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Schools: Schools connect people of many backgrounds. Cities can use that as an opportunity to build relationships between rural and urban children and residents. To strengthen children’s relationship with food, build in science and education about food systems and have school gardening projects and farm to school food procurement.

Any divergences came from the different food system ecosystems different cities experience.

The discussion focused on ensuring food security, resilience, an equity in cities. It considered the methods, measurements, and goals necessary to increase cohesiveness and inclusivity in food systems planning and action. Speakers, panelists, and participants shared their community’s contexts, successes and visions. Food security, resilience, and equity are deeply intertwined. Food systems practitioners throughout the U.S. found that centering community voices and needs helped them do their job of ensuring food security, resilience, and equity.

Many local governments throughout the U.S. have a wide array of disconnected food programs. There is a movement toward connecting these programs and developing overarching food systems visions and goals across local government departments and with local stakeholders. To start creating holistic food systems improvements, leadership must come together with the community to develop an overarching vision, develop a structure, and connect programs and people. These disconnected food programs have often focused on solving the symptoms of an unjust food system. For example, distributing food to those... قراءة المزيد that cannot procure it themselves. To holistically improve local food system outcomes, cities and communities are starting to look at food sovereignty, land access, community-led processes, and improving city and community-wide communication and commitment. Local governments throughout the U.S. are diverse. The structure and focus of planning depend on local context. Even with this variation, or maybe because of it, the discussion focused on centering and giving power to community members to shape the food system. The issues of food justice, racial justice, food sovereignty, community involvement, and sustainable production are all connected. As one speaker said, “today, I heard agreement across all panels and breakouts in the belief that all people and all communities should have the right and the means to produce, procure, prepare, share, and eat food that's nutritionally and culturally affirming free from exploitation of themselves, other people and nonhuman animals, and also in harmony with the rest of the natural world.” Actions and commitments (10 year/2030 vision) This dialogue was between practitioners and stakeholders from across the U.S. No overarching actions and commitments were determined. A general agreement among participants was that multi-level governance mechanisms in the U.S. are not well aligned toward creating food systems grounded in place or equitable access—but that local governments are critical actors to move the food system in this direction. Actionable messages to UNFSS When including local government voices at the international level, include local voices from the beginning. Ensure they have input into the processes that inform the UNFSS. Focus on the experiences and needs of those not currently served by the food system. Hire them as consultants to your work. Provide a platform for those that don’t currently have avenues to power but that have lived experience and connections. Cities have to do what’s right for their constituents. Cities can do this by putting their constituents in positions of power and influence through mechanisms like local food councils, food positions at the city, community hearings, and funding community-led initiatives. Protect small land owners, small food businesses, and communities from the influence of big business interests and consolidation. Protect and promote grassroots advocacy. Provide nations and regions with guidance on how to set a flexible national and regional food systems visions that help local governments align their visions while also centering and empowering local communities. قراءة القليل

Community-led processes: Food systems outcomes are most successful when community led. Cities contribute to this success by facilitating community conversation, building networks and relationships, funding pilot projects, providing information, and codifying conclusions in plans and legislation. Actions: • Cities should facilitate and channel the voice of the community. Listen to, create relationships, and build trust with community groups. • Take on the expense of what the community wants/needs. For example, conduct soil tests on land that can go to the community for gardening. • Host d... قراءة المزيدemonstration projects, that train people how have a successful food endeavors followed by policy that enables these actions. • Have dialogues with the community and support what people are asking for through legislation. • Develop programs and structures that can be self-sustaining over time, since government resources shift. • Be transparent, report back to the community to hold government accountable. • Pay community members to be part of advisory boards. Include residents that aren’t usually involved in these processes and aren’t already affiliated with organizations that already have access to power in the city. • Use community engagement and ownership model of planning and action to alleviate disparities in actual representation and leadership. • Be flexible and humble. Always keep coming back and revisit the community and their recommendations. قراءة القليل

