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The origins of the health crisis we are currently facing in the west and certainly in the UK of obesity and overweight, has its origins in the education of children, youth and parents which should be prioritised and given financial support by the government. Nutrition needs to be prioritised for the first 21 years of life as non-communicable and chronic disease has its origins in the cells of our young people. We need to see the investment in the learner ages 0-21 as investments in the future to prevent illness and lifestyle diseases. Teachers can play a key role in this education. If they wer... قراءة المزيدe trained about the importance of diet in their PGCEs, they would be less likely to accept poor food systems in the their schools. (see discussion topic 3) Community can also play a key role in this; encouraging everyone to be active members in their food system and use their voices for change. Schools could be at the centre of urban growing initiatives (example given in discussion topic 2) in support of their community and vice versa. We need to be a part of nature’s ecosystem again and show children how to be part of that ecosystem rather than detached from it. It is important to listen to the voice of children, empower them with the knowledge to recognise healthy and nutritious food, how they identify with it culturally and understand how the food they eat affects them. Children intuitively know what is good for them when we connect them to nature. Supply chains should be shortened wherever possible - the closer children are to food growing or growing it themselves either in a school or community garden the more likely they are to be interested in it and appreciate it. Not only can Chefs play a key role in school ecosystems but they are also key in communicating what good, whole food is and how we can cook it and make it taste good. In many countries in Africa, malnutrition and obesity lives side by side. This is a direct result of urbanisation and the glamorisation of fast food. In these countries, effort needs to be made to eliminate the stigma around growing your own food so that is no longer seen as poverty but community initiatives could come together to create urban gardens and remove the stigma. Chefs can play a major role in removing this stigma and teaching people how to cook with indigenous varieties of crops. Indigenous and heritage varieties of food should be prioritised for subsidies by governments when they are more nutritious than rice and wheat. Indigenous food should also be included in school feeding program meals and communities should have a say in what food is used for these meals & be able to shorten supply chains using locally grown food giving children nutrient dense food and not empty calories just to fill their bellies. Providing school meals and school feeding programs is good, but the food also has to be nutritious as this has a direct impact on learning & concentration. Food literacy i.e -the skills and knowledge for how to be healthy for life needs to be prioritised as part of school curriculums. Cooking and Nutrition was introduced into the English national curriculum for all 5-14 year olds in 2014, but no study or evaluation has since taken place on how it is being delivered. Food education and learning should be managed by an official body such as Ofsted. Where food literacy is not yet part of the curriculum, it should not be forgotten how relevant food is in so may subjects at school from languages, to history, to geography, there is no subject into which food cannot be incorporated and be used as an enriched learning tool. Food literacy needs to happen in tandem at school and at home and we can use innovative ideas to help teach parents how to cook such as mobile teaching kitchens which have already been shown to be successful in India and funding chefs to give community cooking classes. Exercise and teaching the importance of staying active needs to be a compulsory part of the curriculum worldwide. Governments should actively fund advertising to promote healthy foods, healthy, sustainable consumption habits and the importance of movement and exercise and follow up with a school roll out around the campaigns. Social media platforms should give free advertising for healthy food and lifestyle adverts. Governments need to intervene to stop the commercialisation of food in schools, hospitals and universities. The importance of chefs in these setting needs to be recognised. Ultra processed foods should be taxed by the government and additives in food should be reduced and some banned in order to prevent compulsive consumption. Some artificial colours and preservatives that should be banned worldwide are E-numbers tartrazine (E102), quinoline yellow (E104), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), ponceau 4R (E124) and allura red (E129); the dangers of which are well known and are known to cause hyperactivity, are linked to stomach upsets and swelling of skin. Power needs to be taken away from the pharmaceutical industry in controlling the approach to public health and placed back into the hands of the individual. We need to move from disease care to preventive health care.Nutritionists should be available for appointments at GP surgeries and new parents should see a nutritionist as part of their baby care lessons. People do not realise the power that they do have over their own health and the earlier food literacy is taught, the earlier connection to nature is realised, the more we will have populations that are able to take care of their own health. قراءة القليل

