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4 Action Track # 4 Outcomes The opportunities that were identified under Action Track # 4 included the following: • Growth in local financial initiatives especially informal structures e.g. Village Savings and Loan (VSL); • Existing markets infrastructure of the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) that has capacity to facilitate storage and marketing; • Government increased investments in public works program and road infrastructure; • Vision 2063 focus on industrialization has potential to open up economic and employment opportunities; • Existing social prote... قراءة المزيدction and safety net programs; and • Exploiting the youth demographic dividend. قراءة القليل

5 Action Track # 5 Outcomes The opportunities under Action Track # 5 were as follows: • Availability of natural resources including fertile lands, fresh water from lake Malawi and perennial rivers for irrigation and aquaculture (fish farming); • Availability of investments by multi stakeholders such as research/ academic institutions, NGOs and private sector players; • Presence of mines and game reserves in the northern region which could provide economic activities; • Conducive weather conditions that are ideal for crop and livestock production and diversification; and • Presence of... قراءة المزيد different farmer groups and cooperatives (Irrigation schemes, Water Users Associations). The enablers under Action Track # 5 were as follows: • Political stability/political will by the central government and good multilateral and bilateral relationships; • Availability of good policies (Malawi 2063 vision, NAP 2016; NAIP 2018); • Growing population offers market demand and labour; • Existing systems and structures at all levels e.g. Extension system, agro-dealer network-input suppliers, decentralized local structures etc.; • Free education in primary school and high literacy rate in the northern region as compared to other regions; and • Availability of market infrastructure such as ADMARC warehouses that can support structured markets. قراءة القليل

The northern region dialogue session identified game changing priorities that apply across all the five action tracks. These include the following: 1. Scale up and enhance coordination of existing interventions by government, civil society and the private sector to enhance production and productivity, food safety and resilience e.g. farmer field schools, school feedings programmes, subsidy in crop and farm mechanization, road infrastructure, community nutrition training centres, processing plants in community and producing areas; 2. Promote a food systems oriented education system through curr... قراءة المزيدiculum review; 3. Increase utilization of existing structures in extension and research: a. Improve the functionality of DAESS structures to improve extension service delivery; b. Increase number of extension workers; and c. Improve research services for increased innovation and technologies (e.g. new varieties and methods of farming) 4. Diversify energy sources: a. Enhancement of rural/semi-urban electrification to spur small processing of agriculture produce; b. Promote adoption alternative energy sources (hydro, solar and wind) and energy saving technologies; 5. Enhance agriculture productivity and diet diversification: a. Commercialize agriculture with emphasis on crop and diet diversification; b. Promote diversified agriculture and diets including off-farm activities; c. Promote indigenous crop varieties and foods; d. expand and diversify Affordable Input program (AIP) to support agriculture diversification; e. Promote adoption of climate smart technologies; f. Intensify reforestation; and g. Invest in irrigation through increased utilization and expansion of existing irrigation schemes and construction of multipurpose dam for irrigation, hydro power generation, drinking water and fish farming. 6. Ensure conducive policy environment and enforcement of regulations a. Government should put in place enabling policies on land issues e.g. to ensure that land ownership be for every member of a household; b. Enforce council by-laws on agricultural marketing, food marketing standards and regulated fishing; c. Improved governance and functioning of decentralisation systems; and d. Develop and implement of settlement policy to regulate settlement. 7. Intensify extension services, civic education and communication approaches: a. Undertake civic education for mind-set change & economic empowerment; and b. Increase awareness and knowledge on nutrition, food consumption and climate change through extension workers and other communication channels. 8. Strengthen value chain functions including making markets work for the poor: a. Enforcement of minimum prices; b. Promote value addition and food processing; c. Build capacity on food processing and utilisation including food safety; and d. Increase investments in food processing and storage equipment and technologies. 9. Strengthen farmer organizations and cooperatives: a. Facilitate, revamp and empower cooperatives and associations to facilitate better access to inputs, markets and mechanization services as well as engage in industrialisation; b. Facilitate accessible and favourable financing and lending mechanisms; and c. Support community initiatives and approaches such as Village Savings and Loan to support food systems interventions. 10. Exploit the youth demographic dividend and community empowerment a. Provide loan facilities targeting the youth; b. Build skills and knowledge of the youth in agricultural activities in their areas; and c. Increase use of technology and digital innovations to attract youth in agriculture. 11. Enhance access to finance to support food systems development a. Develop and establish an Agricultural Development Fund/Bank with affordable interest rates that support agricultural activities; and b. Put in place friendly financial policies. قراءة القليل