Food Sovereignty: Structural racism limits access to healthcare, culturally appropriate nutrition, food preparation, retail food stores, and wellness programs. It causes disconnected BIPOC networks and high food insecurity. There are barriers to access infrastructure, food assets, community gardens, food programs, and community kitchens. Uneven access to funding to BIPOC organizations meant they were not able to respond quickly in times of crisis such as COVID-19. Additionally, land is prohibitively expensive for people to start new rural or urban farms. Racist policies took land from many far... قراءة المزيدmers of color. Actions: • Place community leaders as experts, pay for participation, and create online opportunities to increases reach. • Declare anti-black racism as a public health crisis. • Advocate at the state level to improve land access for new farmers and farmers of color. • When non-Native communities and nations working with Native nations, approach as equals and ask “how can we support your solutions.” • Provide the resources, financial support, and information needed for communities to create their own thriving food systems. قراءة القليل

The prevalence of small producers in the informal economy is a big challenge. It is important to recognize the role and potential of the informal sector as a key player in local food systems. There are different perspectives on the formalization of the sector in a context such as COVID where informality is a vulnerability factor but, in some cases, can be a resilience factor for some of the producers. Participants raised questions about whether informal systems were more nimble than formal markets in times of crisis, and whether they might offer more environmentally sustainable approaches. T... قراءة المزيدhe dialogue surfaced different perspectives on the scale at which action should be prioritized. Some participants pointed to the value in large scale responses for broad based universal (not means tested) social protection policies, noting that mobilisation of robust safety nets must by design be large. Others called for greater attention to local and mid-level government responses which play a key role in implementation. Overall, participants supported the need to work at multiple scales. While the need for greater collaboration between civil society actors and government was echoed by many, the impact of the pandemic on these linkages varied across contexts. Some noted that pandemic responses strengthened linkages between civil society and governments, particularly when it came to sensitization of COVID-19 information, while others pointed to increasingly fragmented food aid with civil society attempting to fill gaps in an uncoordinated way. قراءة القليل

Responses from the political sector and civil society emphasized the immediate response to the immediate effects of the pandemic such as providing access to food to alleviate the impact on populations (social protection). In most instances these social protection responses need to be expanded to reach the most vulnerable – including women, youth, people with disabilities, displaced persons, and informal sector actors – but there is evidence across contexts that rapid large scale universally targeted social protection policies can reduce the impacts of shocks. There is also a need to ensure... قراءة المزيد that the immediate responses include supporting the food systems to ensure they remain functional, for example through supporting access to markets. Although essential, we also need to develop longer-term strategies (based on access to gender-specific technologies, access to credit and guarantee funds, particularly for women and young people) if we are to develop food production systems that are more resilient (less vulnerable to pandemics) and equitable. Food Systems are complex; we need more complex approaches that recognize intersectoral linkages for the development of risk assessment systems for more effective response. Comprehensive policy responses must consider environmental, social protection, health and food security factors in a contextual, evidence-informed way. The precarity of the informal sector has deepened and addressing this will be key to fostering more resilient food systems. Key to design and delivery of comprehensive policy responses should be the inclusion of local voices in decision making and strategy design as well as indigenous knowledge and food production practices. Civil society can be a link to understanding the needs of the most impacted (we define this to include women, youth, people with disabilities, displaced persons and those working in the informal sector), and there is a need to strengthen coordination between formal government responses and community level responses (through networks, community organizations, civil society). It was suggested that greater collaboration with civil society may help foster trust in government responses in contexts where trust is weak. The dialogue also highlighted importance of strengthening the resilience of local food production systems (essential for reducing vulnerability) while strengthening global systems to enable a global response to local crises. The coexistence of local systems/strengthening of local production systems while strengthening global production is an important challenge that we face in reforming and transforming food systems. In the past, changes were made to the benefit of some, and to the detriment of others. Dealing with these issues will take political power and financial resources. For example, very few farmers have access to finance, much less so in developing countries. But adaptation to climate change and other shocks requires financial input from farmers. There is a gap in the ambition of the narrative (transform food systems, adapt to climate change, build resilience and confront COVID) versus the reality (inadequate provision of finance for farmers). Where are the resources that would make this agenda feasible? How can access to funding for adaptation resilience be facilitated? There is a huge opportunity to use climate change adaptation and ecosystem restoration as a source of jobs creation. It is far more economical to create a job in ecosystem restoration, than to create one in construction, which is the typical recovery program. This approach to green growth could help to create and support essential livelihoods in the wake of the pandemic. قراءة القليل

