Gaza Foodways [towards resilient women-led urban agroecological food systems] is a transdisciplinary research collaboration between: the Palestinian Hydrology Group, the Gaza Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Platform, the University College of Applied Science (Gaza), and the Centre for Agroecology, Water & Resilience, Coventry University (UK) to contribute toward a ‘just transition’ to diversified low-carbon urban food and farming systems. Together with the Urban Women’s Agripreneur Forum (UWAF), we aim to support a shift toward women-led agricultural research, practice and policy formulation, and advance women’s socioeconomic and political participation in food system planning, organisation and resourcing in ways that support food sovereignty.
The project is funded by the International Research and Development Centre (IDRC) – Canada
In spite of extreme challenges experienced in Gaza, women continue to produce, supply and provide local foods rooted in Palestinian culture and history. Our co-researchers are the elected representatives of the Urban Women’s Agripreneur Forum (UWAF) consisting of 250 members. UWAF are involved in, amongst other areas, date production and processing, seed banking, nursery development, herb cultivation and processing, fruit cultivation, beekeeping, fishing, pastoralism, livestock rearing and dairy production.
Strengthening urban food systems connected to territorial markets plays an important role in alleviating many challenges, producing fast-disappearing nutrient-dense local varieties that are not only tolerant of salinity and require no industrial inputs, but are climate resilient and at the heart of Gazan foodways.
Our emphasis is on supporting new, and strengthening existing, networks of micro and small-scale producers and processors that restore eroded knowledge, recover lost resources and rebuild bonds between people and the landscape upon which they depend. To this end, we are facilitating processes that invite researchers, students, policy-makers and influencers, together with producers and processors to stimulate collaborative relationships for new ways of thinking and acting together to stimulate change.
[ UWAF member and livestock keeper Huda Abu Khousa ]
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