introduction

This is the 4th newsletter of the project AgriGo4Cities that aims at exchanging experiences in the field of urban and peri-urban agriculture and social inclusion. Two years have gone by since the project was launched at the beginning of 2017, and now it encounters itself at the final stage. In this newsletter, you may find the last implemented outputs and outcomes of the project, as well as the latest news and events from October 2018 to March 2019. The newsletter consists of nine parts which include transnational partners meetings, the final conference held in Budapest, dissemination activities, a description of a newly established garden and new project outputs.

Project Partners meeting in Bulgaria

The 5th project partner meeting took place in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria) from the 23rd to the 24th of October. In the two-day meeting, the partners had the chance to introduce their action plans, as well as to discuss and organize the main aspects for the final conference in Budapest that will take place in March 2019. The Bulgarian partner, the Association of South-Western Municipalities (ASWM), organized three different study visits around Blagoevgrad, in which the rest of the partners could visit a flower garden managed by a social enterprise and run by the municipality of Biostroy; as well as an indoor garden inside a Day Care Centre for children with special needs; and an experimental garden which was developed during the Local Action Plan. Although the project meeting was firstly intended for discussing the outcomes and next steps of the project, the partners also had the chance to discover and get to know better the traditions and culture from Bulgaria.

project Partners meeting in hungary

The 6th and last project partners meeting took place in Hungary on 20th and 21st March 2019, in the context of the final Conference in Budapest. On the first day, project partners got to visit three urban gardens in the city of Székesfehérvár, guided by the representatives of the Hungarian partner ‘Central Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency Nonprofit Ltd’. The first and the second gardens that were part of the visit consisted of a good example of well established and perfectly run urban gardens, while the last one was established in the context of the AgriGo4Cities project. It is situated inside a school for students with special needs, who provided a demonstration of their agricultural skills, by showing to the partners their planting methods and explaining the learning purposes of the garden. On the second day, the partners gathered for their last meeting, during which they discussed the path they walked during the previous two years and the future steps to complete the project.

FINAL CONFERENCE IN BUDAPEST

As stated before, the project AgriGo4Cities has almost come to its end, meaning that the deadline is approaching and to celebrate the closing of the project a final conference has been held on 19th March 2019 in Budapest. The conference aimed at introducing the pilot actions implemented along with the whole project in six different cities from the Danube Region, as well as sharing the main findings of the project. This event brought together all the relevant stakeholders from the Danube Region and beyond, thus guests and speakers included scholars, practitioners, NGOs, activists, policymakers, and representatives of public institutions. The whole event was held in English and the organizers provided Hungarian interpretation.

On the first part of the conference, speakers gave an introduction about participatory urban agriculture with a theoretical perspective; subsequently, the AgriGo4Cities project was presented and best practices from the Danube region were included. Finally, speakers presented some special cases of participatory urban agriculture in Hungary and debate between some of the experts and the audience was set, in order to discuss the previous topics and gather suggestions for the future.

TUTORING PROGRAMME  

During this phase of the project, it was created and implemented a tutoring programme to support participatory UPA in pilot areas, which is the Intellectual Output 3.5.2 of the Work Package 3 of the project AgriGo4Cities.

In order to provide constant professional support for development and implementation of action plans in pilot areas, it was developed this Tutoring Programme by Envicorp Slovakia. In this programme can be found summarised all the guidance done by the tutors to territorial partners in the process of action plan development as well as in the action plan implementation. The tutors who participated in this programme are the strategic partners’ specialists that were involved in it, and they provide their professional experience at two levels: one during the development phase of the action plan and another during the implementation phase of the action plan.

GOVERNANCE PLAN

During the final conference in Budapest, all guests were given a copy of the Governance plan created in the context of the project. The ‘Participatory urban agriculture governance plan for fighting social exclusion in the Danube region’ represents one the intellectual outputs of the AgriGo4Cities project and it aims at sharing values and knowledge developed during the last two years. Within the publication, participatory urban agriculture is presented as a tool to promote social inclusion and cohesion, the guidelines and the tools to implement a good action plan are included and finally, the pilot areas of the AgriGo4Cities project are described, as examples of well established participatory urban agriculture.

PILOT ACTION AND COMMUNITY GARDEN IN BLAGOEVGRAD 

On the 6th and 8th October the Association of South-Western Municipalities (ASWM) from Bulgaria, organized in Blagoevgrad two events implemented with the help of the Local Action Plan developed on a common methodology with the other pilot regions determined by AG4C.

The first event that took place on the 6th October 2018 consisted of organizing a fair of local agricultural products, in which the established Network of Local Producers in Blagoevgrad region sold and promote their products. The second event held on the 8th October 2018, consisted on creating and establishing a community garden in the peri-urban area of Blagoevgrad called Dabrava, which was established with the help of the two target groups of this initiative: the elderly people and children with special needs. Both groups helped to plant fruits, vegetables and trees, which were adopted by the children.

You can watch a video of the local action in Blagoevgrad here.

PROMOTION OF THE PROJECT 

In these months AgriGo4Cities has been successfully promoted in different events around Europe, in which the main outcomes and ideas of the project were shared in front of a wide range of audience. For instance, between the 16-19th August 2018, the Slovak partner, Envicorp, exhibited a miniature of a community garden in order to promote AG4C in Agrokomplex, an international exhibition of agriculture and industry that takes place every year in the Slovak city of Nitra and aims at bringing closer to the Slovak society the agriculture and farm life of the country. 

On the 18-19th October 2018, AG4C was invited to the 7th Danube Annual Forum, which was a key event of the 2018 EUSDR Presidency. The forum held in Sofia was organized by the European Commission itself along with the Danube Transnational Programme. It was an important occasion for AG4C in order to promote and share the main outcomes and findings achieved by the project so far, Jani Kozina was the person in charge of representing the project in this event.

AgriGo4Cities also had the chance to participate in the 1st National Danube Participation Day celebrated in Slovenia on the 15th November 2018, which aimed at informally connecting professionals working in the Danube Region. Once more, the project had the chance to be introduced and promoted in front of professionals of the sector.

awards

The AgriGo4Cities project was selected and proposed to be awarded the 'Trophies and Diplomas of Excellence for Social and Economic Innovation in the Danube Region". The ceremony will take place on the occasion of the European Maritime Day celebrated in Romania, on the 31st of May 2019, under the aegis of the European Commission – DG MARE.
The highlight of the day will be the High-Level International Stakeholders Event: ”Boosting transnational cooperation through the Black Sea - Danube Macro-Regional Hub”, supported by the European Commission, and chaired by the Commission of European Affairs of the Romanian Parliament, with the representatives of the Romanian Government, including the EUSDR National Coordinator – Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
We are honoured and very proud of this achievement and we deeply thank the awarding Commission for this opportunity. It also represents a great chance to disseminate the results obtained by the project and to inform all the participants about its innovations in the field of urban and peri-urban agriculture.

GOOD PRACTICES CATALOGUE LAUNCHING 

Last but not least, in November 2018 was finally launched one of the most relevant outcomes of the project, the Participatory Urban Agriculture Good Practices Catalogue; which was presented by the partner ZRC SAZU at the Publishing House in Ljubljana on November 14th 2018. In the catalogue, which was written by 23 colleagues from different countries (Slovenia, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Montenegro) can be found some core information regarding urban and peri-urban agriculture, as well as an analysis of urban gardens based on the participation of inhabitants or specific vulnerable groups and positively affecting the improvement of public services and sustainable urban development.

AGRIGO4CITIES GOES PUBLIC

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