What does the evidence on impacts of COVID on food security and livelihoods suggest governments and communities need to do to reduce the vulnerability of women and other marginalized people? Livelihood impacts along the value chain and increasing food insecurity among the broader population due to disruptions to food systems highlights the need to balance containment measures and public health concerns with food systems impacts, ensuring access to both inputs for production and markets. Moving goods between countries became challenging due to containment measures in place (food security was mo... قراءة المزيدre impacted in countries that adopted more drastic health measures), and uncertainty around border closures impacted millions of animals ready to be slaughtered that could no longer cross borders due to border restrictions. Food distribution was particularly a challenge for communities with limited capacity to transport food. Mobility constraints were an aggravating factor for large facilities which depended on workforce and labour coming from abroad which was restrained, but also affected small scale producers relying on external labour at critical moment in the farming season. Lack of access to food and inputs because of the public health measures meant that people had to use strategies to adapt that were increasingly severe and harsh such as having to skip meals (especially women), selling land, and other various mitigation measures. Market closures and suspension of cross border trade as containment measures were particularly detrimental to those in the informal sector, small producers, and migrant farm workers – many of whom are women or youth – and relief measures such as social protection programs should be more targeted in addressing the impacts to these specific groups. When considering how vulnerability has increased during the pandemic, it is essential to also recognize the ways that confinement, restrictions on mobility and loss of livelihoods impacted social dynamics, including increased violence at a household level. Differential impacts of reopening may hold insights for how long-term recovery should be approached. In many instances, men are quicker to get back into the workforce than women. Emergency response systems were insufficient to respond to pandemics. Sectoral, segmental approaches didn’t work well during COVID. The pandemic highlighted the need to integrate responses from different sectors (health, agriculture, trade, etc). Across contexts, increasing food prices reinforced the need for greater action by governments and the private sector to ensure affordability and access to nutritious food. Fixed price schemes and school feeding programs were highlighted as one step towards addressing affordability issues, but these must ensure greater access to nutritious food. Limited access to quality food during the pandemic has been the result of challenges in production, transport, affordability of food, and compounded by food safety considerations. Civil society and non-governmental organizations offer important links between government responses and the most impacted. Front line non-governmental organizations and social support organizations such as food banks are essential for government responses to be able to reach the most vulnerable and less accessible populations. Cooperatives can play an important role in crisis situations because they are already embedded in the communities and are setting up production diversification systems, to support communications on COVID, protection measures, etc. More active and dynamic cooperatives set up awareness-raising activities, sought seeds to diversify people's diets and kept the commercial channels open to sell production. Their members were less impacted by public health measures than those from less dynamic ones. Greater coordination between governments and civil society responses should be established to ensure that policies better reflect differentiated needs, and those most impacted can access relief and recovery programs. قراءة القليل

What are the mechanisms through which civil society and governments can work together to identify what works to support more resilient, inclusive and healthy food systems, and to scale them to different agroecological and sociocultural contexts? Potential mechanisms could involve technical assistance, capacity-building in the use of bottom-up approaches, promoting public-private sector partnerships, income diversification, social protection for the poorest, conduct more research and strengthen food distribution to reach markets. There is a need to increase resilience at the local level and con... قراءة المزيدcurrently capitalize on global food production resilience (global markets with transport and logistics systems which were considered essential). Each supply chain is going to have its own unique vulnerability and solution profile. At the local level, greater attention to strengthening food sovereignty based on traditional systems is needed, and this should be accompanied by support to more sustainable production at a global level. The pandemic and its effect on food systems highlighted the importance of social programs in response interventions, as well as the importance of supporting small businesses rather than only individuals. Community involvement in project cycle (design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation) is essential for the identification of responses adapted to ecological and socio-cultural contexts. Provision by governments of credit and guarantee funds to support the development of small agricultural enterprises among women and young people, combined to capacity building would create favorable conditions for agricultural development. Access to credit is essential to support the development of agricultural businesses by vulnerable populations. The agricultural sector has enormous potential in terms of job creation and wealth, and governments must support the transition of small producers into the formal economy. Only technologies that are resilient to climate change, gender sensitive (labor-saving) and nutritious (biofortification), will foster resilient and inclusive food systems especially in context of vulnerability aggravated by shocks such as pandemics. Digitization of agriculture is important but often women are the ones who do not have access to phones so it’s important to ensure women are included in solutions. Digital tools can help the implementation of agricultural insurance systems. Cell phones can help formal and informal small-scale producers document their practices and show that crop losses are due to due to climate extremes or infestation, therefore supporting farmers claims and reassuring insurers that claims are valid (could we do the same for pandemics?) Pandemic impacts reinforce the imperative to bridge humanitarian and development assistance. Food security shocks related to COVID have compounded food security shocks from drought, and those related to forced displacement and other climate shocks. Women, youth and other marginalized groups are most impacted. Relief efforts must be combined with long-term recovery efforts. Governments need to take advantage of mechanisms put in place by community and civil society organizations, especially in rural communities where they can leverage existing trust, networks and more nuanced understanding of community needs. Support to producer organizations that are already present in rural areas (cooperatives can disseminate information and reach their members) can increase resilience – coops are socially conscious economic entities that contribute to social cohesion. They provide access to technical, financial and information services so investment in coops benefits communities. Civil society groups in urban settings have also played a key role but are often under-funded and disconnected from both government responses and other community efforts. Without greater government support, it will be challenging to leverage the full potential of these organizations in long term recovery. قراءة القليل

Private sector must be part of recovery efforts, with a clear role to play in provision and distribution of nutritious and affordable food, in new modes of production that supports climate resilience. There is a huge opportunity to use climate change adaptation and ecosystem restoration as a source of jobs creation, and green growth could help to create and support essential livelihoods in the wake of the pandemic. More timely and disaggregated data is needed to inform planning, policy and practice that meets the needs of and can be accessed by policymakers and producers to react to potential ... قراءة المزيدfuture shocks. Collecting, collating and analysing data, then preparing it for decision-makers, requires technical capacity. Governments must invest in gender-sensitive agricultural research (including scientific, technological capacity building and leadership for women and young agricultural researchers) and provide research grants to help develop technologies that respond to the needs of women, men, and disadvantaged populations. Efforts should be made to further investigate instances of resilience in the face of the pandemic and conditions that allowed actors to pivot quickly to establish different food supply systems, and how sustainable this is and what lessons this offers for building more resilient, equitable food systems moving forward. New ways of analysing data to generate predictions will be needed. Data and methods should be made open access so that other researchers can examine, analyse and interpret the information and provide peer review. قراءة القليل

