Introduction
Before starting to plan for Urban Agriculture (UA) development one should first better understand the present state of urban agriculture in the given city. Where is urban agriculture currently taking place or where could it take place, what are the main UA systems found and what are their support needs (see also module 3), who are the main stakeholders that could or should be involved in UA development and what are their needs and opinions (see also module 4), what are the main problems and risks, benefits and potentials for UA development (see also module 5, 6 and 7) , and what are global, regional and local trends potentially influencing UA development in the city (see also module 8 & 9)? This module will briefly explain why and how these above mentioned aspects should be analyzed and how they will contribute to better planning for future urban agriculture development. Additionally, this module, as well as the next one, will provide some tools and techniques for doing so. This week we will deal with institutional framework or actor analysis of urban agriculture, while next week (module 11) we will look into the participatory appraisal of UA farming systems and the direct actors involved in it, their perceptions on the constraints they face and the benefits they draw from UA.
Learning objectives
After completing this module, you will be able to:
Before being able to plan for the development of urban agriculture in a given city, it will be important to better understand the current presence of, problems with and potentials for urban agriculture in that city. The first task in any planning process is thus to define the present state of urban agriculture in the city. This can be done by implementing a situation analysis on urban agriculture.
The situation analysis should help you to answer the following questions:
WHAT?What are the UA systems currently found in the city? What are their main characteristics, development potentials and support needs? Who are the urban farmers, input-suppliers and/or vendors involved and what are their perceptions on the problems they encounter and the potentials for development that they identify? In doing so, the situation analysis should explore issues of gender, age and social inclusion. Only then will it become possible to formulate policies and projects sensitive to gender, youth, the urban poor etc. later on in the process.
Please look back at module 3 where we discussed a general typology of urban farming systems. Tools for participatory rapid appraisal of different UA types will be discussed in the next module.
WHERE?
Where are the various types UA currently undertaken in and around the city? Are there any vacant open spaces where UA could possibly take place? What are their characteristics, accessibility and suitability for UA? This will help thinking about how to enhance access to land for urban agriculture by certain target groups. What are past, current and future changes in land related to (proposed) city expansion? All this information will allow identifying in what areas urban agriculture might be undertaken in a sustainable way.
This component of UA land use mapping will be further discussed in course CVFN 413 (Urban agriculture policy making). Tools for land use mapping will also be dealt with in that specific course.
WHO?
Who are the main institutional (indirect) stakeholders in UA? What are their interests, their perceptions of UA as well as their potential contributions to the development of UA? An analysis of the institutional framework for UA will provide us with an overview of available institutional expertise and resources that can be mobilized for the diagnosis, planning and implementation of UA; a basis to decide what organizations have to be involved in each stage of the process and what their role and contributions might be; and a basis to develop effective communication strategies to motivate these organizations to participate actively in an UA planning and development process.
HOW?
Based on the above, how can urban agriculture best be promoted? How does it contribute to existing policy and planning goals? What types of projects or policies are necessary to promote different types of urban agriculture? To be able to answer these questions, it will also be needed to implement a critical review of existing policies, plans, norms and regulations on urban agriculture. CVFN 413 (Urban agriculture policy making) will discuss how to implement such a policy review as well as explain in detail how to develop action plans and formulate policies on urban agriculture, based on an initial situation analysis.
Summary
In summary, a situation analysis is thus undertaken with the following objectives:
a. To collect existing and some additional qualitative and quantitative information regarding urban and peri-urban agriculture in the city (what, where, who);
b. Which will serve as a basis for:
c. Especially if the situation analysis is implemented in collaboration with a group of local stakeholders it will also function as a means to build up the mutual understanding, dialogue and collaboration between different stakeholders in urban and peri-urban agriculture (various types of urban farmers, food vendors, community organizations, NGO’s, municipal authorities including. urban planners, health authorities, water and waste management authorities, etc.) and to enhance their commitment to participate in concerted planning and actions regarding UA .
Often, an initial situation analysis will be followed in later stages of the planning process by more focused in depth studies of specific problems and potential solutions.
Please Reflect If you want to check your list with a list drawn up by the course instructors, please click here |
In the foregoing section, we have discussed some general components of a situation analysis on urban agriculture as to get better insight into the WHAT (appraisal of UA systems), WHERE (land use mapping), WHO (stakeholder inventory and analysis) and HOW (policy review, identification of development strategies) of urban agriculture. In this section we will look in more detail into the inventory and analysis of indirect or institutional stakeholders in urban agriculture. In other words an analysis of the institutional framework in which UA takes places.
