Burkina Faso/Ouagadougou: Food system stakeholders raise awareness of the importance of healthy, sustainable food

The president of the Ouagadougou commune's special delegation, Maurice Konaté, launched the city of Ouagadougou's "food dialogues" and "multi-stakeholder dialogue" this Tuesday, July 16, 2024 at the city hall. These dialogues, which will run from July 16 to 19, 2024, aim to strengthen the inclusive governance of urban food systems, both formal and informal in the city of Ouagadougou.

The rapidly expanding city of Ouagadougou, with a population reaching 3,204,000 in 2023, is growing at a rate of 4.84% per year, according to United Nations figures for 2023. This rapid growth poses major challenges in terms of urban food management, occupation of green spaces and food price stability in the face of global crises.

To meet this food security challenge, the NGO RIKOLTO and Inades-Formation set up the AfriFOODlinks project in December 2022.
Funded by the World Bank, this research and innovation project aims to improve food and nutritional security in 15 African and 5 European cities. It promotes a circular approach to urban food systems, encourages inclusive, multi-stakeholder governance and stimulates the creation of innovative agri-businesses run by women and young people.
To achieve this food security, AfriFOODlinks is organizing food and multi-stakeholder dialogues on food systems in the city of Ouagadougou. The 96-hour event will feature panels, multi-stakeholder discussions and a celebration of local delicacies.

According to the president of the special delegation of the Ouagadougou municipality, this workshop is of crucial importance for the city of Ouagadougou, in that it will enable experts to reflect on and propose guidelines for the city's food systems.chir and propose guidelines on the systems to be adopted so that the population can have access to healthy food supply systems, which is essential for the smooth running of activities.
"We have just officially launched the workshop on the governance of food systems in the city of Ouagadougou. A healthy population depends in part on the food system from which it obtains its supplies (...) The urban crops we're going to start today really need to be well supervised, so that our populations can have products that meet the standards. At the end of the work, Ouagadougou's local authorities must undertake to follow the instructions we will be given.The President of the Special Delegation of the Ouagadougou Municipality declared.

"During this four-day workshop, we will first have panels focusing on a number of themes. First, we'll be discussing food governance in the city of Ouagadougou; we'll be discussing healthy eating in the city of Ouagadougou, touching on everything to do with quality and human health. We'll then talk about the management of market infrastructures, infrastructures linked to the food system. Finally, we're also going to invite players in the agri-food industry who are involved in the Ouagadougou food system, so that we can share their experiences in terms of both success and failure.riences in terms of successes but also difficulties, and see how we can find solutions together", explained Isidore Della, Director of Inades-Formation.

The country representative of the NGO RIKOLTO, Bernadette Ouattara, underlined the importance of this project, coordinated by RIKOLTO and which, for Burkina Faso, concerns the city of Ouagadougou.
"We're going to help facilitate the multi-stakeholder process, and encourage each stakeholder to express his or her opinion on what needs to be done to find solutions to the problems that have been highlighted," she declared.

The results expected from these exchanges include raising stakeholders' awareness of the importance of a healthy and sustainable food system, promoting local products and responsible consumption, and increasing stakeholders' commitment to inclusive and sustainable governance of urban food systems.

Source: lefaso.net/