Event title: Building resilient and sustainable food systems: How can emerging lessons from communities affected by Covid-19 shape the way forward? COVID-19 is having a major impact on households’ production and access to good quality, nutritious food, due to losses of income, combined with increasing food prices, and restrictions to movements of people, inputs and products. The hardest hit in both rural and urban areas are frequently women and those who work in informal economies. This dialogue focused on drawing out the lessons and priority actions that need to be taken to respond to food ... قراءة المزيدsecurity challenges in a way that addresses informality and gender dynamics, for food systems to become resilient, equitable and sustainable into the next decade. In particular the discussion generated lessons and ideas around advancing equitable livelihoods, building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress and to ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all. The design of the dialogue was informed, in part, by ongoing research supported by IDRC, IDS and by ACIAR to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on food systems and livelihoods in different regions and contexts, helping the convenors to frame the entry points for discussion and identify actors to be part of the process. Please see relevant links section below. The dialogue brought together a range of stakeholders and perspectives on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems and livelihoods, focusing on the evidence and experience generated from the most affected communities in low- income countries to generate ideas for action. The participants brought together knowledge and experience from across Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific and represented a wide range of thematic areas and sectors. Special attention was given to bring a southern voice and perspective into the discussion. The key discussion topics were: What does the evidence on impacts of COVID on food security and livelihoods suggest governments and communities need to do to reduce the vulnerability of women and other marginalized people? What are the mechanisms through which civil society and governments can work together to identify what works to support more resilient, inclusive and healthy food systems, and to scale them to different agroecological and sociocultural contexts? The event curator, opened the event and welcomed participants. To set the scene we invited 3 keynote speakers from a range of geographic locations and perspectives to share insights from their work and reflect on the ways forward to support sustainable food systems for all, with particular focus on the most vulnerable groups. These speakers were: ● Julio Berdegue (FAO) - FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean. ● Dicta Ogisi (CPED) – Professor of Agricultural Economics, Delta State University, and Senior Researcher at the Centre for Population and Environmental Development (CPED), Benin City, Nigeria. an independent Think Tank based in Benin City dedicated to promoting sustainable development and reducing poverty and inequality through policy oriented research and active engagement on development issues. ● Mariame Maiga (CORAF) - Regional Gender and Social Development Adviser for the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) based in Dakar, Senegal. قراءة القليل

Discussion group 1: The role of evaluation for Sustainable Food Systems In this group participants discussed the role that evaluation can play in strengthening food systems and the lessons that should be taken on board from the impacts of the Covid on food systems, in order to support progress towards more sustainable and resilient food systems. Participants agreed that evaluation is able to deliver the knowledge and evidence needed to inform decision-making leading to transformation of food systems. For this to happen and for the evaluation community to fully release it’s potential, the fie... قراءة المزيدld of evaluation needs to keep up to and evolve as much as are the development challenges we are confronted to, which are becoming increasingly complex and urgent. Evaluation tools and frameworks have to be adapted to address and to analyze the complexity of the food systems and make a difference. This is already happening and participants shared two examples moving in this direction: i) The CGIAR is developing its new research programme cycle, in which they revised methods used, approaches, areas to analyze, among others. This revision led to enhancing the way in which evaluations should be carried out, and what they should prioritize. ii) The Nourish for flourish diagnostic evaluation/needs assessment, provides an example of a diagnostic evaluation to determine food security needs, carried out at the provincial level in Cape Town in partnership with Academia and other stakeholders, leading to a multilevel stakeholder discussion, which enhanced the engagement among stakeholders towards food systems key areas of improvement. Outcomes were taken by the provincial government to develop a strategy for improving food systems. This exercise, which can be seen as a process use evaluation, helped create community and government led groups to discuss and address food security issues. The Covid crisis has shown that gaps in income and food insecurity are increasing. The coping mechanisms that people are putting in place can be leveraged as opportunities to innovate food systems interventions. The group also noted that resilience is a key aspect to support as it translates into improved preparedness during crisis. قراءة القليل

Discussion group 2: Evaluation methods and approaches for food systems transformation This was quite a rich discussion with a variety of suggestions and inputs made both on the methods and approached that evaluation should adopt to address food systems transformation. Participants emphasized that to address complexity it is important to use participatory approaches and the engagement of stakeholders, particularly small-scale farmers. For instance, the qualitative impact protocol (QUIP) puts the farmers at the center of the system, helps to understand the contribution of other actors and linkag... قراءة المزيدes. Inclusive and equitable evaluations were also suggested to address root-causes of inequalities: indigenous evaluations and feminist approaches in particular. Realist evaluation type approaches are important to contextualize findings. These do not exclude other approaches such as theory of change evaluation and impact evaluation. The best team would consist of a team that understands the principles behind each of these and use them for usual reinforcement. Other evaluation approaches suggested were Contribution analysis, Outcome Harvesting. “Outcome mapping and outcome harvesting help us to better understand unintended consequences and are quite useful in supplementing some of our traditional approaches” added a participant Regarding specific tools and methods that evaluators can use to address the complexities of food systems and their transformation, Theories of Change were mentioned, and in particular new nested approaches to Theories of Change design, which are important for bringing stakeholders together. In the toolbox of evaluators, there should also be a place for Stakeholder mapping, and in order to deepen and expand on specific stakeholders input and influence, influence mapping in decision-making. For policy evaluations, and considering that food systems cuts across different ministries/ authorities, observations and immersion, that consists of immerse evaluators in the policy making process to understand the people embedded in the systems. Last but not least, smart technologies and data tools are useful assets in evaluations of food systems, which can be constrained by capacities of evaluators themselves. قراءة القليل

