Municipal markets as epicenters and living labs of cities and circularity

Markets are epicenters and living labs of cities and food systems, while also, in the case of Panama, are the third biggest generator of (mostly organic) waste. In the case of Panama City, the Municipal Network of Markets (RIMMU) also has the major challenge – and opportunity – to incorporate a transformative circular economy approach that reduces food waste, increases efficiencies in its operation and creates innovative governance models that accelerates change, with people at the center. 

Solid waste management (SWM) is one of the biggest issues of Panama and its effects are seen throughout the country, but specially in Panama City, where Cerro Patacón, the landfill of the Municipality of Panama (MUPA), is the tip of the iceberg of this systemic challenge. About 2,500 tons of waste are disposed at Cerro Patacón every day, coming from the 1.4 million inhabitants of the metropolitan area.   A key layer on this issue is that organic waste composes an average of 50% of all landfills in Panama (INECO, 2017). The global significance unveils the fact that food loss and waste account for 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions and the necessity to curb their spreading in Panama. On the other hand, Panama also faces significant challenges in meeting SDG 2, which aims to eradicate hunger and malnutrition.   On this matter, according to the SOFI 2024 report, 5.6% of the population (200,000 people) lacks sufficient access to food. Diet-related noncommunicable diseases, such as obesity and hypertension, are prevalent, affecting 71.1% of adults. Current food systems impact both health and the environment, making it crucial for states to promote sustainability and nutrition.   If we include Merca Panamá, which is not part of the Municipal Network of Markets, but serves a the main supplier of these, the estimated generation goes up to 33.7 tons a day. This poses another challenge and opportunity in terms of integrating the markets to the local ecosystems of these diverse territories.  Therefore, network of municipal markets plays a key role by enabling access to fresh and nutritious food, promoting healthy eating habits, and reducing food loss and waste, while transitioning to circular models that put people at the center and becomes an enabler of local ecosystems.   The before mentioned transition highlights deeper needs, such as insufficient institutional capacity and the absence of an effective inter-institutional and inter-sectorial governance mechanism that make markets more sustainable, while at the same time underscoring severe disparities in waste management services that predominantly impact vulnerable groups like women, children, elderly people, or individuals with a disability.   There is great urgency now more than ever before that Panama accelerates its transition towards a circular economy model in its waste management systems. The recent experience through the municipal initiative Zero Waste is already proposing markets as ‘living labs’ for building circular economy practices with people at the center, the case of San Felipe Neri market is already creating traction and represents a starting point to expand and scale through the RIMMU. 

This new learning cycle "Sustainable Transformation of Municipal Markets in Panama: Circular Economy and Zero Waste" builds on the learnings of three previous learning cycles and UNDP Panama's portfolio on circular economy that will now be expanded from one market (San Felipe Neri) to the Municipal Market Network of Panama City through a joint project of UNDP with FAO.  The R&D capabilities of our Accelerator Lab will not only build on the continuous learnings that we have generated on this topic but will also deepen the understanding on how municipal/governance sandboxes can bring back markets to being epicenters of life in Panama City through circular economy models that foster social cohesion, solidarity and wellbeing in communities, with a gender approach.

Markets are urban hubs and food system labs, with Panama's Municipal Markets being the third-largest source of organic waste. Learn more on how they are adopting a circular model that foster social cohesion, solidarity and wellbeing in communities, with people at the center.

how municipal/governance sandboxes can bring back markets to being epicenters of life in Panama City through circular economy models that foster social cohesion, solidarity and wellbeing in communities?

The center of our learning question is on regulatory sandboxes, we have already conducted a few sessions with the Municipal Market Network to understand the institutional barriers and opportunities to innovation for circularity models.  We will use this as a base to identify key areas there the current regulation (or gaps in the regulation) can enable innovation, or better said, we will create a sandbox to test how the municipality could innovate with their current regulatory landscape and what is needed to enable a circular model for the municipal network of markets. This will be done not only looking through the regulatory lens, but we will also build on the solutions network for market circularity and expand the network to new partners from private sector, NGO, academia and civil society to build actionable collective intelligence, co-designing experiments and interventions with high potential to scale. 

As described in the challenge statement, municipal markets have issues with their business model and limited institutional capacity to articulate a new value proposition on its own. This is why we will bring in a systemic approach to look into the current institutional regulations, but also into the business model data of the market as a municipal enterprise. We will identify the value people see in the market and how it could respond better to citizen needs through citizen generated data; and will use these insights to co-design with the previously mentioned network of solutions actionable collective intelligence to test and scale opportunities to make the markets epicenters of life and circularity in Panama City while improving their business model and sustainability, with people at the center.

The Network of Municipal Markets is in expansion and the learnings of this process can generate a dynamic where markets become a place of wellbeing, community and discovery of new opportunities for sustainable communities. This model can be expanded to other Municipalities such as Arraijan, Chorrera or Colón, articulating alliances with other key actors such as MIDA, IMA, IDIAP and Cadena de Frío to strengthen food systems and value chains to reduce food waste before it reaches markets; as well as partnerships with private sector and agricultural producers for collaborations/investments in high potential food and circularity initiatives that could reduce food waste and support food security in Panama. For people and planet.