RUAF Foundation

Location: Global reach with projects in partner cities in Africa, Asia, and South America. A network of regional resource centers, with the overarching global center housed in the Netherlands.
Year: 1996-Present

http://www.ruaf.org

The mission of the RUAF Foundation is “to contribute to urban poverty reduction, employment generation and food security and to stimulate participatory city governance and improved urban environmental management, by creating enabling conditions for empowerment of male and female urban and peri-urban farmers, capacity development of local authorities and other stakeholders and by facilitating the integration of urban agriculture in gender-sensitive policies and action programmes of local governments, civic society organisations and private enterprises with active involvement of the urban farmers, livestock keepers and other relevant stakeholders”

The format of the Foundation is a global resource center, and seven regional centers, monitoring and providing resources to urban farming initiatives in 18 partner cities, in East and West Africa, South America, China, and the Indian Subcontinent. The Foundation is funded primarily by the EU, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Canadian International Development Research Centre. The Foundation’s main programs “Cities Farming for the Future” and “From Seed to Table” seek to develop urban agriculture socially, economically, and sustainably through education, information sharing, and publications like Urban Agriculture Magazine.