Improving health and nutrition for children and youths relies on prioritising good food, reducing advertising for processed and junk food and connecting children to local, sustainable, nutritious and affordable whole food from a young age: Currently in the UK less than 2% of Food and Drink advertising goes towards advertising healthy food. Therefore not only should advertising be reduced for processed food but governments should actively fund advertising to promote healthy food and consumption habits and be matched by in-school campaigns that have shown to be hugely successful in engaging yout... قراءة المزيدh and encouraging them to be active citizens in developing their food system. Children naturally know what is good for them if they are not mislead. Advertising which glamourises unhealthy food should be banned and in places such as petrol stations unhealthy snacks should not be on display so much as children are attracted by the bright packaging. Bring back school cooking lessons - food literacy should be prioritised as part of the curriculum. There are many wonderful schemes and charities working with schools but they are usually one-off events. We need food education to be embedded in schools to help shift the publics preferences and behaviours: eg in the UK, Food For Life initiatives should be supported in schools by the government. Connection to nature is fundamental for children to learn about food and it is also very good for their mental health. The closer children are to growing food, and knowing where it comes from, the more excited they are likely to get about it and there is evidence to suggest that when children do these activities at school, they are more likely to eat their 5 a day at home. Food literacy needs to happen both at school and at home. Drawing parallels between Africa and Ireland, sometimes even when children are educated at school, they go home and all the effort is lost as the parents either do not understand or cannot afford to eat more nutritious food. We have to take a holistic approach looking at the whole picture. As a society we have lost the skills to use affordable nutritious food at home. In order to support parents in providing good nutrition regardless of budget and background, not only do we need to look to schools where parents can be invited in to take part in cooking, but also in less obvious places such as Sure Start centres in the UK which could positively benefit families who are struggling. In India, mobile teaching kitchens have been used to teach parents how to cook and would be a great initiative in other countries As suggested in the report by the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, schools should be ‘healthy zones’. Unhealthy food environments, particularly in secondary schools, compromises pupils’ ability to make good food choices. We should protect children from advertising, ultra processed foods and counter it with education and good quality food available at school. Schools should be hubs for health within communities to ensure young people are receiving appropriate food education. More support should be given to the school workforce; improvements in food education qualifications and resources are needed and stronger reporting and evaluation needs to be in place. Chefs in particular can play a major role in this food education especially when chefs are incorporated into the school ecosystem - giving cooking lessons and engaging the children in what they eat. School cooks have a huge opportunity to influence children's diet. Chefs need to be paid a living wage to to do this. The wider Chef community are an important voice for communicating what good and whole food is, can explain to people how to eat the rainbow and its benefits. There also needs to be much more interaction between chefs and those who are providing school meals. Governments especially in parts of India and Africa need to look at subsidising and championing indigenous varieties of food such as millet and fonio which are more nutritious than traditionally subsidised wheat and rice crops. This would make the the nutritious food more affordable and would support women who are often the smaller scale farmers. قراءة القليل

The reduction/elimination of chronic disease in adults is founded in healthy and nutritious food for children and youth - building healthy lifestyle and positive food habits: Food education in schools and initiatives highlighted in the previous discussion topic such as school gardens and school cooking classes that also teach parents should be prioritised and given financial support by the government in order to eliminate the health crisis we are facing long term. The money spent on chronic illness could be prevented by ensuring people eat real food. Children need a broad and comprehensive foo... قراءة المزيدd education to be able to navigate the food system and be healthy consumers of sustainable diets. Parents need to know that they have the power to demand change over school food systems and school meals decisions. Emphasis should be placed on the importance of community in this. Educating parents and children is important but if building healthy lifestyle and positive food habits can be embedded into a community, everyone benefits. E.g there is a school feeding program in Benin where the community created the school garden and tends to the school garden, growing the food which feeds the school children and has food left over to go to the community living in proximity to the school. The parents therefore know exactly what their children are eating and the close proximity of the growing food means that the meals are fresh and nutritious. The benefits of projects like this are tangible but they also need financial support. The government has a responsibility to provide funding for initiatives like this when there is so much evidence to support how successful they can be. Rural schools are often space-rich and should be empowered to start these initiatives; inner-city should be encouraged to look at installing roof top vegetable beds to bring students closer to real whole food. Furthermore, India’s school feeding program feeds 100,000,000 children every day and a paper recently released showed evidence that this mid-day meal had a significant positive impact on the health of the children of the children who grew up eating this meal every day. Now that we know how successful this is, the nutritional content of the meal needs scrutinised and power given back to communities to decide what goes into these mid-day meals from their local vicinity including indigenous crops. To promote healthy eating habits in communities, fund chefs to run community cooking workshops whether online or in person to help teach parents and other members of the public how to cook. This could also be done is a community supermarket if it has its own kitchen. Since doctors only receive 8 hours of nutrition training in their degree and there is an ever growing base of evidence to support the connection between diet and mind and body health, nutritionist and dieticians should be a larger part of the health service. Each GP should have a nutritionist where patients who would benefit from lifestyle and diet changes can go and have a longer appointment. There are initiatives such as Culinary Medicine UK which provide training to doctors in nutrition with a chef and a dietician. Interdisciplinary work such as this can play a key role in connecting the missing dots between diet and poor health outcomes. Power needs to be taken away from the pharmaceutical industry in controlling the approach to public health and be placed back into the hands of the individual. We need to move from disease care and to preventive health care universally but also to prevent children from damaging their microbiome through antibiotics at a young age. Access to good food is a right for everyone and there needs to be resources for new parents to learn not just about breastfeeding but also about nutrition for their children. Spices and herbs have been used for millennia to heal and promote good health within the human body, the active ingredients of which are in many pharmaceutical drugs. The link between food and medicine needs to be taught to young people so it empowers them to be interested in these powerful, healing foods. قراءة القليل

