Promoting sustainable food choices and policy

Fort portal is a tourism city in the Republic of Uganda. The city is a major exporter of food products to Uganda´s other cities and neighboring countries.

Despite agricultural productivity, 41 % of children in the region experience stunting due to monotonous diets and the rapid urbanization has further strained the food system. Demand for affordable food has increased, which has led to a growth in the informal food sector-street. Also, the lack of proper soil management and regenerative agricultural techniques degrades soils. However, the main challenge is the absence of supportive policies and actions to transform the local food system.

Food System Lab in Fort Portal prioritizes the promotion of dietary diversity, gazetting food spaces and ‘green belts’ as part of physical planning and developing public-private-partnerships for food and nutrition security. This Lab engages voluntary citizens to generate evidence for policy and practice change through the food diaries research. The HealthyFoodAfrica project is an opportunity to use this evidence to influence government programming across different levels – local and national – including for promotion of diets which are healthy, nutritious, diverse and green.

Other Food System Labs

Specific objectives

  1. To gain an improved understanding of the determinants of current dietary patterns and barriers to healthier and more sustainable diets
  2. To promote sustainable production of healthy and nutritious food products
  3. To reduce food losses and increase food safety

Activities

  1. Development of nutrition education and communication material as well as a recipe book
  2. Production of documents, articles and series to local radio to share knowledge gathered
  3. Organizing Food Carnivals that celebrate traditional recipes and dishes

Kabarole, Uganda

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Fort Portal Food System Lab Coordinator:

Hivos