Ten years ago, ETC Foundation initiated a programme named: “Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Forestry” (RUAF). The RUAF project developed into an international network of 1 global and 7 regional Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security, which in 2004 obtained independent legal status as the RUAF Foundation. In addition to ongoing networking, documentation, awareness raising, and policy lobbying, the RUAF partners, with the start of the "Cities Farming for the Future" programme in 2005, focused on capacity development and support to multi-stakeholder policy development and action planning in urban agriculture in 20 cities, involving local authorities, NGO’s and urban producer organisations in 17 countries.
And since 2009 in the “From Seed to Table programme” this has been broadened with strengthening urban producers organisations and enhancing local capacity in the development of “From Seed to Table” projects with urban producer groups (participatory market analysis to identify consumer demand, group business planning, urban producer field schools, processing / packaging units, direct marketing to consumers interested in ecological products). This work has had important effects on local institutional capacities and enhanced political awareness and important policy change at city and national level.
International recognition of the potential and impacts of urban agriculture for urban food security and nutrition, poverty alleviation, recycling of urban wastes, adaptation to climate change has grown substantially in this decade.

An overview of main RUAF publications to date can be found at the RUAF website (www.ruaf.org) including a number of leading publications like “Growing Cities, Growing Food” (DSE, 2000), “Cities Farming for the Future” (IIRR, 2006), “Women Feeding Cities” (Practical Action, 2008), “Cities, Poverty and Food” (Practical Action, 2010) and 24 thematic issues of the Urban Agriculture Magazine (6 languages, 7000 subscribers).

RUAF will organise a number of activities in 2010 and 2011, to celebrate this anniversary, including a special issue of the Urban Agriculture Magazine.

On 19 and 20 May 2011 the International Conference on Urban Agriculture for resilient cities has been held in Almere, The Netherlands.

Presentations given at the conference can be found below: