Indonesia Best Practices

Fast Facts

• Mayor: Joy Belmonte
• Population: 2,960,048
• Area: 166.2 km²
• GCoM Signatory since 2015
• As the largest city in the Metro Manila Region, Quezon City serves as the main express gateway to every region across Luzon Island.
• Most of Quezon City’s businesses are from the distribution and basic service provision sector.

Background

An immediate call to action in tackling food security issues is crucial. Major challenges to food resiliency are more prominent due to the alarming impact of various global disruptions including climate change. To maintain resiliency, it requires a firm commitment to innovation in implementing policies and best practices.

For the Philippines, food security issues are still hindering the country’s sustainable efforts to end national hunger. Around 50.9 million Filipinos were affected by food insecurity ranging from hunger, inadequate food commodities, to undernourishment in the 2020-2022 period. This also led to severe food insecurity scope on cities, including Quezon City.

Quezon City is the most populous city in Metro Manila Region. Massive urbanisation rate may lead to food security challenges in the city as it renders food supply to be scarce around Quezon. With the lack of food supply and nutrition programmes, children in Quezon are more prone to malnutrition which will result in severe threats of various health issues across the city.

Facing the imminent danger of food insecurity, the Quezon City Government gathered multi-level stakeholders including local citizens to conceptualise best practices for food security and resiliency. Other than policy review and transparency, innovation is also the key to boosting engagement between the government and stakeholders for tangible and exceptional results of food security practices in Quezon.

 Solutions Implemented

The Quezon City Government has implemented their initiative programmes in response to food insecurity in the Philippines. A task force for food security in Quezon City, known as the QC FSTF (The Quezon City Food Security Task Force) was established in 2020 to address food supply issues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. The Mayor of Quezon City Joy Belmonte directly involved in forming the legal basis of the food security task force, Quezon City Executive Order No. 32, Series-2020. Based on the law, the QC FSTF objectives are not limited to food security and resilience but also aim for the recovery of the supply chain as well as climate change adaptation.[1]

Through QC FSTF, the Quezon City Government has successfully improved the sustainability and adequacy of food security through their exemplary programmes across the city. One of them is the Joy of Urban Farming (JOUF). Conducted since 2010, a decade before becoming a part of QC FSTF, JOUF has been a flagship food programme of Quezon City through awareness campaigns and facilitation for home urban farming.[2] As the programme features collaboration with multi-level stakeholders, JOUF has been mainly funded by the Vice Mayor’s office and maintained by various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across all 6 districts in Quezon.[3]

Harmonious with the JOUF Programme, the GrowQC Programme (“GrowQC Kasama ka sa Pag-Unlad sa Pagkain, Kabuhayan, at Kalusugan”) facilitates sustainable food systems by utilising open spaces as food sources. Compared to JOUF, the GrowQC provides a larger medium to food sovereignty through the vast utilisation of public spaces to improve the food productivity rate. The GrowQC is also open to forming a strategic and resilient partnership with various stakeholders, including local businesses for urban farming. By implementing its 7-Point Action Plan (Vegetable Nurseries, Community Model Farms, Aquaculture, Feeding Programme, Agri-overlay Zone, Food Processing Zone, and Food Trade), the GrowQC Programme has brought urban farming to a whole new level.[4] Through GrowQC, Quezon locals will be provided with farming supply kits by QC FSTF National Government partners including the Philippines Department of Agriculture to implement seamless urban farming practices and ensure food security and sovereignty for Quezon locals. 

Results and Solutions Learned

The QC FSTF has been a reliable medium for food security needs and provisions in Quezon City  3 years after its formation. By actualising the achievements of FAO’s definition of food security as its pledge, the QC FSTF has contributed to various services and facilitations related to urban farming capacity-building programmes, land utilisation programmes for food security and tax exceptions on lands for urban farming uses.[5] National Government Agencies and various organisations are also involved in helping the QC FSTF in implementing their capacity-building programmes. Through the provided services, locals of Quezon City will achieve insights into food security and sovereignty.

Reflecting on one of QC FSTF’s programmes, the JOUF has proven itself as Quezon City’s flagship food programme. The implementation of JOUF has hosted around 166 urban farms established at various city facilities including schools, apartments, and others as part of the efficient utilisation of private spaces for urban farming. The programme also hosted 7 community model farms as part of joint implementation with various local communities including the church, civic organisations, National Government Agencies, academic institutions, and local community groups. Through JOUF, the citizens of Quezon City have grasped the importance of urban farming in achieving sustainable goals of food security and resiliency.

As resourceful as the JOUF Programme, the GrowQC is not only known as Quezon City’s best practice in food security but also becoming one of the Filipino Government’s benchmarks in implementing food security policies. The Philippines Department of the Interior and Local Government/DILG’s latest food security programme, Halina’t Magtanim ng Prutas at Gulay/HAPAG (“Come Plant Fruits and Vegetables!”) utilised GrowQC’s initiative template. The programme also encourages locals to engage in urban farming. The implementation of the HAPAG Programme shows how GrowQC successfully created a nationwide inspiration for improving the food security efforts in the Philippines.[6]

(Source: Pinnacle Group International)

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[1] Quezon City, “Task Force on Food Security”, 29 August 2023, https://quezoncity.gov.ph/departments/tf-on-food-security/

[2] ICLEI, “Circular Quezon City: Bringing the Circular Economy to Quezon City’s Food System”, September 2022, https://circulars.iclei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CL4C_-Mini-Roadmap_Quezon-City.pdf

[3] Julio P. Yap Jr., “The Joy of Urban Farming in Quezon City”, Agriculture Magazine Philippines, 8 October 2018, https://agriculture.com.ph/2018/10/08/the-joy-of-urban-farming-in-quezon-city/

[4] Quezon City, “GrowQC: Open Spaces as Food Source”, 21 January 2023, https://quezoncity.gov.ph/program/grow-qc-open-spaces-as-food-source/

[5] Quezon City, “Task Force on Food Security”, 29 August 2023, https://quezoncity.gov.ph/departments/tf-on-food-security/

[6] Jing Castañero, “GrowQC and DILG’s HAPAG: Spreading food security from QC to the whole nation”, PhilStar Global, 1 February 2023, https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/food-and-leisure/2023/02/01/2241543/growqc-and-dilgs-hapag-spreading-food-security-qc-whole-nation