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In Memoriam: Winnie Makumbi
It is with great sadness that that ETC Urban Agriculture and RUAF convey their condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Winnie Makumbi upon her sudden death on March 4.
Winnie was a gentle, gracious and wonderful person. As former member of the Kampala City Council (Uganda) and more recently as the first woman chair of Kampala’s Lubaga Division, Winnie was one of the main inspirators for urban agriculture development in Kampala. “Our bylaws were outdated,” admitted Winnie Makumba. “They failed to recognize that many residents derived their livelihoods from urban farming. We realized it was up to us as political leaders to initiate the policy changes that would support urban farming practices.”
Winnie also tried to support other cities in Africa where possible. She was one of the course instructors for the Anglophone African Course on Urban Agriculture (Nairobi, 2004) and was strongly involved in the organization of an exchange visit between Kampala and Accra-Ghana, on of the RUAF partner cities.
We will always remember Winnie Makumbi for her support and dedication to improving the life of the urban poor.
(Photo: Winnie Makumbi second from the left)
RUAF Update #10 now online
Please check here the latest and previous versions of the RUAF Update.
SARNISSA – Sustainable Aquaculture Research Networks in Sub Saharan Africa
This project, funded by the European Commission (FP7) runs for three years and aims to support sustainable urban, peri-urban and rural aquaculture development through linking professionals in Europe and Sub Saharan Africa and will build on an existing knowledge resource base and exchange platform – The Aquaculture Compendium. SARNISSA is a consortium of 8 project partners mainly from Africa and Europe (Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling (co-ordinator UK), CIRAD (France), World Fish Center (Egypt), CABI (UK), Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand), Bunda College of Agriculture (Malawi), IRAD (Cameroon), and ETC (Netherlands). The project is currently identifying interested individuals and organisations working in the field of urban and rural aquaculture in Africa. A stakeholder database will be compiled allowing for better targeted information exchange and cross-country linkages. Interested stakeholders are invited to send their full contact data to Marielle Dubbeling. For general information on the project please contact: William Leschen at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling-Scotland. Click here to view the latest press release.
Distance Learning Course on Urban Agriculture now also available on the RUAF website
In response to an increasing demand for training in urban agriculture, ETC-Urban Agriculture, RUAF, the Ryerson University’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education and Centre for Studies in Food Security are developing a series of distance education courses on urban agriculture in partnership with. The courses are being offered in two modalities:
1. ACCREDITED (as part of Ryerson University's Continuing Education program):
Due to high demand, second offering:
Understanding Urban Agriculture (CVFN 410) Schedule: May 10-August 9, 2008; Duration: 42 hours; Fee: $456 (CDN)
Millions of people practise urban agriculture globally and governments and civil society organizations increasingly promote it, to enhance urban food security, health, community building, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental management. This course expands the understanding of urban agriculture, its main types and dimensions, its potential impacts, the constraints and opportunities facing it, the stakeholders involved in it, the historical contexts shaping it, and the local, regional, and international development trends bearing on it.
Dimensions of Urban Agriculture (CVFN 411)
Schedule: September-December, 2008; Duration: 42 hours; Fee: $456 (CDN)
This course focuses on the main dimensions of urban agriculture and how these complement, supplement, compete with, substitute, or undermine those provided by other land uses, sectoral activities and actors. The main dimensions covered are (functions, roles, benefits, potential risks) of: health and food security, socio-cultural dimensions, economic dimensions, and environmental dimensions. Selected well-documented case studies will be used throughout the course to highlight each dimension separately, before bringing them all together.
For more information on these courses, as well as for instructions on enrollment please contact: Marielle Dubbeling or Joe Nasr
Or see our flyer or visit www.ryerson.ca/ce/foodsecurity. for further details. To express your interest in the accredited urban agriculture courses, please complete this form.
2. FREE AND SELF-PACED (independent learning):The materials developed for the university courses will also be gradually offered for free on the RUAF website. In this set-up, learners decide for themselves what materials to study and when. Learners do not interact with instructors or other learners, and cannot earn a diploma, certificate or any University credits. They neither have access to technical support. Application will not be required as the materials will be open and accessible to all at any time. Please click on the following link to access the free materials: http://www.ruaf.org/node/1560
Urban agriculture initiative in Central Africa
A workshop on urban agriculture, participatory governance and social inclusion was held in Bukavu (DR Congo) from 24-28 September. The workshop was organized and supported by DIOBASS (DR Congo), RUAF, Institut de la Vie, DGCD, CECODEL and CGRI (Belgium) and counted with the participation of 7 city teams made up of 3 representatives from national (2 Provincial Ministers of Agriculture) and local government representatives (2 Mayors, a vice-Mayor and a Chef of the City plan) NGOs or Community-Based Organizations and Universities from Bukavu, Butembo, Goma, Kinshasa, Kisangani and Lubumbashi (Congo) and Ngozi (Burundi) as well as with representatives from international organizations (GlobalHort, Tanzania, the African Consortium on Urban Agriculture-Cameroun and IAGU-Dakar). Most workshop participants belong to the regional urban agriculture network established in 2003.
Workshop participants underlined the specific contribution urban agriculture can make to food security and livelihood development in the region, and to respond to specific needs of several vulnerable groups (schoolchildren, HIV-AIDS affected families, poor urban producers). They also identified a number of closely related key factors that prevent urban agriculture to live up to its potential, including the generally low levels of productivity, the lack of working models and knowledge on sustainable intensification of urban agriculture, the limited capacities of support organizations in areas such as technology development, planning, monitoring and evaluation, and financial services for urban agricultural development, and the low level of priority given to urban agricultural development in policy, law making and planning. Please click here to access the full workshop report.
Priorities for the development of regional programmes on urban agriculture in the region were identified as: (1) the development of school gardens, and (2) the strengthening of small urban and peri-urban producers in their production, processing and marketing strategies. A project formulation committee has been put in place and agreements were made to continue promoting urban agriculture development at city, national and regional level. A virtual newsletter, informing all workshop and network participants about progress made and new activities set up, is being disseminated every 3 months. For more information, please contact: Marielle Dubbeling m.dubbeling@etcnl.nl; Sylvain Mapatano (Mapatano_s@yahoo.fr)
UA Magazine no. 19 online
The Urban Agriculture Magazine #19 "Stimulating Innovation in Urban Agriculture" is now published online.
Initiative under Way to Create North American Urban and Periurban Agriculture Alliance
Click here to learn more.
Call for Contributions
Please find here the Call for Contributions for Urban Agriculture Magazine No. 20: Sustainable use of Water in Urban Agriculture.
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What do you think of the UA-Magazine? We have sent a survey to all subscribers with the UA-Magazine no 18, but you can also fill out the questionnaire here. If you are unable to submit the survey you can download a word version here and send it by email to ruaf@etcnl.nl. We will use your ideas and comments to improve the Magazine. We appreciate your cooperation: thank you!!