Driving food supplies to do the right thing for children and empowering families to demand affordable nutritious food for all children and youth are two of the most important outcomes for the next 10 years in a country's development: Driving food supplies to do the right thing for children is certainly needed but the change needs to come from policy level. Government intervention is urgently needed to stop the commercialisation of food in schools and universities. Many catering companies pay schools and universities to be able to serve their food there resulting in the catering companies searc... قراءة المزيدhing to make a profit elsewhere by either taking out contracts with processed food companies and/or using cheap food in their catering. This needs to stop and kitchens need to be brought back to all schools As well as driving food supplies to do the right thing for children, supply chains should be shortened wherever possible - the closer children are to food growing or growing it themselves either in school or community garden the more likely they are to be interested in and appreciate it. One of the most effective things a country could do over the next 10 years would be to train teachers in their PGCE the importance of good, real, whole, nutritious food for children. In their training, teachers should be taught the physiological implications of poor diet and and the negative effect of obesity on IQ and cortex development as well as the link between food and behaviour/concentration in class. If children do not have access to their fundamental right to good food, - nutrient dense food and not just calories - they are also less likely to partake in academic learning so it is in the teachers interest to make sure children and youth are fed properly. If teachers were taught the importance of this in training, they would be less likely to accept unhealthy or cheap food in the schools they work in. Food can bring context to teaching in many subjects - Food for Life provides resources and lesson plans to do just this. Sometimes, messaging, teaching and advertising around healthy food can be quite dry -fun needs to be brought back into teaching healthy food and lifestyle habits. TastEd uses an evidence based approach using the senses - as applied in Finland for the early years curriculum- to help children to learn to like and enjoy eating healthy foods. The early years are so important for shaping dietary preferences and using the senses to explore food is a great tool for teachers and is great for giving kids the opportunity to explore and experience veg and fruit in a non-pressured way, away from meal times with their peers. This also takes some pressure off parents to instigate healthy eating habits. In Food for Life initiatives, schools have a School Nutrition Action Group which is pupil led and so empowers children to look after their own health. Teachers also need to be taught the link between food and climate change - if we changed our food systems, this could have a massively positive effect on climate change. If food supplies did the right thing for children, it would also have a positive effect on the climate and environment. Student exchanges from urban to rural schools and vice versa is a great idea. The Wheel of the year should be celebrated to give children a sense of connection to the changing seasons and school trips to see food growing should also be common place at schools. In some parts of the UK, there are local schemes to plant fruit trees in parks. not only is this a fantastic idea, but it brings children and the community closer to food, especially in urban areas but it also makes way for community initiatives to get together to look after the trees and furthermore can provide food for the homeless. Empowering communities is as important as empowering families. When we talk to people, we need to talk about real issues & not just small talk. We will use our voices to instigate change, get politicians involved and lobby them for change. It is not right that we still have hungry people worldwide and this needs to change. We can use social media for good to raise awareness about nutrition for school children. قراءة القليل

