RUAF FOUNDATION

The RUAF Foundation is an international network of six regional resource centres and one global resource centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security. In 1996 the international Support Group on Urban Agriculture (SGUA) took the initiative to set up a Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF), in response to the expressed need of organisations and local governments in the South for effective mechanisms for the documentation and exchange of research data and practical experiences on urban agriculture. In the following years RUAF gradually evolved into an international network of regional resource centres providing training, technical support and policy advice to local and national governments, producer organizations, NGO’s and other local stakeholders. In March 2005 the RUAF partners established the RUAF Foundation as their joint administrative body and liaison office. RUAF focuses its activities mainly in 20 cities, where RUAF closely cooperates with the local government, producer organisations, NGO’s, universities and private enterprises.

 

MISSION

The mission of the RUAF Foundation is “to contribute to urban poverty reduction, employment generation and food security and to stimulate participatory city governance and improved urban environmental management, by creating enabling conditions for empowerment of male and female urban and peri-urban farmers, capacity development of local authorities and other stakeholders and by facilitating the integration of urban agriculture in gender-sensitive policies and action programmes of local governments, civic society organisations and private enterprises with active involvement of the urban farmers, livestock keepers and other relevant stakeholders”

SPECIAL THEMES

RUAF partners give special attention to the following themes:

• Urban agriculture, local economic development and poverty alleviation
• Urban agriculture, food security and nutrition (also in relation to HIV-AIDS)
• Integration of urban agriculture in land use planning and design
• Reuse of urban organic wastes and wastewater in urban agriculture
• Participatory technology development and innovation of urban farming and marketing systems
• Mainstreaming of gender in urban agriculture
• Monitoring of the impacts of urban agriculture policies and programmes

ACTIVITIES

In accordance with its mission the RUAF Foundation is implementing the following activities in the context of its “Cities Farming for the Future” and “From Seed to Table” programmes:

• Supporting local policy formulation and action planning on urban agriculture by facilitating the establishment of Multi-Stakeholder Platforms on Urban Agriculture and Food Security and guiding participatory processes of policy formulation and action planning in several cities.
• Training of trainers and training of senior and mid level staff of local government departments, producer organisations, NGO’s and other support organisations in order to enhance local capacities regarding sustainable urban agriculture development.
• Design and implementation of innovative and farmer-led “From Seed to Table” projects leading to more sustainable urban farming systems, income generation, improved food security and nutrition, social inclusion of disadvantaged groups and enhanced recycling of urban organic wastes.
• Empowerment of urban producer organisations.
• Implementation of studies in various areas such as local funding mechanisms for urban agriculture, safe re-use of wastewater in urban agriculture, micro-enterprise development and marketing for urban agriculture, a.o.
• Systematisation of experiences and preparation and publication of working papers, policy briefs, fact sheets, “good practices”, guidelines and manuals.
• Facilitating networking and access to information by local stakeholders to documented experiences through a web of websites, the maintenance of databases as well as the publication of the Urban Agriculture Magazine in 6 languages (English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic and Portuguese).
• The co-organisation of workshops to facilitate exchange of experiences and debate on critical subjects. Examples are the organization of networking events during the World Urban Forum, the organization of thematic electronic conferences jointly
  with specialised partners, and contributions to national and international policy seminars and debates on urban agriculture and sustainable urban development.
• Curriculum and capacity development programmes on urban agriculture, seeking to incorporate courses on urban agriculture in existing MSc Courses conducted by Southern Universities and in training programmes of other institutions. A series
  of distance learning courses on urban agriculture is being offered in collaboration with Ryerson University (Canada).  

RUAF PARTNER CITIES

RUAF collaborates with the following cities:

Pikine, Dakar (Senegal) Bobo Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) Porto Novo (Benin) Accra (Ghana) Freetown (Sierra Leone) Ibadan (Nigeria)

Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) Cape Town (South Africa) Ndola (Zambia) Villa Maria del Triunfo (Lima, Peru) Belo Horizonte (Brasil) Bogota (Colombia) Serilingampala (Hyderabad, India)

Magadi (Bangalore, India) Gampaha (Sri Lanka) Huairou en Shunyi (Beijing, China) Dujiangyan (Chengdu, China) Minhang (Shanghai, China) Amman (Jordan) Sana’a (Yemen)

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The RUAF Foundation maintains close working relations with various international organisations and programmes that have taken major initiatives on urban agriculture like with IDRC (Urban Poverty and Environment programme), FAO (Food for the Cities Initiative), CGIAR (Urban Harvest Programme), and UNDP/UN Habitat (Sustainable Cities Programme).

RUAF seeks to support local initiatives and to build partnerships with relevant programmes of international, regional, national and local organisations and networks, and pooling of resources in jointly planned actions like the SWITCH Programme (Sustainable Urban Water Management in the “City of the Future”) and SARNISSA programme (Sustainable Aquaculture Research Networks In Sub Saharan Africa).

ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT

The Board of the RUAF Foundation is formed by the Directors of the 7 RUAF partners. The Board defines the mission, vision, general policies and medium term strategies of the RUAF Foundation and approves the annual policy plan and budget of the RUAF Foundation as well as the annual report and annual financial statements.

The Director, Ir. H. de Zeeuw, is responsible for daily management of the Foundation and its programmes.

The International Advisory Panel is advising the Board of the RUAF Foundation on its longer term development focus and strategies.

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

The RUAF Foundation is an international, multi-cultural network in which optimum use is made of the relative strength of each of its partners. The Foundation reaches its decisions through consensus and applies different ways of communication (yearly partner meetings, email-list, visits, capacity development-cum-exchange workshops).

The RUAF network is oriented at delivery of practical and high quality results (demand driven and participatory approach), while remaining flexible and providing room for change and innovation. Leadership and coordination in the programme activities at the different levels is divided among the partners, and supported by institutional and individual capacity building.

The style of planning and decision-making is transparent and participatory which is consistent with the philosophy that involvement of knowledge and experience and commitment are crucial. Herein, professional and collegial consultations based on a clearly felt sense of programme ownership, and two-way communication patterns, prevail over decision-making along strict hierarchical lines.

Internal decision-making is transparent and has a high level of autonomy for the regional programme managers. Internal communication is efficient due to the fact that communication follows the content lines and is direct and flexible. Only for the crucial decisions, the Foundation applies formal procedures (strategic policy decisions, financial decisions, invoicing). The communication with each partner is direct, flexible and tailored to the characteristics of each regional programme.

RUAF PARTNERS

International coordination: ETC-Urban Agriculture Global coordinator RUAF: Ms. Marielle Dubbeling PO Box 64, 3830 AB Leusden, The Netherlands P +31-33-4326039 F +31-33 4940791 E ruaf@etcnl.nl www.etc-urbanagriculture.org & www.ruaf.org Latin America and the Caribbean: IPES (Promoción del Desarrollo Sostenible) Regional coordinator RUAF: Mr. Gunther Merzthal Calle Audiencia 194, San Isidro, Lima 27, Peru P +51-1-440-6099, 421-9722, 421-6684 Ext.110 F +51-1-440-6099, 421-9722, 421-6684 E gunther@ipes.org.pe www.ipes.org/au West-Africa (Francophone): IAGU (Institut Africain de Gestion Urbaine) Regional coordinator RUAF: Mr. Moussa Sy BP 7263, Dakar, Senegal P (221) 33 869 87 00 F (221) 33 827 28 13 E moussa@iagu.org www.iagu.org/RUAF/index.html West-Africa (Anglophone): IWMI-Ghana (International Water Management Institute Sub-regional office West Africa) Regional coordinator RUAF: Ms. Olufunke Cofie PMB CT 112, Accra, Ghana P +233-21-784753 F +233-21-784752 E o.cofie@cgiar.org www.iwmi.cgiar.org/africa/West/projects/RUAFII-CFF.htm

Eastern and Southern Africa: MDP (Municipal Development Partnership) Regional coordinator RUAF: Mr. Takawira Mubvami 7th Floor, Hurudza House 14-16 Nelson Mandela Avenue Harare, Zimbabwe P 263-4-774385 F 263-4-774387 E tmubvami@mdpafrica.org.zw www.mdpafrica.org.zw/ua_cffp South and South East Asia: IWMI-India (International Water Management Institute Regional Office India) Regional coordinator RUAF: Ms. Priyanie Amerasinghe c/o ICRISAT Patancheru AP 502 324, Hyderabad, India P +91-40-3296161 F +91-40-3241239 E p.amerasinghe@cgiar.org www.iwmi.cgiar.org/southasia/ruaf China: IGSNRR (Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences) Regional coordinator RUAF: Mr. Jianming Cai 11A Datun Road, Anwai, 100101 Beijing, China P +86-10- 64889279 F +86-10-64851844 E caijm@igsnrr.ac.cn www.cnruaf.com.cn/ North Africa & Middle East: AUB-ESDU (Environment and Sustainable Development Unit, American University of Beirut) Regional coordinator RUAF: Mr. Ziad Moussa PO Box 11-0236/ AUB, Riad El Solh, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon P + 961-1- 374 374 or 350 000 E zm13@aub.edu.lb / ziadmoussa@yahoo.com www.urbanagriculture-mena.org/

FUNDING SOURCES

Main sources of funding for the programmes implemented by the RUAF Foundation are the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (The Netherlands), the International Development Research Centre (Canada) and the European Union. Other organisations have contributed to specific activities, including CTA, GTZ, SIDA, DSE, FAO, UNDP/UNHABITAT, CGIAR, ACIAR, IWMI, DFID, OXFAM-NOVIB, ICCO, ASC, Misereor, a/o.

CONTACT

Director: Henk de Zeeuw
PO Box 64, 3830 AB Leusden,
The Netherlands
P +31-33-4326039
F +31-33 4940791
E ruaf@etcnl.nl