Policies

Relevant city context

Rome is a major metropolitan area with a vast urban agriculture area of 51,729 hectares (the widest within Europe). While most green areas are located outside the urban perimeter, several agricultural “corridors” connect the periphery with the city centre of Rome. This unique feature distinguishes Rome from other European cities that are characterised by a division between urban and rural areas. Thus, Rome offers a unique potential for further development: citizens are now developing permaculture systems and producing healthier organic food for self-consumption.

As a Territorial Cooperation European project, the project is conceived to be reproducible in cities that wish to start a process of urban regeneration and social cohesion. Other EU cities could rework its outcome to propose new visions, feasible strategies, spatial scenarios and guidance tools to address the challenges of social agriculture in urban and suburban areas. The specifics of each city will vary, and could thus contribute by defining complementary models to the current UPA, which can be replicated in other similar urban contexts. Common features should include a problem-oriented approach for sustainable urban development and focus on social inclusion. Besides fighting social exclusion local communities will learn more about their local environment, a knowledge to be passed on to potential local civil organisation/NGOs, both locally and in the EU.

Goals: (1) Fight social exclusions and poverty and, (2) Allow brownfield recovery

This urban gardening project was developed using an important area of its territory suited for agriculture (51.7 ha), the City of Rome (IT). So far the project is using 27 ha of the available land, aiming to promote approaches for sustainable and eco-friendly urban gardening. Working with NGOs, citizens, disadvantaged communities and minorities, the city has used urban and suburban agriculture to improve the governance processes by connecting different competencies and municipal offices such as social, environment, urban planning and innovation departments. UPA is an innovative practice towards a governance model for sustainable development, environment protection, brownfield recovery and reuse, social cohesion and poverty-fighting (i.e. immigrants, elderly, disabled people, AIDS and Alzheimer patients, prisoners etc.). The project has affected employment policy, as well as a social and intercultural dialogue. The importance of other factors such as housing, health, culture and communication were also acknowledged.

Cooperation among stakeholders

The project approach is the result of a territorial cooperation process, involving different partners of the Mediterranean basin under ENPI CBC MED Programme: the Royal Botanic Garden and the National Department for Forests and Agriculture (Jordan), the city of Mahdia (Tunisia), the metropolitan area of Barcelona and the City of Rome. Previously there have been problems with the lack of co-ordination among Institutions, Departments and Offices at the different levels and lengthy administrative procedures. Coordination and sharing between the City administration and citizens to reach agreements has also been lengthy due to the novelty of the initiative (experimentation of dialogue on UPAs). The participatory mechanisms for communities and citizens in the new UPA policies/actions mean greater capacity for action and decision making on Urban Governance. Stakeholders such as local NGOs and horticulture associations contributed to the set-up of the Regulation of urban gardens (City Council Resolution, July 2015) activating local representatives of such communities in a process of social and intercultural integration. Socialisation among different communities is the core of this activity.

Outcomes

This experience allowed the City of Rome to create three pilot projects that cover more than 3,5 ha assigned to different non-profit, multi-purpose associations involved with needy and disadvantaged citizens. At present, approx. 300 people are direct beneficiaries of the parcels. Dozens of associations and thousands of citizens are involved in the pilot projects, and awareness was raised among municipal officers and citizens. The Regulation of the Urban gardens of Rome (City Resolution of July 2015 or “Regolamento degli orti urbani”), is to be considered an extremely important outcome as a governance tool. According to the “Regolamento”, the use of pesticides, chemical fertilisers and GMO seeds are prohibited.

The sustainability of the UPA pilot project is ensured by the commitment of the City of Rome (i.e. the “Regolamento”), the Districts, the associations as "managers" of the pilots, the thousands of citizens involved, and by the coordination with a network of urban gardens and other local and national organizations.

Resources

Total budget: 1.998.646 €

Budget for Rome: 400.000 €  

Other

Key figures

Start: 2015

End: Ongoing

Related links

407_rome_gpsummary.pdf [27/06/2017]

Resources

Text

Relevant city context

This case study is relevant for all cities and towns promoting active engagement of the elderly and surrounding community.

Goal

Donostia / San Sebastian is a medium size city (186.377 inhabitants) and the capital of Gipuzkoa, a well-developed industrial and tertiary region of the Basque Country. It is a socially cohesive city, characterized by the maturity of its population (22% of its citizens are over 65), which is progressively increasing, as well as its life expectancy and longevity (4% of population are over 85; three out of four of them are women).

Goal: to provide resources, help and support in order to increase the capacity of volunteers to lead and coordinate resilience building activities

Donostia Lagunkoia / San Sebastián Amigable is a City Plan that promotes active participation of the elderly in social activities within the city and making them more "age friendly". The current DSS Lagunkoia plan was approved and assumed in the city council in 2014, and has so far resulted in 134 actions. The project aims to encourage community engagement as well as to take advantage of the elderly citizens potential in civic life.

The Community Support Network is one of the prioritized actions; engaging both public and private stakeholders in community actions. The network is built and managed through citizens´ involvement. The leadership of the project has been municipal, with an interdepartmental steering group formed by the Office of Strategy of DSS, the Welfare Department and the Citizen Participation Department. Further, a wider follow-up group is actively implicated, with associations of elderly people, institutions and organizations involved in the care, health and leisure of the elderly. Actions promoted include “active ageing”, community support and specific care actions.

Cooperation among stakeholders

The implementation of this network has been initially promoted by the local authority in collaboration with the elderly and their associations. Several initiatives are being developed to raise awareness and increase stakeholder commitment; elderly people and citizen involvement is being promoted bottom-up, so that community network is woven from below with the engagement of municipal departments, social entities, health sector, third sector entities, professional schools, training centres, local commerce, and organizations of elderly people and volunteering. Also, Donostia / San Sebastián joined the WHO´s AFC-Age Friendly Cities network in 2010.  

Outcomes 

The stakeholders´ mapping and engagement is being interwoven step by step; several stakeholders are taking its own actions and projects towards a more social resilience and friendly city: "Friendly Pharmacy" is an example, as well as elderly associations working together with municipal departments. Currently working on an initiative focused on "friendly local commerce" which promoted a structure of "antennas" to detect possible risk situations for elderly people living alone.

Other

See Donostia Lagunkoia web page

See Donostia Lagunkoia City Plan in English