Co-organized by International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Food Tank, and Global Alliance for the Future of Food, and in partnership with the UN Food System Summit (UNFSS) Champions Network, presented seven-panel discussions (running one event each month from January to June 2021) focusing on how to transform the world’s food systems. Each virtual series explored one of the Global Alliance’s seven Calls to Action and brought together more than 25+ UNFSS Champion speakers worldwide, including world-renowned activists, journalists, business leaders, farmers, policy and technical... قراءة المزيد experts, and many others. Each conversation will help set the stage and identify critical pathways to create a better future of food and strengthen our global food systems for the upcoming UNFSS in September 2021. This final discussion highlighted the Global Alliance’s Call to Action: Promote nutrient-dense, whole food diets underpinned by diversified food production adapted to different microclimates and socio-cultural contexts. Moderators Danielle Nierenberg of Food Tank and Ruth Richardson of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food opened the discussion by contextualizing it within the inequities and weak points of food systems highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Richardson stated that a shift towards resilience is required to prevent further such shocks to food systems. This panel discussion fhad key focus on Action Track 5, which aims to work to ensure the continued functionality of sustainable food systems in areas that are prone to conflict or natural disasters. The Action Track will also promote global action to protect food supplies from the impacts of pandemics. Panelists echoed these calls for change but presented differing ideas of what kinds of change are needed. Dorit Adler of the Israeli Forum for Sustainable Nutrition identified the western diet as a causal factor in the prominence of diseases including hypertension, diabetes, and COVID-19 as well as the environmental destruction of industrial agriculture and advocated for the subsidization of nutritious staples of the Mediterranean diet instead. Rick White of the Canadian Canola Growers Association pointed out the need to ensure that farmers continue to be economically viable and stressed the importance of government support for agriculture and nutritional education. Mike Nkhombo Khunga of the SUN Civil Society Network explained the need to make agriculture more accessible to youth, who are motivated to create sustainable food systems but encounter barriers to getting involved. The discussion presented connections between food systems, diet, the pandemic, and national security, among other concerns, indicating a need for a systems perspective when creating solutions. Panelists explained the need to incorporate gender and local culture in decision making and to seek opportunities for collaboration between the public and private sectors. Most importantly, all three panelists agreed that food is a human right and that it needs to be made affordable, accessible, and appropriate to local cultural and environmental context. قراءة القليل

The main findings of this discussion focused on the areas listed below: 1. For food insecurity in the past, we have mostly focused on yield, income, and very particular metrics, but we know that we also have to look at equity, health and access. 2. Youth are an important part of the conversation because they are pushing for diets to change in many ways. They are not willing to have the same sort of calorie rich but nutrient deficient diets that have been part of our global diets for so long. 3. With so many people falling ill from the COVID-19, unhealthy diets are contributing to pre-existing ... قراءة المزيدconditions that put them more at risk. 4. COVID-19 puts diets at risk through disrupted health and nutrition services, job and income losses, disruptions in local food supply chains, and as a direct result of infections among poor and vulnerable people. 5. The manner in which food systems absorb, recover, adapt and transform in response to the shock of COVID-19 will shape their level of resilience and their ability to deliver on the longer-term triple challenge. 6. The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting food and nutrition security through economic and social systems shocks, food system disruptions and gaps in coverage of essential health and nutrition services. 7. Food systems in low- and middle-income countries must adapt and strengthen food and nutrition security in the wake of COVID-19. قراءة القليل

Below are ten key discussion outcomes from this panel discussion: 1. The pandemic has shown us that diseases which are nutrition related have led to the biggest number of hospitalizations and deaths. There is a correlation between diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and nutrition. 2. Food shouldn’t be treated as a commodity but rather a basic human right. 3. Unhealthy food options and processed food is cheaper for the consumer due to subsidies on foods like wheat, corn and soy. There is a need to subsidize healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts. This would result in lowering ... قراءة المزيدthe price of healthy food for the consumer. 4. Farmers are the soul and heart of healthy food systems and we must ensure that governments support them and ensure their survival and sustainability for the generations to come. 5. In terms of universalization of some of the policies, school feeding programs could ensure that young people and children within their school are able to have the nutrition they need. 6. A need is to incentivize some of the local growers within their society. They will be working in order to provide food within the society and the communities rather than focusing on very huge business opportunities which provide food but most of the food are high in calories and sugar. 7. The government mechanisms are effective in making sure that all these are key players that are working on the creature that is enhanced and are able to do their way. 8. The pandemic underscores the importance of resilience in food systems, which we should learn from to prepare for future emergencies. 9. Subsidization almost always gets capitalized in increased costs of land, labor, and capital, therefore the price structure increases, which eventually increases the cost to consumers. 10. The private sector is well aware that bigger and bolder moves need to be made in the direction of human rights, and the private sector and farmers have an important role to play. قراءة القليل

There were some areas of divergence seen between some panelists when it comes to the area of the private sector. The notion that the private sector is good at responding to market demand and consumer preferences, i.e.. reducing salt, sugar, saturated fats when demanded by consumers was not shared by all panelists. There was also divergence in the area of education and labelling products to consumers.

