Transnational municipal networks as transformative agents for resilient and sustainable urban food systems

Cities are regarded important actors in agri-food governance. Due to the ongoing trend of urbanization, it is expected that 70 % of the earth's population will live in urban areas by 2035. Already today, city dwellers consume significantly more food than is produced in urban and peri-urban areas. At the same time, urban sprawl seals surfaces which are needed for agricultural production. However, cities are not only critical hot spots. An increasing number of cities worldwide play leadership roles in ensuring urban food security and building climate resilient and sustainable urban food systems. In doing so, cities also contribute to achieving SDG 2 (zero hunger) and SGD 11 (resilient and sustainable cities and communities). On the transnational level, cities have started to participate in transnational municipal networks (TMNs). These networks are institutionalized entities of city-to-city cooperation and build on a long tradition of cities learning from each other. TMNs offers new opportunities for jointly sharing experiences around how to develop and implement urban resilient and sustainable policies, e.g. in the field of urban food systems. This paper assesses the contribution of TMNs to the development of resilient and sustainable urban food systems policies. It contributes to the small but constantly growing line of theoretical and empirical research on TMNs in agri-food policy. The paper starts by discussing the urbanization-food nexus. Building on network theory and insights from research on information and knowledge exchange, the paper then conceptualizes TMNs as transformative agents performing three main functions: (i) TMNs promote the exchange of information and best practices among their members and thus act as knowledge hubs and brokers; (ii) they initiate and institutionalize the joint development of local food policies for resilient and sustainable urban food system; and (iii) they represent cities in international agri-food policy and cooperate with actors from international organizations, civil society organizations and the business sector. The empirical analysis applies a qualitative case study design based on document and website analysis and involves two steps. First, we examine some of the most prominent TMNs worldwide – C40, ICLEI and the Resilient Cities Network – to answer two questions: How are resilience and sustainability conceptualized in these TMNs? How do the TMNs develop and foster policies of resilient and sustainable urban food systems? In a second step, we trace urban transformative actions implemented in response to TMN policies in selected TMN member cities. Here, we focus on cities in the Latin American region, which is especially affected by urbanization and urban food systems with low resilience.