Feeding Cities in the Global South: Challenges and Opportunities for Action in Cartagena

Session Summaries

SES #	TOPICS	NOTES
	Initial Work: Diagnostic by Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar (UTB)	UTB faculty and students begin the seminar with the support of Center for Latin-American Logistics Innovation (CLI) experts collecting data to create logistics and food markets indicators during a three-month period. They will map the Bazurto Market with particular focus on the actors and value-chain relationships.
1	Introduction to the seminar and the challenges of food provisioning in global South cities	-Introduction to the course: including requirements, expectations, commitments - Introduction to the Cartagena/Bazurto Market context, including brief history, geography, and economy, demography and administration. Guest speaker: Jota Samper, MIT Masters candidate -Introduction to Colombian economy and political context -Introduction to Cartagena, economy and planning -The problem: food access (not food availability) -The separation (in space and time) of production and consumption -Food provisioning as a multifaceted issue
2	Food markets and development policy	-A brief review of development policies -The relation between economic development and food commercialization -A history of the food market reform agenda: evidence from Latin America -Food market reform, then and now
3	A discussion on informality, economic development and mobility in developing countries	-Perspectives from the informal sector. Guest speakers: Rebecca Buell, Green Hub Global Director and Zahir Dossa, MIT PhD candidate -An introduction to the developing city: from marginality to informality -Opportunities for job and wealth creation in public markets -Mobility in the developing world
4	What does food market modernization look like?	-Changes in the architecture of global food systems: a “neoliberal food order” -The rapid rise of supermarkets in the Third World -The persistence of traditional retailing: there is no single path
5	The contradictions of food marketing in developing cities	-Food markets today are a complex hybrid of formal and informal dynamics -The diversity of food supply systems across Third World cities -Street foods and street markets. -Wholesale markets and tiendas de barrio in Colombia
6	Developing policy to improve food supply	-Products matter: analyzing commodity chains -Food supply systems: case studies and policy proposals -Food policy: a necessarily multi-faceted program
7	A discussion on planning	Guest speakers: -Sebastiao Ferreira, CoLab Research Fellow. Methodoloty for promoting social innovation. -Alexa Mills, Community Media Specialist.  Media as a tool for community planning
8	A discussion on Mobility in the Global South: Ralph Gakenheimer A discussion on Economic Change: Martha Isabel Bonilla
9	A discussion on participation and challenges for planning	Guess speaker: Lorlene Hoyt, Associate Professor of Urban Planning MIT@Lawrence Partnership Director
10	Introduction to Qualitative Research as a tool for planning and field work agenda and preparation.	Guest speaker: Annis Whitlow Sengupta, PhD Candidate, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
11	Best practices report on market efficiency cases	Students will conduct their own independent research duringa three month period and report to the instructors virtually on best practices cases on urban food markets policy. Each student will present one case from the global south.
	16-Day Trip to Cartagena over January Break Arrival at Cartagena. Welcome Dinner. Students conduct three weeks of field work Presentation to the Cartagena City Mayor and community leaders.
12	Reflection meetings and final presentation at MIT.