Co-organized by International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Food Tank, and Global Alliance for the Future of Food, and in partnership with the UN Food System Summit (UNFSS) Champions Network, presented seven-panel discussions (running one event each month from January to June 2021) focusing on how to transform the world’s food systems. Each virtual series explored one of the Global Alliance’s seven Calls to Action and brought together more than 25+ UNFSS Champion speakers worldwide, including world-renowned activists, journalists, business leaders, farmers, policy and technical... قراءة المزيد experts, and many others. Each conversation will help set the stage and identify critical pathways to create a better future of food and strengthen our global food systems for the upcoming UNFSS in September 2021. The sixth event highlighted the Global Alliance's call to action: creating enabling environments for agroecology and regenerative approaches where investments can flourish and benefit all. This overlaps with action track #3, as it connects to nature-positive production. The discussion focused on ways to enable these practices through investment, education, advocacy, and government. Each participant brought a unique perspective to this challenge. This discussion aims to understand the ways that enabling environments can be created, the actions to be taken, what are the obstacles in the way, what are the dominant narratives that influence decision making, what are the knowledge gaps that need to be filled and how do we create the political will where agroecological innovation can flourish. The event is part of a series of panels with themes inspired by Global Alliance’s Seven Calls to Action to transform the food system. Moderated by Ruth Richardson, Executive Director of the Global Alliance and Danielle Nierenberg, President of Food Tank, each conversation features members of the United Nations Food Systems Champions Network. Helena Leurent of Consumers International explained that greater awareness among consumers can change dietary preferences in favour of sustainable agriculture. Vijay Kumar of RySS, India, described the pivotal roles of both government investment and grassroots, women-led collectives in increasing access to sustainable agriculture practices. Denisa Livingston of the Diné Community Advocacy Alliance and Slow Food International provided a reminder of the importance of Indigenous peoples and their traditional knowledge in creating more sustainable food systems. Lana Weidgenant of Zero Hour International highlighted the importance of young people to the future of both climate activism and agriculture, and argued that agroecology has promise to improve youth participation in agriculture. Finally, Emile Frison of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) presented some of the most challenging obstacles to creating policies which favour agroecology and sustainable food production, including poor awareness among policy makers and the profit-driven nature of the agricultural sector, and stressed the need for a paradigm shift in our thinking about food systems. قراءة القليل

Key Findings: Panellists believed that knowledge bases on agroecology must be shared with policymakers, who can support and help scale up agroecology and regenerative approaches. They discussed the need for strong connections between various generations, countries and sectors in order to scale-up agroecological practices. Some panellists found that government financing and investments from philanthropists can aid in the transformation. For better transformation, it was found that healing frameworks should be used and implementation of intergenerational knowledge and knowledge transfer. Consume... قراءة المزيدr advocacy groups have reached out to sustainable farmers in their respective countries and formed connections. Some consumer advocacy groups started to bring consumers into asking about where their food comes from, how their food is made, and where we are looking at substitutes for meat. Overall, agroecology as a science and a movement is a transformative way to break out of many current crises afflicting the planet. One of the reasons that agroecology is so transformational is that it provides us multiple benefits from restoring ecosystems to building climate resilience, from ensuring food security and nutrition to promoting sustainable livelihoods, from protecting biodiversity to upholding human rights. قراءة القليل

Discussion Topics: Investment in ways that consumers receive information that helps them with their choices and helps them understand the way healthy diets and sustainability can be built. The panelists argue that education at all levels is key. Panelists emphasized the importance of knowledge that is held by and shared within Indigenous communities, recommending that a focus is put on intergenerational knowledge and the knowledge transfer that needs to occur from the elders to the youth. A next step identified would be investment in ways that consumers receive information that helps them with... قراءة المزيد their choices and helps them understand the way healthy diets and sustainability can be built. Technology can be used to create awareness and sustainability and healthy diets. E-commerce provides greater reach to and for the consumer. قراءة القليل

All panelists agreed that it is important to support women, smallholder farmers, youth, and Indigenous peoples in agroecology. Some participants argued that consumer demand promotes the uptake of regenerative farming while others emphasized that there is generally a limited understanding of the topic amongst consumers. However, all agreed that more education is needed to help the public understand the impacts of their purchasing decisions.

Discussion Topics: The first prominent issue the panel identified was the fragmentation and fracture of the sector, investors, there is a need for a greater understanding of different institutions and opportunities. The second major issue that was discussed in the panel was it is important to not assume that investment opportunities and finance are connected, or lead to one another. These investment opportunities need to be designed, prepared for and tended to. Another issue is private capital is moving away from this kind of investment, which is a big problem as we continue to look to invest ... قراءة المزيدin these solutions and put food systems at the center of the solutions set for many of the issues we are facing. Many funders focus almost exclusively on short-term horizons, and there is a need to focus on long-term horizons. Another prominent problem identified was risk, and the multiple dimensions of risk. The last issue identified was power differentials, there is a need to understand that they are very prominent within the financing world in particular. Power differentials are present in terms of who has a seat at the table, who is a part of the decision-making process, and solutions need to address how to balance representation at said table. Solutions Discussed by the Panel To address the fragmentation and fractured landscape as there is a need to be more interconnected and need to create an ecosystem landscape. There is a need to understand how private and public come together particularly for the repurposing of public support and how those financial offerings come together and are mutually supportive of one another. It is imperative to strengthen know-how, in particular, knowledge, and understanding of the system and opportunities within the system. Another solution suggested was co-designing with actors at the table. This goes back to power differentials, markets designed must be connected to and in service of, smallholder farmers by including all actors, especially those on the ground. Measurement and evaluation is a key solution in ensuring that things are visible, and progress is noticed. Values are important in measurement and evaluation because it helps determine what needs to be measured. It is important to ensure that intergenerational equity, youth, justice and fairness, equity, gender, resilience, and diversity are values at the center of conversations as they are important for funding flows to support deeper values. قراءة القليل

