Like drinking from a fire-hose: A report from the second transnational conference

The second transnational conference in the Diet for a Green Planet Pilot Transfer Network was held in Mollet del Vallès on September 16-20, 2014. While the purpose of the first transnational conference in Södertälje in May was to transfer the Diet for a Green Planet concept to the receiving cities by deepening concept understanding in order to prepare for local adaptation, the main goal with this conference was to facilitate the part of the concept transfer that relates to political processes and management of public services.

In the Södertälje practice, this has a lot to do with the creation of a Diet Policy – a high level policy decision that guides the implementation work in all public kitchens throughout the municipality. But it also refers to very practical work, such as public procurement procedures and audit services.
A way of achieving the goal with this conference was by strengthening awareness of the concept and the project among participating policy makers and civil servants, some of which had not been very involved so far in the project.

Diet for a Green Planet transnational conference in Mollet del Vallès

During this conference we focused on what has been done within the policy area, and what will be done in the future from a policy making perspective when it comes to sustainable public meals. For example, some key topics during the conference were public procurement, audit and monitoring – these are all vital in order for the transformation into more sustainable public meals successful.

It is evident that the different participating partner cities have different possibilities and preconditions when working on policy level. While Mollet del Vallès has managed to both initiate and implement substantial action on policy level (although the responsible public administration in Catalonia for this kind of services is the Catalan Government on regional level), Molétai has very little space to operate on policy level – there are great challenges in involving policy makers in the process. And in Łomża there is an upcoming election in November, which has hampered the commitment from political level so far in the project.

A lesson learned is that there are a lot of factors that influence the politicians’ will and capacity to engage; some of which can be influenced (costs, cross-party agreements, level of cooperation with suppliers and producers etc.), some of which there is little opportunity to have impact on (national regulations, internal hierarchies and decision-making procedures that are well-established, municipal budget rules and regulations etc.).

The evaluation of the conference shows an overwhelming satisfaction with the program and an increased knowledge of both the concept itself, and also – in particular from partner cities Łomża and Molétai – of Mollet del Vallès’ way of adapting and implementing it.

Diet for a Green Planet transnational conference in Mollet del Vallès

A few testimonials from the participants:

“This activity was like drinking from a fire-hose. There was so much information to take in and process during a short period of time. However with the help of simultaneous interpreting, a well-planned schedule (working from large scale patterns to small scale details) I was able to gain a solid understanding of the context of Mollet and how the concept relates to it.”

“Very informative, interesting and so well varied that I believe there was something for everyone.”

“The program was all killer and no filler. The tempo remained very high for the entire program. I gave a 9 and not 10 as I feel there was a real need to have an afternoon or an evening free at the midpoint of the conference in order for people to rest up and be fighting fit for the final days. This is my only point of criticism for the program.”