City Region Food System Situational Analysis. Colombo, Sri Lanka
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CITY REGION FOOD SYSTEM SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS Colombo, Sri Lanka FAO - Food for the Cities Programme - WORKING DOCUMENT - Prepared by Sudarshana Fernando (International Water Management Institute), Christina Semasinghe (IWMI), Nilanthi Jayathilake (IWMI), Ruwan Wijayamunie (Colombo Municipal Council), Nalaka Wickramasinghe (University of Kelaniya), Sarath Dissanayake (University of Moratuwa), in consultation with FAO and the RUAF Foundation, 2016 ABOUT THIS REPORT City region food systems (CRFS) encompass the complex network of actors, processes and relationships involved in food production, processing, marketing and consumption in a given geographical region. The CRFS approach advocates for strengthened connectivity between urban centres and surrounding areas –whether peri-urban or rural– for a fair rural development and well-managed urbanisation. At the same time, it fosters the development of resilient and sustainable food systems, smallholder agriculture, sustainable rural and urban production, employment, improved livelihoods, and food and nutrition security for all. The Food for the Cities Programme aims at building more resilient and sustainable food systems within city regions by strengthening rural-urban linkages. The programme builds on the demand to better understand and operationalize the concept of city region food systems. It analyzes and assesses CRFS. The results will serve as a basis for further planning and informed decision-making, prioritizing investments and designing food policies and strategies, which aim at improving the resilience and sustainability of the entire food system, through a continuous participatory multi-stakeholder dialogue. In collaboration with the RUAF Foundation, projects are carried out in eight city regions: Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dakar (Senegal), Kitwe and Lusaka (Zambia), Medellin (Colombia), Quito (Ecuador), Toronto (Canada) and Utrecht (the Netherlands). This report describes the first phase of the city region food system (CRFS) assessment. This phase consists of a descriptive assessment and appraisal of the local context and CRFS, primarily based on the analysis of secondary data, stakeholder interviews and consultations. It provides an overview and description of the local context (including the political and institutional environment) and its CRFS. It includes a definition of the geographical boundaries of the CRFS, an overview of its overall structure and characteristics, an analysis of how it functions, stock of baseline information and identified gaps, and, to the extent possible, an indication of general trends and critical issues relevant to increase the sustainability and resilience of the specific CRFS. These key issues will be further examined in the next project phases: in-depth assessment and policy planning phases. The situation analysis builds on secondary data. Secondary data includes information from spatial datasets, statistics, studies, institutional, policy and legal frameworks, and information obtained from local expert knowledge through stakeholder consultations, focus-group discussions and interviews. The report was prepared by Sudarshana Fernando (International Water Management Institute (IWMI)), Christina Semasinghe (IWMI), Nilanthi Jayathilake (IWMI), Ruwan Wijayamunie (Colombo Municipal Council), Nalaka Wickramasinghe (University of Kelaniya) and Sarath Dissanayake (University of Moratuwa), with assistance and guidance from Guido Santini, Yota Nicolarea, Louison Lançon and Diana Gutiérrez from FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division (AGP), and Henk Renting and Marielle Dubbeling from the RUAF Foundation. ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Colombo Municipal Council, CMC, is the oldest local authority in Sri Lanka, which celebrated its 150th anniversary this year. Historically Colombo city has been the main commercial city in Sri Lanka; however recently accelerated modernization efforts have changed the traditional outlook of Colombo municipality. During recent years, Colombo city was heavily invested for its infrastructure development to make the city an urban tourist attraction. Because of the recent developments, Colombo city was ranked as the number one fast growing city in the world in 2015. Align with this modernization, more and more people are attracted to Colombo city and its peri-urban areas for living and as well as for business. According to latest census statistics, there are 2,324,349 people living in Colombo district with a population density of 3438, which is the highest in the country. Remarkably, from the country’s population, one tenth reside in Colombo district. Population in CMC and the population density are 0.65 m, 15000-18000 per sq. km respectively. Further, this population has a complex diversity with respect to their age, ethnic, religious, and income level compositions. Therefore, Colombo city probably has one of the diverse and complex food systems in Sri Lanka, which requires vastly different types of foods to feed the large population in a small and congested city. Conversely, there is hardly any agricultural farming and food production in CMC limits, which has created multiple dependencies to food system of the city. Owing to this complexity, Colombo city food system should be viewed as a multi-facet domain with food supply, consumer perspective, food waste management, food safety, nutrient safety, food prices, and legal perspectives. The complexity of the socio-demographic profile of the people claims many food items through multiple channels. Further, busy and complex lifestyle in the city has created high demand for catering services that supply prepared food for direct consumption. Since there is hardly any food production, Colombo city largely depends on food chains originated from agrarian districts of the country and on imported foods. Hence, changes in weather conditions, increase of fuel prices, enforcement of government taxes, and changes in currency rates have directly influenced the food system in Colombo city. For decades, food waste disposal has been an immense problem in Colombo city. Since the land area of Colombo city and its suburbs are heavily utilized for commercial and residential purposes, an ongoing problem exist in finding suitable locations for disposing the vast amount of food wastes generated in households, restaurants, institutes, and markets. Public concerns and protests on unsustainable waste management by the CMC are common and a sustainable solution for urban waste management including food waste is still in need. Significant disparities arise in living standards, economic wealth, and socio-cultural imbalance within CMC area. There are a substantial proportion of marginalized people and over one-half of the population in Colombo district survives with less than the prescribed calorie intake per day. Their food pattern would be drastically different from the other half of the population. An interesting point here is, despite the low poverty level in Colombo district, it is high in food insecurity. The possible reasons may be that even though higher expenditures in urban areas show households to be above the poverty line, less is being spent on food and energy-yielding staples. iii Top down approach hitherto used to evaluate the food systems so far have not paid attention to micro level diversities of food patterns, and their existing and potential problems. Especially, CMC area had never received a comprehensive micro scoping attention to understand the issues relating to grassroots level food system of the city. It appears that the top down approach was unable to address the challenge of urban growth, diversity, life style, and dynamic, in view of food security and safety. Considering diversities, the CMC might have the most complex food system in Sri Lanka. Hence, the importance of bottom up approach is more pronounced in CMC food system context. This study assumes CMC as the consumer. The initial desk review revealed the difficulty in the attempt since the available secondary data and statistics provides information mostly on district level. Hence, there is need to conduct sample primary level data collection to define the food system complexity in CMC area. By improving, supporting, and reinforcing the food system concept of the city region, it can improve the food security. In addition, protect those who are vulnerable create new opportunities for urban farming and related activities, and improve sustainability of the local food systems in many dimensions. In particular, this report discusses on the context of CMC in Sri Lanka, but most of the facts will be applicable to many other low-income countries in Asia and Africa. iv LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1. COLOMBO CRFS BOUNDARY ......................................................................................................................... 11 FIGURE 2. RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS FROM STAKEHOLDERS ON FOOD SYSTEM ...................................................................... 13 FIGURE 3. MATRIX OF RELATIONSHIP AMONG INSTITUTIONS, FOOD TYPE AND VALUE CHAIN ACTIVITIES ...................................... 15 FIGURE 4. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................... 18 FIGURE 5. FLOW CHART DIAGRAM SHOWING KEY ACTIVITIES IN OBTAINING A LICENSE FOR A CATERING SERVICE ............................ 57 FIGURE 6. ADMINISTRATIVE BOUNDARIES CMC .............................................................................................................