In this discussion the panelists seemed to hold supporting views and there weren’t any clear areas of divergence. The panelists agreed that the UNFSS will serve as a catalyst for change, but the challenge will be to translate these dialogues into national policies and implementation.

On 27 April 2021, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Food Tank, and Global Alliance for the Future of Food, in partnership with the UN Food System Summit (UN FSS) Champions Network, presented the fifth of seven-panel discussions focusing on how to transform the world’s food systems. Each virtual series explored one of the Global Alliance’s seven Calls to Action and brought together more than 25+ UN FSS Champion speakers worldwide, including world-renowned activists, journalists, business leaders, farmers, policy and technical experts, and many others. This fifth ev... قراءة المزيدent in the virtual series highlighted the Global Alliance's call to action:  Unlock private philanthropic and multilateral investment opportunities, and sustainable food systems, and better align those opportunities amongst actors for greater impact. The panel brought together an international array of food systems leaders to issue calls for action on global food systems, elevate public discourse about reforming our food systems, and develop principles to guide stakeholders in leveraging food systems to support the SDGs. Ruth Richardson,  Chair of UN FSS Champions Network and Executive Director of Global Alliance for the Future of Food, set the stage for the discussion by distinguishing the difference between public and private capital flows and the capacity of interconnectedness between them. On behalf of Global Alliance, she proposed questions to guide the discussion that highlighted topics such as agroecology and regenerative practices, encouraging more ambitious funding targets, and acknowledging organizations that use grants to promote positive change in our global food systems. Bettina Prato, Senior Coordinator for the Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN), opened the discussion by framing private finance issues in our global food systems' and the deeper complexities surrounding our current financial architecture. Prato stressed two inherent weaknesses in our current financial architecture on global and country levels. Firstly, finance in itself does not unlock investment opportunities, and the need to build up those opportunities is now required. We must design, prepare and de-risk those investment opportunities that are a weak area in the current financial architecture. The second identified was the need for fragmentation in our current landscape and recognizing the significant gaps in the types of capital being offered and the need to support the transition into more adapted and riskier agricultural practices. Prato stressed the need for riskier business models and investors to support investable opportunities that are really transformative and align with our agenda towards sustainable food systems. Andrew Mushita, Director of the Community Technology Development Trust, emphasized the role that debt plays with smallholder farmers stating that it makes them more risk-averse. He stressed that investments should be demand-driven and ensure that smallholder farmers are being reached. There must be adequate infrastructure and technologies to ensure that the pricing system is fair for farmers to return investments in their economy and the agricultural development sector. Geeta Sethi, World Bank, echoed Ruth’s initial point on the importance for public and private sectors to work together to define the price of carbon, soil as an asset and provide a policy framework that allows innovation to move forward, and compensating farmers for their role.  Co-moderator Dani Nierenberg, President of Food Tank, reemphasized the need to transform our food systems by actively engaging and recognizing smallholder farmers as critical stakeholders and mitigating the many power differentials commonly seen in the financial sector. Ndidi Nwuneli, Sahel Consulting/Nourishing Africa, stressed the importance of equitable funding and used Africa as an example of funding being received by the many start-ups driven by Americans and Europeans residing in Africa. She also emphasized the role gender plays in funding, stating that women farmers typically receive less funding. قراءة القليل

● Panelists believe that finance itself does not unlock investment opportunities, and thus good investment opportunities must have not only funding, but be well designed, prepared and de-risked. ● Panelists noted that investment opportunities must be demand driven and serve the interests of small-holder farmers. ● Some panelists argued that a next step which should be taken is for funders to actively track the number of local organizations that are getting financing, ensuring that local community actors are sufficiently funded and able to act sustainably. ● Panelists argued that stakeh... قراءة المزيدolders must break down silos and promote greater collaboration, between all sectors on the local, state and federal levels. ● Panelists believe there can be a mutually beneficial relationship between the public and private sector if collaboration is effective. قراءة القليل