Discussion group 3: Evaluation practice: what do we need to change or improve? This group focused on the evaluation practice and what we need to change, improve, adapt acknowledging complexity and uncertainty and what are the challenges and what does it mean to adopt an adaptive and developmental evaluation approach First participants acknowledged that organizations have different organizational cultures and degrees to which they appreciate and support evaluation as a function or as a culture and therefore how much they focus on accountability or understand it as a learning opportunity to use ... قراءة المزيدbroadly across the organization. It is important to advocate for strengthening the evaluation culture and to balance accountability and learning, aiming for evaluation to become everyone’s business. Evaluators come from different educational and professional backgrounds, and addressing systems, complexity, and uncertainty may require a mindset shift, as we are not evaluating a linear process. Linked to this is the choice of appropriate methods, making a case for non-traditional and creative approaches to be encouraged: this may be difficult sometimes for evaluators to select and promote, though we need to move away from the notion of a gold standard to appreciating participatory, developmental, adaptive approaches. “in complex systems, it’s really difficult to be an independent evaluator with a fixed set of questions and say this is right and this is wrong – participatory approaches need to be embedded in the evaluation” – said a participant The context for applying “new” methods does not always exists and we need to have key elements on leadership, resources, donors’ flexibility and organizational culture as mentioned earlier. In addition, while applying new tools and methods more suitable to addressing systems transformation and complexities, it will be important not to lose track of quality. All of this calls for having capacity development for all actors to understand and for evaluators to be confident in proposing methods and approaches قراءة القليل

Discussion group 4: Evidence towards the UN Food Systems Summit objectives This group agreed on the need to evaluate the outcomes of the Food Systems Summit and discussed how the summit and its outcomes could be evaluated. Evaluating a summit may have potentially many unintended and complex effects. To evaluate the usefulness of the Summit we need to assess: i) the diversity in type of producers and consumers represented: e.g. small holders need to have voice and influence in this summit: degree to which the summit was open to different voices including smallholders; ii) how much did the Summi... قراءة المزيدt influence the narrative, the conceptual focus, but also the actions : did the summit have a ripple effect in media, public opinion etc.. It was also added that the language deployed in the FSS would be one indicator of change taking place thanks to the summit; iii) include the regional level in GLOCAL language and action: The regional level is ideal for knowledge aggregation and dissemination adaptation of global ideas to the local level and to learn from local level. System-wide reviews of progress towards the 2030 Agenda could be done regionally. “The FSS should have institutional arrangements to monitor and evaluate what it achieves,” added a participant. قراءة القليل

