The F4F approach: rooted in the local territory

The integrated approach based on the Local Food Systems (LFS) relies on the greater power that local actors can have on food and nutritional security, if this is rooted at the local level. The F4F approach takes into account all the elements of the local system in which food products are cultivated, produced, treated, distributed and consumed in a given territory. It is a holistic approach which recognizes not only the large spectrum of stakeholders and the complexity of food systems, but which also considers the proximity factor as a pillar, thus securing a more sustainable action for the eradication of hunger and enhancing food and nutritional security.

The territorial approach: the key to the challenge of food insecurity

The territorial approach can be the key to ensure food and nutritional security and strengthen community and household resilience to the food risks, through strategic investments. The F4F programme firmly believes that local governments, who represent the interests of the populations, are best suited to act in the framework of adapted national policies. Working through and with local communities and other partners such as farming organizations, civil societies and their private local sector, F4F promotes the funding of public projects which answer the specific needs of the populations.

From its territorial approach, the F4F programme boosts the local economy around the transformation and stimulation of the agricultural production and marketing by adapting to the involved actors, the local processes, the opportunities or threats that arise. In the end, this allows UNCDF to identify, along the range of strategic interventions and opportunities, those which have the most structuring effect.

Principles guiding our action:

• Participatory democracy: it favours a participatory approach of the population by which the elected and the citizens can play a determining role.
• Consultation: local authorities have the obligation to consult citizens on strategic decisions that can impact their social; economic and cultural situation.
• Accountability: local officials are accountable to their citizens and the central authorities of their decisions and actions.
• Sustainability: strengthening institutional, organizational and financial functions of municipalities through the capacity building for project ownership and the support to local planning which would be sensitive to the vulnerable groups to act on food insecurity is a pledge for the durability of interventions.
• Administrative and financial autonomy: the principle of administrative freedom serves as a foundation for decentralization. Local authorities must have the necessary means and resources for the efficient exercise of their competences in the context of the transfer of responsibilities.
• The structuring effect on local and regional development: the support to food security must be conceived within a structural framework and have tools which can boost the dynamics of local and regional development.