The added value of AfriFOODlinks at the MUFPP Global Forum 2025

A model project for urban food transformation in African contexts

Launched in 2022 and coordinated by ICLEI Africa, AfriFOODlinks is a European Union-funded project involving more than 65 African and European cities committed to transforming urban food systems and promoting African knowledge sovereignty and local leadership in research and decision-making processes.

In this context, the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Global Forum 2025, hosted in Milan, provided a unique opportunity to raise awareness of these experiences, bring the voices of African cities to the international stage, and include the continent’s perspectives in the global urban food policy agenda.

AfriFOODlinks takes center stage at the Forum

Featured in the official program – The Forum, held from October 13 to 17, 2025, included 18 side events and parallel sessions, including the presentation of four European and international projects partnered with MUFPP. AfriFOODlinks stood out for its Africa-centric approach and its ability to connect cities, experiences, and communities of practice.

Peer-to-peer learning and city-to-city partnerships – The project promotes networks of African and European network cities for the exchange of practices and the construction of shared knowledge. This dimension of mutual learning enriched the Forum, emphasizing the co-creation of strategies adaptable to different urban contexts.

By participating in several parallel sessions, AfriFOODlinks brought African urban cases, concrete experiments, and multi-stakeholder governance models to the attention of the public. The AfriFOODlinks cities illustrated local policies that originated from the bottom up and were integrated into urban plans, strengthening the visibility of African solutions, accompanied, in sessions on a wide range of topics, by their strategic partners.

The African experience helped to redefine the narrative of the Forum: from the paradigm of assistance to that of local protagonism.

EStà’s role in the project

For EStà, a partner in the AfriFOODlinks consortium, the Forum was an important opportunity for meeting, learning, and exchanging ideas.

 The event provided an opportunity to reflect on activities already carried out and those planned for the future, particularly with regard to the coordination, management, and facilitation of Living Labs within the project.

 During the dedicated parallel sessions, the team contributed to the in-depth discussion of crucial issues on participatory governance and the future of the AfriFOODLinks project, as well as the impact of urban laboratories. In particular, in the ‘beyond project lifetime’ session organized by EStà and ACRA, the cities of Chefchaouen, Dakar, Grenoble, Mbale, and Ouagadougou shared important contributions on the strategies and tools they are adopting to transform the short-term results of three- or four-year projects into lasting policy frameworks or institutional practices.

 The Forum concluded with an internal debriefing of the partnership, aimed at consolidating work strategies and future prospects and enhancing the African contribution within the international network of food cities.

African urban food governance in global dialogue 

Through workshops and round tables, AfriFOODlinks has highlighted how African cities are now active players in urban food governance. The project brought four key messages to the Forum:

• the local origin of African solutions, not imported models;
• African leadership in planning and political dialogue;
• the connection between Africa and Europe based on equal and non-hierarchical exchange;
• the concrete representation of African cities, supported by data, reports, and real practices.

The Forum was therefore an opportunity to transform the paradigm: from cities as “beneficiaries” to cities as leaders in the international discussion on the future of urban food systems.