HIC Advocates for the Urban Food Insecure

HIC continues to be an advocate for the urban food insecure constituency in the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples Mechanism (CSIPM) for relations with the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). As the principal UN policy-making body for the Rome-based implementation agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP) concerned with food and agriculture, CFS underwent a major reform in 2009, which resulted in the democratization of that body by enabling stakeholders to raise their voices in the relevant policy-making processes. Until now, CSIPM remains the exemplary self-organized stakeholder engagement with substantive input into the global agenda on food and nutrition.

Throughout 20023-2026, Sam Ikua (Mazingira Institute, Kenya and Hala Barakat (Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights) participated in the coordination of the Urban and Peri-Urban Food Systems working group (Oct 2024 to Oct 2025) that was following the 2024-25 CFS workstream on strengthening urban and peri-urban food systems. I assisted in coordinating the working group to develop policy positions and discuss them within the CSIPM. The proposals were also shared with the constituency for input. Apart from drafting the proposals, I was engaged in live negotiations on the text of the policy with CFS actors. This workstream culminated in the CSIPM supporting the endorsement of the policy recommendations for strengthening urban and peri-urban food systems by CFS member states. The working group also produced the vision document for urban and peri-urban food systems.

In addition, I engaged in the co-coordination of the Global Food Governance working group (Dec 2025 to May 2026). The working group’s mandate is on following complex topics related to food governance that cannot be discussed within the CFS ordinary policy processes. I was able to connect the concerns of the urban food insecure constituency with the corporate capture of food systems and how this is undermining the human right to adequate food and food sovereignty.

Through participating in these working groups, I was able to connect the collective priorities of urban residents in regards to a holistic implementation of the human rights to adequate housing, right to food, water, and other related rights related to a healthy, secure and sustainable habitat.  

(a)   Sharing CFS policy products through events

In March 2026, we organised a CBOs sensitization forum in Nairobi on the CFS policy products. We focused on the CFS voluntary guidelines of the right to food and the CFS policy recommendations on strengthening urban and peri-urban food systems. The participants got to understand these two CFS policy products and how they can be localised and implemented in Nairobi.

In April 2026, I participated in the Global Food Governance Reforms workshop organised by Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in collaboration with the Brazil National Council for Food Security and Nutrition. The objective was to discuss on how the CFS can be strengthened to realise its mandate within the context of FAO reform.

Conclusion

Lessons from this mandate point towards to need for continued coordinated advocacy for the implementation of the human right to food and other related rights, especially within the context of interconnected crisis comprising corporate capture, economic contraction, authoritarianism, climate change, and rapid population growth alongside declining natural resources.