(11) Cities2030 Vicenza Food Lab and its CRFS: the collaboration with IPA Risorgive

During the implementation of the activities of both the policy labs and the living labs, the importance of enhancing the synergies with local stakeholders and with ongoing initiatives resulted to be crucial. In the context of Cities2030, the Municipality of Vicenza and the International Library "La Vigna" have tried to promote the concept of CRFS and mostly to design it around the territory of the Vicenza province. This periurban area has close relationships with the urban food system and it is also strategic to promote a more sustainable approach at an environmental, social and economic level. 

Accordingly, one of the most important collaborations is the one established between the Cities2030 Vicenza Food Lab and IPA RISORGIVE. IPA is the acronym of "Intese Programmatiche d'Area", which are decentralized planning and territorial development tool, through which the Veneto Region offers the possibility to local public bodies and economic and social parties to participate in regional programming. Among others, IPA are asked to promote, through the concertation method, the sustainable development of the area to which it refers, to formulate policies to propose to its territory and to higher levels of government and to select the strategic projects to be launched under the various funding lines.

IPA Risorgive is coordinated by the Municipality of Vicenza and involves 16 towns of the Vicenza Province but also the most important stakeholders, such as trade organisations, unions, social actors... Its specificity is that it embraces an area which is rich of water, among one of the largest area in Europe. On the one hand, it represents one of the most advanced territorial areas of the country, with excellent companies, a high propensity to export, a labor market with the lowest unemployment rates, a widespread environmental heritage, cultural attractions of undoubted value and excellence in the agri-food and food and wine sectors; on the other hand, it presents the emergence of some signs of a slowdown. In particular, we are witnessing a widening of the gap between the various components of society which is leading towards a progressive reduction of resources for a portion of the population, an emergence of new environmental fragilities and a widening of the areas of vulnerability, in particular for more fragile subjects. In this context, the need to enhance and protect the natural areas of the resurgences, to strengthen and extend the network with a view to integrate water, stable meadows and landscape, agriculture, food and agri-food quality, sustainability of urban and peri-urban food systems, health and education conscious consumption is becoming pervasive. In the light of these considerations, the Cities2030 Vicenza Food Lab has supported the activities with concrete actions, which are briefly described below.

• Participation of the Cities2030 Vicenza Food Lab in the participatory tables of IPA Risorgive (November 21, 2023 – February 15, 2024 - April 16, 2024). During the meetings of IPA Risorgive, the Cities2030 Project and its main concepts were shared by the project team with the IPA members so to raise awareness and contribute at generating knowledge on sustainable urban systems and food related issues, also including the relevance of food governance. The Cities2030 Project was included in the working documents of IPA Risorgive as a possible initiative of reference to develop synergies, also in consideration of the activities for the follower cities

• March 19, 2024 - Workshop - Citie2030 Vicenza Food Lab hosts IPA Risorgive. To facilitate the discussion on strategic thematic priorities for Vicenza CRFS with a specific focus on the Risorgive area, the IPA Risorgive members and the Cities2030 Vicenza Food Lab team participated in a workshop organised by the Municipality of Vicenza and "La Vigna", which also hosted the meeting. The participants worked together on three main interlinked areas of common interest: water, food systems and sustainable development. Working groups were organised to support the definition of possible ideas for the next future, in close synergy with ongoing projects, including Cities2030 and its possible follow-up initiatives

• May 30, 2024 - Event - IPA Risorgive members participated in the Vicenza UN Food System Dialogue organised by the Cities2030 Vicenza Food Lab thus reinforcing the dialogue at a periurban level and the capacity to develop collaborative initiatives around food and its related issues on the short, medium and long term (more info in the dedicated section, here)

• September 30, 2024 - Event - "Towards a territorial food policy. A roadmap for orienting the next steps”, a follow up event of the Cities2030 Vicenza Food Lab UN Food System Dialogue to outline the steps that could be implemented after the Cities2030 Project's end. In particular, the document Towards a Food Policy for Vicenza. A Roadmap to guide the next steps was presented by the authors. The examples and practices of other European cities (also belonging to the Cities2030 consortium) were also shared. IPA Risorgive members were invited to participate to reinforce the dialogue at a periurban level and mostly enhance the collaborative initiatives around food and its related issues on the short, medium and long term with a view to develop a common food governance in the CRFS

In the context of these activities, also the other IPAs active in the Province of Vicenza where contacted and involved. In particular, representatives of the IPA Alto Vicentino participated, thus multiplying the visibility of the Cities2030 Vicenza Food Lab’s initiatives among their members, which count 32 Municipalities and 13 organisations.

The Veneto Region has recognized and rewarded the synergy between the Cities2030 Vicenza Food Lab and IPA Risorgive.