ESDU is RUAF 7th center, serving the MENA region

The RUAF “FROM SEEDS TO TABLE” (FSTT) PROGRAM IN THE MENA REGION 2009-2010: Strengthening urban farmers’ organizations and their marketing capacities. 

www.urbanagriculture-mena.org

The RUAF program “From Seed to Table” (FSTT) is a two years extension of the urban agriculture program in the Middle East and North Africa.

The FSTT-program will be the link to the Multi-Stakeholder Process MPAP (Multi-stakeholders Policy Formulation and Action Planning) on urban agriculture that was established during RUAF-CFF program. This participatory and multi-stakeholder approach involves interaction among the wide range of institutions, farmers and organizations to be considered in urban settings.
Since ESDU at the American University of Beirut has started up this approach with two pilot cities (Amman-Jordan and Sanaa-Yemen) and set the ground for it in the dissemination cities (Ariana-Soukra in Tunisia, Jericho and Gaza in Palestine, Baalbeck in Lebanon), it has improved collaboration and coordination with other programs and initiatives. It also secured and improved information flow between different actors in the region in particular among those interested in supporting urban agriculture.

The RUAF-FSTT project builds on the ground that was established during the implementation of the pilot projects since 2005; the main factors that will contribute to the local support to the NGO’s and farmer organizations are:

• The build-up of partnerships and capacities during implementation of the previous program RUAF-CFF in the pilot cities and countries involved;
• The strong emphasis given to capacity development and organizational strengthening (farmer organizations, local support organizations, regional resource centers);
• The emphasis given to local co-financing and enhancing access to local sources of financing for urban agriculture projects to ensure continuity.

ESDU will assist in the coordination of activities for two proposed countries in the MENA region: Jordan and Yemen represented by the cities of Amman and Sana’a respectively.
In each country, two NGO’s, and two farmers’ organizations were chosen for the purpose of strengthening their organizations and their marketing capacities. In addition, the local communities, the urban farmers, some disadvantaged groups and the women were targeted and will benefit largely in a sustainable manner.

The RUAF-FSTT program will contribute to the recognition and enhancement of urban agriculture to alleviate poverty, enhance food security and improve the environment and thus enhances development in the MENA region. The FSTT will have a synergetic effect with other projects hosted by ESDU and relates to food security in the MENA*. The IDRC, RUAF and ESDU activities stirred a great deal of interest in the region and established a base of information on urban agriculture and a base of potential stakeholders and institutions who became potential actors in this field.