Evaluation is cross-cutting to the Summit and to the Action Tracks, and this FSS Independent Dialogue had a twofold aim and focus: 1. Bring to the fore of the Summit the contribution of evaluation to learning and accountability for sustainable food systems and for the FSS commitments & follow up. 2. Engage evaluation stakeholders in reflecting on how evaluation needs to change and evolve. Participants exchanged on the below four topics, each one presented with an accompanying statement and related questions to guide inputs: 1. The role of evaluation for Sustainable Food Systems • Example... قراءة المزيدs of evaluations making a difference, resulting in strengthened sustainable food systems? • Lessons from the impact of COVID-19 crises on food systems? 2. Evaluation methods and approaches for food systems transformation Evaluation needs to change in order to understand and help address food systems and their transformation from the local to the global scale. It needs to move away from project / programme approaches and apply systems thinking. • What are the most useful approaches and tools to include a food systems perspective in evaluations to address this change? • What approaches and methods are best suited for evaluating agriculture research or innovation, to enhance ensuring uptake of research that improves Food Systems? 3. Evaluation practice: what do we need to change or improve? Evaluators are traditionally called to evaluate at the end of projects/programmes. However, in order to evaluate and inform change of complex and interconnected processes, evaluators should be part of all stages of interventions and engage in an iterative dialogue and co-creative process of change. • How do you see this happening? • How would evaluators adopt an adaptive, developmental approach? 4. Evidence towards the UN Food Systems Summit objectives • Should we evaluate the Summit itself, and the degree to which it achieved its objectives? If yes, how? • What long-term monitoring and/or evaluation framework would be required for food systems reform? What can we learn or build upon from the SDGs/Agenda2030 process? قراءة القليل

The aim for each group was to come up with 3 to 5 key messages to report in plenary. We have put together these messages to develop the below Evaluation for Food Systems Statement of main messages, which reflects and summarizes Dialogue participants inputs and vision on the role of evaluation for food systems. EVALUATION FOR FOOD SYSTEMS STATEMENT OF MAIN MESSAGES - Participants in this independent dialogue agreed that evaluation and evidence should be at the hearth of the Food Systems Summit, and support the role of evaluation in providing evidence and lessons to inform food systems transform... قراءة المزيدation and in reviewing the summit outcomes and commitments. - New approaches and innovations are required to transform food systems, for a more equitable and sustainable world. Evaluation has a key role to play in supporting this, by shedding light on the complexities and interdependencies of food systems and identifying actionable and timely solutions, and ultimately contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. - Participants in the FSS Independent Dialogue highlighted that evaluation and the evaluation community can: o Deliver evidence to inform decision making towards sustainable and resilient food systems, o Offer results on what works and what doesn’t, responding to the need to act with urgency to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, o Draw on and put into context lessons learned, including those on the impacts of Covid-19 on food systems and the failures uncovered by this crises, o Engage in assessing the outcomes of the Summit and how the Summit narrative informs actions, especially at the national and regional levels. - Participants also discussed how, in order to unleash the full potential of evaluation, evaluators need to evolve as a community and to take on board new professional and methodological challenges. These relate to ways of working, methods and approaches and to the practice of evaluation within the broader development ecosystem. The following points were raised and considered necessary for evaluation and the evaluation community to support transformation of food systems: o Promote an evaluation culture, in order to enhance the learning value of evaluation, in balance with accountability objectives, and for evaluation to become everyone’s business, including donors, commissioners, decision-makers, civil society and others involved in food systems. o Embrace the complexity of food systems transformation and other global challenges – such as climate change and its impact, which require integrating systems thinking and dealing with uncertainties. o Promote the role of evaluators as engaged participants: evaluators should position themselves in a more dialogic and partnership role in order to facilitate support decision-making, and engage in open communication to help form solutions and stimulate transformative change. o Innovate methods and approaches making a case for non-traditional and creative ones. These may include developmental, participatory and other approaches, which are more suited to help understand the complexity around food systems, while ensuring that the focus on quality is preserved. o Continue to develop capacities of evaluators so that they are equipped with the necessary skills and confidence in making the right choices on methods and approaches. o Ensure more inclusive and equitable evaluations: cross fertilize research and evaluation with local and indigenous food systems and practices and involve different stakeholders in the process- leave no one behind قراءة القليل

