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:

• Explain the need for situation analysis on urban agriculture.
• Make an inventory of most relevant institutional stakeholders in urban agriculture in any given city.
• Analyze for these stakeholders their mandate, available resources, present actions related to UA, their viewpoints on and interests in UA