7. Changes to be made within 3 and 10 years This section provides areas that have to be considered in the short term (3 years) and medium term (10 years) based on the regional dialogues. The participants recommended that in the first three years, the region and the nation should focus on the following actions: 1. Restructure the Affordable Input program (AIP): a. Implement universal AIP to improve access to inputs for all farmers; b. Diversify AIP to include livestock and fish farming; and c. Ensure proper targeting of inputs (seeds and fertiliser) according to location specific interventions ... قراءة المزيدand priorities. 2. Strengthen and intensify existing productivity enhancing initiatives such as: a. Research (more investment and funding); b. Utilize existing working models for farmer empowerment e.g. farmer field schools; c. Strengthen extension services through improved welfare of extension workers e.g. housing of local extension workers, recruitment and training of new extension staff; and d. Review the demand driven extension policy to enable adoption technologies that would help build resilience. 3. Ensure affordable Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) services (affordable airtime, internet and phones) to facilitate effective extension, communication and market transactions; 4. Invest and promote technologies for improved storage (e.g. solar driers), processing and value addition; 5. Improve road and railway infrastructure to increase access to inputs and markets and ensure timely delivery; 6. Strengthen decentralized structures, by-laws and investments: a. Develop and enforce district bylaws; b. Develop and implement district agricultural investment plans; c. Depoliticize Constituency Development Fund (CDF); d. Prioritise and promote food budgeting, processing, preservation and utilization at community level; and e. Strengthen and expand Monitoring, Control and Surveillance of fishery resources. 7. Intensify on irrigation farming through establishments and rehabilitation of irrigation schemes; 8. Restoration of natural forests and improve land use planning; 9. Strengthen market structures and systems e.g. enforcement of minimum farm gate prices; 10. Establish of agriculture development bank to serve farmers; and 11. Contain population growth. To improve food systems in the next 10 years, the participants at the dialogue identified the following areas: 1. Promote wealth creation opportunities at community level to improve livelihoods; 2. Increase investments and improve functioning of transport systems including road and railway systems; 3. Exploit international and regional trade opportunities; 4. Promote sustainable agricultural production practices: • Reduce dependency on subsidies; • Promote livestock farming; • Expand fish farming industry through construction of dams and water reservoirs; and • Invest in irrigation schemes. 5. Make agriculture attractive to young people through provision of finance, mechanisation and digital technologies; 6. Invest in commercialized agriculture with necessary equipment and systems across the value chains: • Improve agro processing and value addition at community level; • Invest in alternative energy sources; • Invest in mechanization; and • Establish functional food reserves at district level and community grain banks. 7. Improve natural resource and conservation management practices e.g. reduce land degradation, ensure well managed catchment areas. قراءة القليل

8. Cross cutting outcomes: Productive partnerships The regional dialogue also explored how stakeholders can work well together for collective action and forge powerful partnerships towards transformations of food systems. The participants noted that currently, the region has several partners working in the food systems including NGOs both local and international, faith based organizations, farmer based organizations including cooperatives, government departments, private sector players and other food industry players but they rarely work together to share lessons and best practices. This was l... قراءة المزيدinked to lack of proper coordination at regional and district level including between and among ministries, departments and agencies of the government despite existing structures in the decentralized system of governance. The participants noted that the opportunities, enablers and recommendations to transform food systems are multi-sectoral in nature, hence deliberate efforts need to be put in place for a coordinated approach at the regional and district level to ensure impact. Food systems transformation requires working together among several stakeholders such as those responsible for agriculture, nutrition, environment and climate change, infrastructure development, energy and trade. As such the participants explored and suggested mechanisms that will allow stakeholders to work together for a collective action and forge powerful partnerships. These include: • Sharing of information through sectoral periodic review, that is, through joint planning, implementation and monitoring at all levels; • Strengthen coordination amongst different stakeholders in the food chain within the district, through joint planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the activities in the food systems; strengthening/revitalizing of the District Agricultural Extension Service System (DAESS) structures for coordination; enforce punitive measures for uncompliant stakeholders to coordination efforts; • Restructure tax regimens to create conducive environment to investment especially for private sector; • Introduce affirmative measures in different sectors to enhance food systems; and • Create a conducive environment for investors like land, security, transparency and accountability.   قراءة القليل