“FOOD SECURITY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA IS ACHIEVED THROUGH ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PRACTICES AND TECHNOLOGIES ALONG THE WHOLE FOOD CHAIN” Participants started by developing their idea on how the Food System will change over the next 10 years: • Improved selection and crop variety for farmers is essential for adapting to climate change and rainfall variability in the coming years. • On one side it will be pivotal to select a wide variety of crops, whereas on the other side it is crucial to use native species whenever trying to apply Sustainable Agricultural Intensification to avoid invas... قراءة المزيدive species. • Decentralized method and a multi-actor strategy need to be applied to make sure a wide variety of crops is established respecting the goal of sustainability. • Valorization of traditional knowledge by discovering local and ecological resources, thus reducing the use of harmful chemical products or pesticides, is important. • Management of natural vegetation (buffer strips, hedgerows) is also considered important to encourage presence of wild pollinator populations. • New ways to deliver production data from local crops and to improve crop protection knowledge will be found by improving the use of ICTs and mobile-linked tools. Specific environmentally sustainable practices and technologies can be applied and in the local food chain: • Intercropping – many options are to be explored, also by mixing cropping and intercropping to deal with climate stress and pest and diseases. One clear option is to work on what it is known to be already successful and very effective. One example is the push-and-pull technology, that is known to be successful and effective. • Use of local, accessible and already existing materials to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, to increase nutrient cycling at farm and household level and recycling of crop residues. One example is to employ domestic and animal west. Among the challenges to applicability of these practices, participants agreed on the following: • ICTs (as implemented in the EWA-BELT Horizon2020 Project), especially mobile technology, could improve and overcome the constraints related to training and extending services. Technologies are available, but they do not reach those interested. A great effort must be demanded for these technologies to reach those that are most interested and in need. ICTs are helpful in teaching farmers on reproduction and preservation of seeds, also in order to increase entitlement of practices and seeds. People on the field and experts alike are also essential to educate farmers to new technologies in order to boost their productivity. Training on traditional knowledge is crucial, feasible and applicable, favouring low-cost technologies and strategies. It is also adaptable to local farmers who do not have many practical tools. • Covid-19 was also seen as a constraint in terms of people going back to farming without being given proper training on sustainability. • Improving seed variety is feasible, and has been made, but needs adequate investment in research and development for plant genetics improvements. • Give farmers access to financial institutions. Micro-credit and insurance increase farmers’ capacity to be part of the value chain. One of the ideas proposed is to work for reducing land tenure and increasing possession of land over the years, as farmers often do not think in a long-term perspective. • Social networks, corporative societies and communities are encouraged as they provides farmers with great opportunities even when accessing commodity markets. • Language barriers are considered a major constraint, especially in terms of education and knowledge-sharing. Efforts to overcome such extending limit are now due. Farmers need to understand what they are been taught, with respect to agricultural practices and the given technological tools. Translation to local languages could be a valuable solution. • Improvement of infrastructures and means of transportation. Seeds and fertilizers will reach farmers on time and the crops can reach the market faster. قراءة القليل

“CAPACITY BUILDING, EDUCATION, TRADITIONAL AND SCIENCE-BASED KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION PROMOTE AFFORDABLE, SAFE AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA” Sustainable Intensification has different dimensions, one of these concerns the socio-economic and human aspects. Which is the role that capacity building and education can play in promoting Sustainable Intensification for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa? Some issues to take into consideration are: 1) Access to education for farmers in remote areas. We can speak of formal and informal education. Formal education is institutionalized, int... قراءة المزيدentional and planned through public organizations and recognized private bodies of a country. In some contexts, informal education and innovative ways of raising awareness among farmers towards innovation can be more important and effective than formal education. Some examples of informal education: • Extension services: decentralization policies and focus on infrastructure are undermining the governmental extensions services that lack resources in Sub-Saharan Africa. Other actors such as NGOs or non-academic research centers are playing an important role for fostering informal education. • Promoting “modern farm models” as platforms where other farmers can learn how to implement technologies and where they can cooperate to share inputs to implement solutions. • New ways of promoting capacity building and awareness are based on the co-construction of knowledge and dialogue and communication among different categories of stakeholders through a multi actor approach. An example of this kind of practices is the case of the “Theatre Forum” on climate change adaptation strategies (see https://futureclimateafrica.org/coproduction-manual/). 2) Capacity building related to Sustainable Intensification and food security addressed to small scale farmers should consider: • Training farmers on how to innovate and be competitive on the market. • Training on how to link agricultural production to food and nutritional requirements. • Capacity building and sensitization must be socially and culturally sensitive and shall take into consideration language and ethnicity barriers. In this respect, the active engagement of leaders in the rural communities is crucial. • Not only capacity building and training should focus on new technologies for Sustainable Intensification but also on traditional and local knowledge (e.g. Traditional crops vs GMO; certification of local seeds, allowing and promoting locally-adapted, cheap and good quality seeds). 3) From the side of research and academia, it is important that research questions are co-developed with local communities since the early beginning of project cycles, so that results are appropriate and useful for farmers and they can continue beyond single interventions/projects. This will also reduce farmers' resistance to implement and use technologies or new ways of working. • In promoting Sustainable Agricultural Intensification practices and technologies, it is important to understand the different value systems of stakeholders and take into consideration the drivers behind agricultural choices that are not only related to cash or yield but they are also social and cultural (ex. pearl millet is also used for buildings and not only for food). • All capacity building and education interventions should be accountable towards local communities and Donors. 4) When we talk about education and food security, gender issues cannot be ignored. Some insights concerned: • Access of women to education. • Considering the importance of enhancing and valorizing gender crops (such as Fonio) in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification strategies in order to ensure women's social and economic empowerment. Finally, we cannot ignore some areas of Sub Saharan Africa where conflicts and political instability worsen food insecurity and contribute to high rates of malnutrition. In these areas capacity building is important but conflict and the fragility and disruption of the social networks lead to difficult implementation of sustainable and long-term interventions. قراءة القليل

