Gaza Urban and Peri-urban Platform (GUPAP)

Context

GUPAP's work was designed in response to the prolonged crisis in the Gaza Strip region, where economic opportunities are severely limited and urban agriculture is not sufficiently recognised in local policies, regulations and plans.

The project

Faced with these facts, GUPAP wanted to contribute to the sustainable development and resilience of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Gaza Strip. Since 2013, the platform's aim has been to develop agricultural management and technical capacities in order to encourage the introduction of innovative and participatory production and marketing practices. A number of actions have been put in place to :

• Influence at local and national level (where appropriate at different levels) food security, economics, local governance and other policies related to the development of sustainable and resilient agriculture in Gaza.
• Consolidate the establishment of an urban agriculture resource centre in order to facilitate access to information from Gaza, Palestine and other (Arabic-speaking) countries.
• Facilitate and strengthen institutional capacity and innovation in urban and peri-urban agriculture.
• Work with governmental and non-governmental institutions to reflect on the possible integration of urban agriculture at local fins into national strategies and institutions;
• Facilitate the participation of value chain actors, particularly small-scale producers, so that they can have a say in these strategies.

Who is it for ?

GUPAP is aimed at farmers and small producers, women with agricultural or agri-food projects and civil society, providing support and networking to encourage the exchange of experience.

With whom ?

GUPAP is an active member of 6 national, regional and international networks and working groups, including one dedicated to representation for West Asia and the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty, which is part of the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) of the United Nations Committee on American Sovereignty (UN-CFS).

The multi-stakeholder platform also includes 80 local and national members seeking to positively influence agricultural policies to develop the urban agriculture market in the Gaza Strip in a sustainable way.

Means

GUPAP is financially supported by the two international organisations Oxfam and Ruaf. It also relies on a wide network of players at local, national and international level.

Which results ?

Over the years, the GUPAP has led to the creation of several projects:

• Creation of the "Family Farming Forum in Gaza" platform to encourage the exchange of experience.
• Technical support for women with agricultural or agri-food processing projects: skills enhancement, provision of equipment, creation of cooperatives.
• Implementation of five policies to develop urban and peri-urban agriculture geared towards the local market, in particular via a campaign defending the rights of urban women farmers. GUPAP has also succeeded in setting up and consolidating a safe space for exchange and influence, the first of its kind in Palestine, called the Urban Women Agripreneurs Forum (UWAF). Among these results, at least 70% of women entrepreneurs increased their productivity and family income by improving their production in 2020.
• Promotion of food sovereignty and urban family farming as strategies for improving the resilience of farming communities in situations of prolonged crisis;
• Creation of a "Family Farming Forum in Gaza" platform to encourage the exchange of experience.
• Creation of an "Urban Agroecology and Food Sovereignty" degree at the University of Gaza
• Creation of a discussion group for farmers on specific topics (seeds, water, etc.).
• Solidarity marketing" project: in collaboration with 3 international organisations, purchase of products from small women producers in order to meet the needs of the most vulnerable.
• Jamai'a project: support for the formation of informal groups enabling peer-to-peer credit to enable the creation of businesses and access to agricultural equipment and land for producers.
• Setting up a local seed bank.
• Support for the development of local fodder production projects to reduce farmers' dependence on imported fodder.

Little extra

GUPAP has set up and runs the City food system actor network (CFSAN). This network of actors dedicated to the food system is the first of its kind in the region. It is also the first place where local food system stakeholders can come together and reflect on the situation to see how they can influence policies and increase food resilience. In this way, decision-makers and farmers come together to co-construct action plans to contribute to the resilience of the local food system.

Sources

• Gaza Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP) - Lush Spring Prize
• Gaza Urban & Peri-urban Agriculture Platform (GUPAP), a space towards agricultural policies to enhance resilience & sustainability |
• Department of Economic and Social Affairs
• https://www.fao.org/3/ne740fr/ne740fr.pdf

This initiative sheet was written by Pia Harismendy, student at Bordeaux Sciences Agro in 2022-2023.

Last modification : 15 Jun 2023.