FOODGaP: Food Governance and Policies at local level
PROJECT TITLE

FOODGaP: Food Governance and Policies at local level


YEAR 2025
PROJECT DURATION 36 months
DATE STARTED July 2025
DATE COMPLETED November -0001
FUNDING AGENCY / DONOR EU – Interreg NEXT MED, European Commission
COORDINATOR CIHEAM Bari
COUNTRIES Turkey,Greece,Italy,Lebanon,Tunisia
PARTNERS -

OVERALL OBJECTIVE

The FOODGaP: Food Governance and Policies at Local Level project empowers Mediterranean cities and local authorities to play a leading role in creating healthier, fairer, and more sustainable food systems. Its main goals are to:

  • Strengthen food security
  • Strengthen local leadership by giving cities the tools to design and manage food policies.
  • Bring people together by involving citizens, businesses and researchers in shaping solutions.
  • Connect cities and rural areas to support balanced development across territories.
  • Encourage cooperation across the Mediterranean and ensure local voices are heard in global food policy dialogue.
  • Support the green, social and digital transitions in line with European and international priorities.

To make these goals a reality, FOODGaP will:

  • Build institutional capacities of local authorities to co-design and deliver food policies.
  • Pilot 4 local food policies in Tyre (LB), Mersin (TR), Rome (IT), Houmt Souk (TN), engaging at least 50 stakeholders per city.
  • Implement 1 key action per pilot city to demonstrate effective participatory governance.
  • Create a Mediterranean Coalition of at least 15 cross-border/EU organizations to scale the FOODGaP approach.
  • Develop an IT platform to share methods, tools and outcomes for replication.

ACTIVITIES

EPLO will participate in the following WPs/Activities:

  • WP1 - Management and coordination
  • WP2 - Communication and dissemination initiatives
  • WP3 - Project implementation: Transnational capacity building for a common knowledge on food policies, Peer learning workshops, City-to-city exchange programme
  • WP4 - Project implementation: Building local food systems' participatory governance models, Comparative analysis of participatory governance practices, Co-design of local governance models
  • WP5 - Project implementation: Pilot actions to test participatory governance models for local food policy development, Local living labs set up, Transnational events
  • WP6 - Project implementation: Mediterranean Food Policy Coalition and creation of IT platform