No particular areas of divergence emerged during the Dialogue. Indeed, participants converged on the vast majority of the issues discussed.

"INNOVATIVE AND ACCESSIBLE PRE- AND POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGIES ALLOW FOR HIGHER CROP YIELDS, AFFORDABLE, SAFE AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA" 1) Participants started the discussion focusing on which innovative pre- and post-harvest technologies and practices should be applied over the next years to increase crop yields while offering safe and nutritious food, and divided them in sectors of application: • SOIL MANAGEMENT: Precision farming. • WATER MANAGEMENT: Solar energy, drip irrigation. • AGRICULTURE LIVESTOCK INTEGRATION: Agro-ecology. • CROP MANAGEMENT: Neglected and Und... قراءة المزيدerutilized Crop Species. • POST-HARVEST: Drying solar systems and special bags that farmers can use for storing solar energy and avoiding contamination in food. • PEST AND DISEASE MANAGEMENT: Push-and-pull technology; “Aflasafe”, natural product for minimizing aflatoxin limiting contamination from reaching dangerous level. It is used in Sub-Saharan Africa for augmenting the quality of products and quantity. • ICT TOOLS: Sensors for monitoring the conditions of grains during the storage. 2) Subsequently, participants identified indicators and best practices that could effectively measure the successfulness of these technologies and practices: • Time, in addition to quality and quantity, could be an indicator to measure technologies successfulness. Example: It is important to respect yields rotation/irrigation time and technologies could help in simplifying this process. • In general, when we assess successfulness of technologies and practices, endogenous aspects, including geographic position, quality of soil, presence of water, general region characteristics should be considered too. 3) Thirdly, participants discussed whether these technologies and practices can be easily accessible for small holder farmers, as well as the main constraints and possible solutions. The main issues raised were: • Economic constraints: - Land tenure systems limits farmer’s long term investments. - Cost of seeds and irrigation and expensiveness of some relevant tools, such as photovoltaic panels and auto-machine, are a limit to accessibility for small farmers. To overcome this obstacle, farmers can create stakeholder groups or cooperatives for gaining access to those technologies. • Digital literacy gap. In particular, a gap exists in countries such as Kenya, where young people create or invent new technologies for e-agriculture, but smallholder farmers are not informed about that and it is difficult to distribute these technologies. There are also structural gender inequalities and discriminations that need to be tackled. • Difficulties in reaching farmers with technologies and limited know-how. To overcome this obstacle, sharing knowledge among farmers and within farmers groups on how to use technologies is important. It is also important to work on a bottom-up process that takes into consideration farmers’ needs, a process that involves all steps of the food chain, from the preparation of seeds and soil to the distribution of products to their disposal and recycling. - Research and development, in particular on Sustainable Intensification technologies should identify which technologies could be implemented in a more efficient way, by performing a constraint analysis when projecting research. Working on adaptating technologies to the specific characteristics of the agro-geographic area is also necessary. - Involving farmers in the development, testing and adoption of technologies and practices and promoting capacity building, training and sharing of good practices i salso important. A key role in this sense will be performed by the Farmers Field Research Units within the EWA-BELT Horizon2020 Project. - A pivotal role has to be played by governments and institutions for providing affordability and distribution of technologies, technical assistance, research, development of new practices, dissemination of results, contribution to capacity building and training of farmers. قراءة القليل