2023 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

17th Edition

Phase 6 of 7

Publication Preparation 18/09/2023 - 06/11/2023

Process phases

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Quezon City: “LET’S GO QC, LET’S GROW QC!”

Official proposal

06/06/2023 13:44

The GrowQC program has been recognized both locally and internationally as a best practice for community empowerment and participation to meet SDG#2 – Zero Hunger, SDG#8 – Decent Work, and SGD#3 Good Health and Well-Being

With over 600 urban farms and gardens established and over 15,000 urban gardeners as of April 2023, GrowQC’s action to enhance urban food production through the Joy of Urban Farming project proves that this program is timely and relevant especially during the hardest of lockdowns, and even post-pandemic where high prices of food are felt due to the disruption in the food chain brought about by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

With an inclusive and participative mindset, guided by SDG#17 – Partnerships for the Goals, GrowQC was awarded the TOP10 Galing Pook Award for 2021. Enabling policies like a) Executive Order 32 - the creation of the QC Food Security Task Force, b) Ordinance SP 2972 - Idle Land Tax Incentive, c) Executive Order 16 s.2021 - QC Healthy Public Food Procurement Policy, d.) Ordinance SP 3071 s.2021 – PangkabuhayanQC and innovative programs like a) Urban Community Model Farms, b) Aquaculture as a healthier food source, c) Zero waste management – converting market and industrial biodegradable waste into useful farm inputs, and now d) Food Surplus Rescue – rescuing edible food to feed the vulnerable has allowed the initiative to grow and thrive. As a Galing Pook awardee, the GrowQC initiative is a best practice that other cities can emulate.

Over 68% of QC’s urban farmers are women. Many of the model urban farms are run by empowered women who can better take care of their families by having the capacity to feed their children and even their communities. Other innovative and inspiring urban farms are led by Peoples with Disabilities (PWDs) who have shown the way to show that “if there is a will, there is a way!”

Through GrowQC, citizens also rekindled the Filipino cultural value of Bayanihan – citizens uniting in heroism for the community. We have seen countless volunteer movements from youth to uniformed personnel helping out to clean, clear, and land prepare idle and trash-filled lands into beautiful and productive food spaces, even simple everyday citizens who patronize urban farmer’s produce.

The other focus of GrowQC is the improvement of food systems. Our successful Kadiwa-GrowQC wholesale food market partnership with the Department of Agriculture has paved the way for the establishment of Kadiwa ni BBM and Hapag kay BBM national food security programs, championed by the President. These programs adopted QC’s efforts of linking local urban food production in urban peri-urban agri-food systems.

Currently, QC’s legislative arm created a new committee on food security and urban farming. The City now has two Urban Farmers duly elected as sectoral representatives for urban agriculture in the QC People’s Council. Moreover, more departments outside the Food Security Task Force are now engaging food security by integrating nature-based solutions like rainwater harvesting and biodigesters and integrating city designs to contribute to the initiative.

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