The Agricultural Input Program (AIP) was a contentious issue with others thinking that it is a necessary evil that meets the nations’ food self-sufficiency goal. For example, the yields are at highest levels in the current season compared to the average of the last five years. On the other hand, others members felt that AIP as a social protection instrument has outlived its life span and the nation needs to graduate from it despite all the positive restructuring it has gone through over the years. Others noted that the subsidy program is good though it just needs to diversify beyond being ma... قراءة المزيدize-centric to other crops such as legumes including livestock so that it contributes fully to Action Track #1 in providing safer and healthy foods. Others also thought the program is good but needs proper targeting. Other views bordered on its net negative effect on the agricultural sector budget vote since other critical services such as research and extension suffer from low allocations though the overall agricultural budget is able to meet the Malabo target of 10% of the national budget. The other issue that came out in the Northern Region dialogue was the need to embrace indigenous food varieties and not only focus on the so-called modern/improved varieties. The promoters of the indigenous food varieties noted that such foods have high nutrition status and are resilient to climate change whilst those championing improved varieties were considering mostly on the high yielding and resilience of other varieties such as drought resistant varieties of maize. قراءة القليل

The regional dialogue was held under the theme “Building healthier, sustainable and equitable food systems for a better Malawi”. The objective of the dialogue was to reflect on the status of Malawi’s food systems, identify challenges and constraints, potentials and opportunities, and game-changing solutions and ideas for its transformation, including defined roles and responsibilities from local voices at the regional level. Based on the guidelines, the dialogue centred on the five Action Tracks underpinning Food Systems Dialogues: • Action Track 1 – “Ensuring access to safe and nu... قراءة المزيدtritious food for all” – participants examined whether all Malawian’s currently have access to safe and nutritious food. If not, what is it that makes it difficult for Malawians to access safe and nutritious food? • Action Track 2 – “Shifting to sustainable consumption patterns” – participants had conversations about what were the key issues affecting healthy and sustainable food consumption in Malawi? • Action Track 3 – “Boosting nature-positive production at scale” – participant examined how Malawi’s food production systems can be transformed to ensure sustainable food and nutrition security for the people. • Action Track 4 – “Advancing equitable livelihoods”– participants explored inequalities within the Malawian food systems. • Action Track 5 – “Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stresses” – the dialogue examined actions to ensure the resilience of the Malawian Food System. The Convenors’ representative also emphasized on the need to analyse the food systems issues in consideration of existing national policies and strategies including the national aspirations enshrined in the Malawi 2063 Vision. قراءة القليل

Action Track # 4 Outcomes The opportunities that were identified under Action Track # 4 included the following: • Refocusing our policies and re-alignment to the new development blueprint (Malawi 2063 Vision) through the 10-year implementation plan; • Institutions like National Planning Commission (NPC) should steer the government machinery to align all development activities towards nationally agreed priorities; • Availability of political will to transform food systems at all levels of governance • United Nations Food System Dialogue (UNFS) offers an opportunity to realign the Nation... قراءة المزيدal Agriculture Policy (NAP), National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP) and other agri-food systems policies; • Review of the Land Act of 2016 provides an opportunity to address issues affecting access to land by women, youth and vulnerable groups for equitable livelihoods; and • Stakeholders and fora should advance the issue of equity in food systems. Enablers that can support the attainment of the opportunities included: • Institutional capacity building; • Policy and technical support; • Co-resource mobilization; • A shared vision that is inclusive; and • Investment in bottom-up research approaches. Game Changing Priority Action # 4 The game changing priority actions under Action Track # 4 included (i) improve productivity of small-scale farmer production systems since they promote health, climate-smart, nutrition-sensitive production, (ii) adopt diverse and appropriate improved farming practices and techniques to increase sustainable food production and productivity; (iii) promote practices that protect the biodiversity of Malawi’s indigenous and traditional foods, and natural regeneration of trees, (iv) reduce destructive farming activities such as farming in river banks that destroy natural resources (v) invest in large scale irrigation systems by government and the private sectors as rain-fed agriculture cannot sustain the food production, (vi) increase incentives to make agriculture attractive (branding) especially to the youth, (vii) increase investment in agricultural research including refining the research agenda, increasing funding and capacitating the National Research Council of Malawi so that it is able to lead and regulate research in Malawi and (viii) the need to expedite the Land Act review process to enhance sustainable land use management قراءة القليل