1/3 Discussion Topic #1: Sustainable food production 1. Strengthening the role of women not just in processing food but in managing food processing companies 2. Role and partnerships between the private sector AND government, local partners, farmers, academia, education etc. to understand the interests and needs of all stakeholders along with the food system. 3. Supporting deeper integration into regional agro-food value chains, particularly in those sectors (e.g. fruits, olives, etc) where Kosovo enjoys somewhat a competitive advantage. 4. Invest in skills to increase financial literacy in sm... قراءة المزيدall/family farms (particularly among women) 5. Improve farmers’ resilience by investing in adaptive and mitigation needs to climate change 6. Promote local product development – agricultural extension and other rural entrepreneurship/advisory e.g. branding, name recognition and identification with geographic region 7. The importance of ecological and biological agriculture related to the use of pesticides, and accompanying regulation to ensure safe and adequate use of these. Linkages with organic agriculture, tourism and consumer health. 8. Use of natural resources, especially those related to soil degradation, erosion, forests, and pastures, as one of the important natural resources, which contribute to the development of tourism, protection from erosion, but also contribute to the economic aspect and green economy. 9. Reduce barriers for small farmers and other particular groups in agriculture through the provision of microcredit and more accessible and affordable financing mechanisms . 10. Give attention to emerging food insecurity – households prone to food insecurity – flexible safety nets at the municipal level 11. Promote value chain development involving food production linked to tourism, beekeeping, local products (ex. peppers and aromatic herbs) – inter alia for rural women’s economic empowerment 12. There should be proper implementation of legislation in place and better monitoring mechanisms for the whole food system legislative framework 13. Farmers and producers should be more aware on the importance of professional consulting services and provided training programmes in order to increase their capacities on sustainable production practices. 14. The inspectorate capacities within the central and local level institutions should be increased in order to have more quality check and control of food items. Moreover, there should be a better coordination between the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development and municipal agricultural directorates. 15. There should be more investments in irrigation systems and purification of water sources. 16. Central level institutions should intertwine policies in order to promote agriculture among youth and discourage migration. قراءة القليل

2/3 Discussion Topic #2: Sustainable food consumption The second discussion focused on sustainable agricultural development and food consumption as a pathway to ensuring better food system livelihoods, by citing practical examples and solutions from participants’ experiences and knowledge. Participants agreed that inclusivity and equity, based on a people-centered approach, is key to ensuring better food livelihoods in rural as well as urban areas for vulnerable groups including women, youth, non-majority communities and other communities with distinct livelihood systems. Several participant... قراءة المزيدs noted that skills development, including digital skills related to the use of ICT and modern online tools, are important enablers for transforming farmers into competitive entrepreneurs. This would ensure better economic empowerment of women and attract more younger workers. With regard to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food system livelihoods in Kosovo, participants noted that the immediate impact of the pandemic was felt through the weakening of Kosovo food demand and the closure of many businesses such as caterers and hotels. There is therefore a need to strengthen resilience in Kosovo’s food system, to enable “direct selling” by small agricultural producers to local consumers, which could allow many farmers and small players to continue their businesses and promote especially women and youth participation as digital mediators of food value chains. On the other hand, this could help reduce problems of food waste, by donating excess food from producers to those most in need. In this regard, digital platforms have a bigger role to play, for instance to optimize production and minimize food waste. On recent changes to the demand base of agricultural food, some participants also noted the growing trend in people’s diets towards more animal-based food (ex. Meat) and processed food, which requires adjustments in agricultural production patterns, with the latter lacking the same quantity of nutrients. Additional points were raised on the importance for Kosovo institutions to target government subsidies to the most vulnerable to maximize inclusion and ensure equitable livelihoods. The importance of partnerships with businesses was also underscored, which would enable multidisciplinary collaboration among farmers, NGOs, governments and restaurant owners to design projects that can connect small farmers (especially those from rural areas) to large commercial areas and urban centers. Additional recommendations include: • Regular analysis, data collection and reporting should be conducted on consumer food basket in order to collect insights on basic nutritious values and provide evidence based policies that support sustainable food system. • Complete the digitalization of land lots and enhance the categorization of land to address current challenges due to the fragmentation and small size of land lots. • Establish supporting schemes for slow food systems, with a view to encouraging local producers to introduce sustainable systems of production, economize the local area, and encourage citizens to consume locally-produced food items. • Support innovation in urban agriculture through dedicated funds and programmes, which would contribute to higher social cohesion among community members, promotion of green, low-carbon intensity products and better inclusivity of all members of society to leave no one behind. قراءة القليل