The variety of indirect stakeholders in urban agriculture
A crucial aspect to consider is the wide range of stakeholders encountered in urban settings. Please look back at Module 4 for a description of the different types of indirect stakeholders involved in urban agriculture. These include: National government, Municipal departments, universities/research institutes, extension organisations, credit institutes, marketing boards or water authorities, private enterprises (e.g. inputs supply, super markets, agro-processing industries), NGO’s, community based organizations , environmental organizations, etc. UA is taking place in a multi-sectoral environment and it is easy to miss out some key stakeholders in the process. Effort has to be put into identifying these different stakeholder groups and motivating them to participate in a participatory or collaborative planning process.
Why stakeholder analysis?
We briefly touched upon why stakeholder analysis is important or in other words why we should better understand WHO the indirect stakeholders in urban agriculture are and what roles they are playing/ can play in urban agriculture development.
To summarize, stakeholder analysis is useful since it helps:
In the stakeholder analysis we thus focus on institutions, organizations and networks only. Understanding the perceptions and needs of direct stakeholders and urban farmers will be undertaken in the context of the participatory appraisal of selected urban and peri-urban farming systems (see further Module 11).
The type of indirect stakeholders involved and their level of participation in the planning process will vary depending on local circumstances. In any case, early co-operation between all stakeholders in planning and implementing actions and policies for urban agriculture, and involving them actively in situation analysis, will help prepare and enhance the planning and implementation process.
Analyzing stakeholders as part of a situation analysis
The focus is thus on making a systematic inventory and analysis of all indirect stakeholders that have something to contribute to the development of urban agriculture
Through the stakeholder analysis we would like to find out:
a. Preparations
One or more preparatory meetings should be organized with all staff that will be involved in implementing the stakeholder inventory and analysis in order:
The meeting(s) should result in a methodological document that should describe: main concepts, methodology, instruments used, operational plan/time schedule/commitments, results to be expected.
b. Inventory of all relevant stakeholders
A first list of all indirect stakeholders involved in urban agriculture can be drawn up by reviewing available information from reliable sources (project reports, websites, databases etcetera) as well as interviewing key informants (what other organizations do they know that work in urban agriculture or in related fields like waste management, food supply and marketing etc.).
The list of stakeholders should include at least the following information:
Required reading: Please read &4 and &4.1 of the report on a stakeholder analysis in urban agriculture implemented in Accra, Ghana (2005). A first list of stakeholders in UA was developed for Accra, categorizing these stakeholders in 8 different groups. Please start thinking of the important indirect stakeholders that are or should be involved in urban agriculture in your own city. |
c. Collection of further information on each of the identified stakeholders
Further information on each of the identified stakeholders can be collected through interviews with one or more representatives of each organization included in the list. The person to be interviewed should preferably be of senior rank in that organization and his/her views should represent well the institutional viewpoints.
The collected information is added to the stakeholder table which will result in a short stakeholder profile for each of the organizations
Required reading: Please read &4.2 of the report on a stakeholder analysis in urban agriculture implemented in Accra, Ghana (2005). Please also look at Appendix 4.1. Let us study the stakeholder profiles of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (look at sheet number S2 and the NGO Growth (the first stakeholder mentioned on sheet S9) more specifically. Looking at these profiles: what do you think their role in future urban agriculture development could or should be? |
d. Analysis of the collected information
Once all organizations in the list have been identified and visited, the collected data is analyzed by drawing lessons regarding:
The results of this final analysis could be included in a report on the Stakeholder analysis that will be used as an input to the further planning of urban agriculture development.
Required reading: Please read &4.3 of the report on a stakeholder analysis in urban agriculture implemented in Accra, Ghana (2005). This chapter details how the Accra team analyzed findings of their stakeholder analysis and used this information as a basis for planning. |
Once you really start planning for urban agriculture and start defining possible strategies and interventions, you may come to the conclusion that you will need to involve other and new stakeholders that you had not identified yet during situation analysis, for adequate project design and implementation. You may then need to implement a new stakeholder inventory and analysis.
Required readings:
Optional readings:
References