6. Monitoring Impact: How to Build and Maintain an Urban Food Policy Action

For policy actions to be truly effective and lead to sustained improvements in the food system, they must be deeply rooted in evidence, not only to understand their impact but also to maximize their effectiveness on the ground. However, impressive numbers alone aren't enough, they must be part of a comprehensive monitoring program that feeds back into the policies, helping them evolve and grow. As Simon Heck aptly puts it, "Data and evidence are very empowering. They help everyone in the food system think beyond today’s individual constraints and look toward the future." In this episode of Food and the Cities, we explore the importance of monitoring impact and how this can help build and sustain effective urban food policy actions. Join our host, Natasha Foote, as she engages Simon Heck, Senior Director for Urban Food Systems at CGIAR, the world’s largest agricultural research network, and Giulia Bartezzaghi, Director of the Food Sustainability Lab at Politecnico di Milano School of Management. Together, they will discuss: Tools for systemic and integrated food policy actions, developed and tested by the Food Trails project cities. The relevance of data collection for urban policy actions. How to design a monitoring system that ensures data collection leads to successful policy outcomes. Moreover, this episode takes a closer look at two cities from the Food Trails project—Milan and Copenhagen—to explore their specific Living Labs initiatives and the outcomes they achieved. This podcast is brought to you by Comune di Milano and Slow Food as part of the EU Horizon 2020 Food Trails project. Food Trails is an Eu Horizon 2020 project involving a consortium of 11 European cities, 3 universities, and 5 food organizations. Its goal is to promote more resilient, safe, fair, and diverse urban food systems through co-designed actions in Food 2030-led Living Labs, enabling the development of systemic urban food policies.