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Urban agriculture for changing cities - Inclusion and participation

In AgriGo4Cities (EU-Interreg-Danube Transnational Programme), 11 partner institutions from the Danube region are investigating how institutional capacities and social inclusion in cities can be promoted through urban agriculture.

The AgriGo4Cities project wants to employ participatory urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as a powerful and emerging method to improve public institutional capacities in order to tackle socio-economic exclusion of vulnerable/marginalized groups and to stimulate sustainable urban development in the Danube region.

Duration: 1st January 2017 – 30th June 2019
Partners: ZRC SAZU (leading partner), Municipal District Prague 9, European Development Agency, Municipality of Velenje, Central Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency Nonprofit Ltd., Vaslui Municipality, ENVICORP Slovakia, PiNA, Association of South-Western Municipalities, Ifuplan – Institute for Environmental Planning and Spatial Development, Municipality of Ulcinj, Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region, Prague City Hall, Association of City Municipalities of Slovenia, Employment Service of Slovenia, Regional Office Koper, EBB Europaberatung, Association Euni Partners
The project is cofunded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA, ENI).
Reference number: DTP1-1-533-4.1
Keywords: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, EMPOWERMENT, PARTICIPATION

Situation

In the Danube region, challenges of urban development include decreasing capacities of public institutions to involve the population in decision-making processes. Confronted with a lack of participatory involvement, the population is increasingly alienated from governance processes and administrative actions in general. Parts of the population feels underrepresented in political, social and economic respects and not considered as an equivalent negotiating partner. Particularly affected are marginalized population groups such as poor, unemployed, homeless, sinti/roma, elderly and younger citizens. Growing social and economic imbalances result in lower qualities of urban life.

Approach

The AgriGo4Cities-project pursues the approach of a participatory urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). This can be an effective instrument to strengthen public institutional capacities, to address marginalization processes in urban societies and to promote sustainable urban development in the Danube region. The project envisages developing innovative methods of participatory planning and integrating them in decision-making processes, thus strengthening administrative capacities for the involvement of relevant stakeholders and civil society.

Reciprocal trust and socio-economic inclusion of marginalized groups are supposed to be improved through a closer cooperation. Reducing social and economic misbalances are expected to promote a more sustainable development of marginalized neighborhoods.

The diverse project partnership includes administrations, local initiatives, research institutions and consultancies.

Project partnership

Coordinated by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences, the project partnership includes Prague Municipal Council 9, the European Development Agency (CZ), the City of Velenje (SI), the Central Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency (HU), the City of Vaslui (RO), ENVICORP Slovakia (SK), the Association for Culture and Education PiNA (SI), the Association of South-Western Municipalities (BG), the City of Ulcinj (ME) and ifuplan (DE). 6 additional partner institutions support the project.

In the following 6 pilot regions, a concrete implementation of project results is foreseen: Velenje (SI), Vaslui (RO), Ulcinj (ME), Prag (CZ), Blagoevgrad (BG) and Székesfehérvár (HU).

International seminar on urban agriculture

From November 21st to 24th 2017, the AgriGo4Cities-project organised an international seminar on participatory urban agriculture at the Ecological Education Center Munich. More than 70 participants from the project countries, particularly the pilot regions, exchanged perspectives and implementation options regarding urban agriculture. External experts contributed valuable input, including Ella von der Haide (University of Kassel), Cordula Fötsch (Gartenpolylog, Wien), Marc Haug (ÖBZ), Saša Poljak Istenič und Mateja Šmid Hribar (ZRC-SAZU, SI), Aidan Cerar (Institute for Spatial Policies, SI) und Gaja Trbižan (Pazi!park, SI), Kaja Cunk (PiNA, SI) and Csaba Bende (Universität Szeged, HU).

Follwing the two-day seminar, participants visited innovative Munich gardening projects to get in touch with local initiators and receive first-hand experiences. For a summary of the seminar, visit

Preparing for action planning - an account of the training session

Project results:

• Approaching urban gardening as a social innovation - Guidelines for the development and implementation of an action plan
• Partizipative urbane Landwirtschaft als Governance-Plan gegen soziale Ausgrenzung in der Donauregion
• AgriGo4Cities - Preparing an action plan. An account of the Munich training session 11/2017
• Final Conference on March 18 2019 in Budapest: Abstracts
• AgriGo4Cities-Short film(4:16)

Link:

• Project website AgriGo4Cities