Food Security Governance for Municipal Planning Officers Training Course

Course overview

Municipal planning officers increasingly need to account for food access, market function, land-use pressure, climate shocks and vulnerable neighbourhoods within statutory plans and capital investment decisions. Yet food security responsibilities are often dispersed across planning, public health, agriculture, social protection, emergency management and private market actors. This course equips officers to turn food security evidence into municipal planning actions that are spatially targeted, governable and defensible in budget and policy discussions.

Participants examine how municipal decisions on zoning, market infrastructure, transport corridors, drainage, water access, informal trading areas and peri-urban land affect the availability, affordability, utilisation and stability of food. They learn to build a local food security profile; interpret IPC and household-level evidence; map food-system assets and risks in QGIS; identify governance gaps; and select interventions using a transparent prioritisation matrix. The course also addresses coordination structures, accountability arrangements, participatory planning and crisis-responsive planning for floods, droughts, displacement and price shocks.

Training is delivered through facilitated technical sessions, municipal case studies, GIS-based mapping exercises, stakeholder simulations and peer review of planning proposals. Participants work with a realistic municipal dataset and leave with a draft Municipal Food Security Governance Action Plan, including a food-system map, stakeholder and mandate matrix, priority intervention portfolio, implementation roles, indicators and a 12-month action schedule. This gives both the participant and their employer a practical document that can be adapted for local planning cycles.

The programme is designed for experienced planning and development professionals who influence municipal plans, local economic development, settlement upgrading, resilience programming or urban service investment. It is particularly valuable where municipalities are managing rapid urbanisation, peri-urban change, informal food markets or recurrent climate and humanitarian pressures.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Construct a municipal food security profile using availability, access, utilisation and stability indicators
• Map food-system assets, market catchments, vulnerable areas and disruption risks in QGIS
• Interpret IPC evidence, market price data and household food security findings for local planning decisions
• Apply a stakeholder, mandate and accountability matrix to diagnose food security governance gaps
• Design land-use, market infrastructure and service interventions that address identified food access constraints
• Prioritise municipal food security investments using a multi-criteria decision matrix
• Develop monitoring indicators and reporting arrangements for a municipal food security action plan
• Produce a Municipal Food Security Governance Action Plan with roles, milestones, budget assumptions and escalation routes

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Municipal Planning Officers — who must integrate food access and resilience considerations into statutory and spatial plans
• Urban Development Managers — who coordinate settlement, infrastructure and local economic development investments
• Local Economic Development Officers — who support market systems, food enterprises and livelihood opportunities
• Public Health and Nutrition Officers — who need planning mechanisms that address neighbourhood-level food access risks
• Disaster Risk Reduction Officers — who plan municipal preparedness and recovery for food supply disruptions
• Humanitarian and Development Programme Managers — who need to align external food security programmes with municipal systems

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in municipal planning, urban development, public health, disaster risk reduction, local economic development or a related public-sector function. Familiarity with reading planning maps, interpreting basic demographic or service data, and working with spreadsheets is assumed. Participants should understand the purpose of local development plans, budgets and stakeholder consultation processes. Prior use of GIS is helpful but not essential; guided QGIS exercises are included. No advanced statistics, programming, agricultural science degree or prior experience with IPC classification is required.

Training methodology

The course combines instructor-led technical briefings with applied work on a municipal food security scenario. Participants use QGIS to map markets, transport links, flood exposure and vulnerable communities; review IPC, price and household data; and test governance arrangements through a multi-agency coordination simulation. Small groups develop intervention options and defend their choices using a prioritisation matrix. Each participant then adapts the methods to their own municipality or a supplied case, receiving facilitator and peer feedback on an end-of-course action plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Municipal food security systems and planning mandates

• Food security dimensions: availability, access, utilisation and stability
• Urban and peri-urban food-system actors and flows
• Municipal planning decisions that shape food access
• Formal and informal food market infrastructure
• Local government mandates, powers and service responsibilities
• CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems
• Food security governance failure patterns in municipalities

Workshop: Participants create a preliminary food-system actor and mandate map for a municipal case, identifying overlapping responsibilities and unassigned risks.

Day 2: Evidence, indicators and spatial analysis

• Municipal food security indicator frameworks
• IPC Acute Food Insecurity Classification evidence and limitations
• Household food access and dietary diversity data interpretation
• Market price monitoring and food affordability analysis
• QGIS layers for markets, roads, population and hazards
• Market catchment and travel-time mapping
• Data quality, disaggregation and protection considerations

Workshop: Participants build a QGIS food access map combining market locations, population density, travel barriers and flood exposure, then identify priority neighbourhoods.

Day 3: Governance design and coordinated response

• Stakeholder mapping by influence, interest and operational role
• RACI matrices for municipal food security responsibilities
• Interdepartmental coordination mechanisms and terms of reference
• Community participation and grievance feedback channels
• Private-sector engagement with traders, transporters and market associations
• Humanitarian-development-municipal coordination arrangements
• Escalation protocols for price shocks and supply disruptions

Workshop: Groups draft a municipal food security coordination mechanism, including membership, decision rights, meeting cadence and an escalation protocol.

Day 4: Planning interventions, investment choices and resilience

• Food-sensitive land-use zoning and peri-urban land protection
• Market upgrading, storage, cold-chain and sanitation investments
• Transport, drainage and water services for food market continuity
• Informal vendor management and inclusive market access
• Climate and disaster risk screening for food-system assets
• Multi-criteria analysis for intervention prioritisation
• Cost, feasibility, equity and maintenance considerations

Workshop: Participants assess and rank a portfolio of municipal interventions using a weighted multi-criteria decision matrix and prepare an investment rationale.

Day 5: Action planning, monitoring and institutional adoption

• Municipal Food Security Governance Action Plan structure
• Results chains linking interventions to food security outcomes
• Output, outcome and early-warning indicator selection
• Baseline setting, targets and data collection responsibilities
• Annual workplan and municipal budget integration
• Risk registers and implementation assumptions
• Briefing senior leadership with maps and decision notes

Workshop: Participants produce and present a draft Municipal Food Security Governance Action Plan with mapped priorities, roles, indicators, milestones and a 12-month implementation schedule.

Tools & standards covered

QGIS, KoboToolbox, IPC Acute Food Insecurity Classification, CFS Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions