance to local governments
  in the design of local policies, strategies,
  investments and action plans for improved urban
  food security
• Promote technically sound decentralized
  cooperation among city and local authorities in
  the N-S and S-S contexts to address specific
  issues and constraints

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Role of FAO (2/2)

• Conduct information and sensitization activities
  for decision-makers
• Train technical staff
• Undertake and promote research on selected themes
• Develop and diffuse technical documentation
• Provide technical assistance for
• analysis of local FSDSs
• identification of local constraints and possible
  solutions
• formulation of policies, strategies and
  investment/action plans and programmes.

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Key messages to be taken home

• How well the food demand in your cities is
  satisfied depends on the efficiency and dynamism
  of local FSDSs
• Local Authorities (LAs) can influence costs,
  quality, safety and prices of food products
• LAs need to make decisions on solid technical
  ground
• LAs need to collaborate with other City and Local
  Authorities along FSDSs

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• Thank you
• olivio.argenti_at_fao.org