by Cecilia Sottilotta, Adjunct Lecturer, LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome at IAI-OCP international seminar on "Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture in the Euro-Mediterranean Area", Rome – February 2, 2015

1. Cecilia Emma Sottilotta
Adjunct Lecturer
Department of Political Science
LUISS Guido Carli, Rome
csottilotta@luiss.it
IAI International Seminar on Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture
in the Euro-Mediterranean Area
Rome, February 2 , 2015

2. Outline
 Why do we need to pay special attention to the urban
dimension of food security?
 What are the similarities and differences across the
Mediterranean in terms of urbanization and local
governance?
 Urban food policies and experiments of decentralized
cooperation involving municipalities – a possible tool
to reinforce Euro Mediterranean ties?

3. Food security and Urbanization
 Urbanization has been growing constantly worldwide
since the 1950s
Source: UN 2014

4. The impact of urbanization on food
security
 Urbanization, poverty and socio-political unrest
 Different structure of households
 Higher vulnerability to food prices volatility
 Higher reliance on infrastructures/services
 Need to access official safety-net programs
 Expanding cities  crowding out of peri-urban agriculture
 Food security and waste management

5. Urbanization in the Euro-Mediterranean
Region (I)
Share of Urban Population in select Euro-Mediterranean countries (1993-2013)

6. Urbanization in the Euro-Mediterranean
Region (II)

7. Urbanization and Food security in the
SMCs (I)
The Cereal Import Dependency Ratio as a proxy measure of macro food security

8. Urbanization and Food security in the
SMCs (II)
The Food imports over total merchandise as a proxy measure of macro food security

9. The role of local authorities
 In the EU countries  very relevant role. Principle of
subsidiarity + many examples of decentralized
cooperation* involving municipalities, e.g. The City of
Milan Urban Food Policy Pact
 In the SMCs  in general much more limited role, in spite
of recent initiatives such as the 2013 Convention of Mayors
and ministers of urban and local administration from
MENA countries, promoted by the Arab Urban
Development Institute, the WB and the Center for
Mediterranean Integration to discuss urban governance
issues.
*Decentralized cooperation: initiatives aiming at strengthening local governance by
facilitating the establishment of relationships between local institutions from
different countries/regions.

10. Some preliminary conclusions
 Food Vulnerability + fast paced urbanization as key features of
SMCs
 Overall converging pattern of urbanization in the Euro-
Mediterranean area.
 Diverging patterns of local governance of food security.
 In particular , so far  no attempts at building e.g. a network of
Euro-Mediterranean cities for food security .
 This, in spite of the fact that similar local governance issues are
surfacing in the policy agendas of both European and South
Mediterranean countries - a window of opportunity for
enhanced decentralized cooperation across the region?

11. Local food policies in the Mediterranean
Region: opportunities…
 De facto empowerment of local governments in SMCs
deriving from involvement in food policy elaboration
 Increased accountability, closer connection between
the citizens and the administration, higher
responsiveness by the government
 Stronger Euro-Mediterranean ties

12. …And challenges
 Long tradition of administrative and political
centralization in SMCs
 Extremely low local government expenditure in SMCs
 Need to adapt the EU’s CAP to the specific challenges
characterizing the Euro-Mediterranean region
 Political will, especially at the local level, from both
the shores of the Mediterranean

13. Thank you.