Nutrition Smart City – Pune, India & Birmingham, UK

Key Insights

  • Inter-city North-South learning
  • Addressing malnutrition
  • Citizen engagement

Summary

In 2016 signatories of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact were encouraged to form inter-city North-South partnerships for joint learning and experience sharing. In response, the cities of Birmingham in the UK and Pune in India began working on the ‘Nutrition Smart City’ initiative to develop policies, practices, and pilot programmes to address malnutrition. The initiative is based on citizen engagement. As a result of the partnership, the two cities signed a Memorandum of Understanding to consider powers at their disposal to support people to make healthier food choices out of home.

Citation

This case study version is from the Menu of Actions (2019). Suggested citation: Halliday, J., Platenkamp, L., Nicolarea, Y. (2019) A menu of actions to shape urban food systems for improved nutrition, GAIN, MUFPP and RUAF.

Spices in market in Pune (India), Shutterstock/RealityImages

The action and its aims

The cities of Pune and Birmingham are working bi-laterally on the ‘Nutrition Smart City’ initiative to develop policies, practices, and pilot programmes that accelerate reduction of all forms of malnutrition. The initiative is based on citizen engagement and draws on evidence from cities elsewhere around the world.

Why it was needed

The partnership came about following Birmingham’s signature of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact. In 2016, signatories were encouraged to develop inter-city partnerships between the global North and South for joint learning and experience sharing. In Birmingham, the Indian population is disproportionately represented among overweight or obese residents. In India, meanwhile, rapid urbanisation is linked to dietary transition as people are exposed to new sources of unhealthy food through supermarkets, street vendors and fast food outlets, with low-income groups particularly affected.

Who initiated it, who is involved

The City of Birmingham and think tank The Food Foundation instigated the partnership with Pune Municipal Corporation Food Foundation leads the initiative, which is funded by Tata Trusts and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through its ‘Maximising the Quality of Scaling Up Nutrition Plus (MQSUN+)’ project.

Outcome/how it strengthened coordination

As a result of the partnership Birmingham and Pune have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to consider specific powers at their disposal to support people to make healthier food choices out of home. This includes: leveraging public procurement to provide healthier food in public settings; using city infrastructure for more promotion of healthy food / less of unhealthy food; exploring how policy levers for business and skills development can shape a healthier food environment; identifying data to inform policy decisions. The cities are also supporting each other with citizen engagement initiatives.

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