Action Track # 5 Outcomes The Opportunities to enhance resilience include: • A lot of attention towards climate change mitigation and adaption measures by the development partners and appropriate policies; • Availability of information through digital technologies to the vulnerable populations such as digitized and real time climate information services; • Existing social protection and safety net programs that also contribute to acquiring of productive assets; • Availability of programs focusing on climate change adaptation and mitigation measures by both public and civil society; and... قراءة المزيد • Existing programs on Covid 19 as one of the major shocks affecting production and productivity. Enablers include: • Availability of social protection programs; • Availability of disaster management mechanisms to respond to different shocks and stresses faced by communities including floods and droughts, among others; and • Donors readiness to support emergence interventions. Game Changing Priority Actions # 5 The game changing priority actions under Action Track #5 covered issues at production level including (i) promoting crop diversification, (ii) use of integrated rural approaches that cut across sectoral boundaries, (iii) increasing adoption of modern agriculture technologies, (iv) strengthening advisory services across all sectors, (v) strengthening farmer organisations, and (vi) land consolidation. At processing level, the game changers were (i) provision of reliable, sustainable and clean energy, (ii) increased resource allocation to processing, (iii) improving postharvest infrastructure, and (iv) enhancing fortification of foods. For distribution, game changers included (i) establishing structured markets, (ii) supporting Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs), and (iii) establishing special trade agreements with emerging economies and regional blocks. Finally, on consumption, the participants proposed enhancing nutritional education and diversified diets. قراءة القليل

Cross cutting outcomes: Changes to be made within 3 and 10 years This section provides areas that have to be considered in the short term (3 years) and medium term (10 years). The participants recommended that in the first 3 years, the nation should focus on the following actions: • Capacity development of farmer organizations and cooperatives; • Investments in climate smart agricultural technologies; • Digitization and privatization of the extension system; • Enhancing coordination through the National Planning Commission under a unified vision for Malawi on food systems; • Promotin... قراءة المزيدg nutrition sensitive agriculture; • Investing in irrigation of nutritive and commercial crops; and • Investing in machinery and equipment for value addition. In terms of expectations of the food systems in the next 10 years, the participants at the dialogue identified the following areas: • Promoting positive mind-set or behavioural change towards safe and healthy foods; • Promoting nutrition inclusive and sensitive food systems • Industrialisation and processing of food products, going beyond exporting of raw materials; • Enhancing food safety through legislation and investments in food safety laboratories (domesticating global food standards); • Improving gender transformative approaches across the value chains to ensure that women can participate and benefit in the food systems; • Increasing private sector involvement and enhance commercial farming • Enhancing resilience of food systems and livelihoods; • Strengthening agricultural financing mechanisms including creation of the Agriculture Development Bank; • Exploiting the youth demographic dividend in the food systems e.g. create employment opportunities, enhance innovation opportunities for young people to be involved across the value chain functions; • Strengthening the land tenure system through the review of the land laws; and • Adoption of improved technologies to enhance crop and livestock productivity. قراءة القليل

Cross cutting outcomes: Productive partnerships The national dialogue also explored how stakeholders can work well together for collective action and forge powerful partnerships towards transformations of food systems. The participants noted that currently, the country has several partners working in the food systems but they rarely work together and share lessons and best practices. This was linked to lack of proper coordination at country level between and among ministries, departments and agencies of the government. The participants noted that the opportunities, enablers and recommendations... قراءة المزيد to transform food systems are multi-sectoral in nature, hence deliberate efforts need to be put in place to improve coordination. Some stakeholders noted that in most cases, some sectors leave the Ministry of Agriculture to handle all issues surrounding food systems when other ministries such as those responsible for nutrition, environment and climate change, infrastructure development, energy and trade are at the core of an efficient food system. As such, the participants explored and suggested mechanisms that will allow stakeholders to work together for a collective action and forge powerful partnerships as follows: • Develop common results framework. It was noted that there is a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation framework being developed under the Malawi 2063 Vision that could be leveraged among other existing frameworks; • Develop sustainability and exit strategy especially for program and projects; • Establish holistic coordinating structure for food systems so that all stakeholders and actors can work together towards a transformed food system agenda; • Enhance intra- and inter-ministerial coordination in the public sector; • Enhance cooperative’s information to improve value chain functions; • Strengthen dialogue sessions with involvement of all Ministries and stakeholders; and • Strengthen the linkage of the grassroots and the central levels for policy harnessing, coherence and enforcement. قراءة القليل

The Affordable Input Program (AIP) was a contentious issue with some participants thinking that the subsidy is a necessary evil that meets the nation’s food self-sufficiency goal. For example, in the current season, the yields are at the highest levels compared to the average of the last five years. On the other hand, other members felt that AIP is a social protection instrument that has outlived its life span and the nation needs to graduate from it despite all the positive restructuring it has gone through over the years. However, AIP needs to diversify beyond being maize-centric to other ... قراءة المزيدcrops such as legumes and include livestock so that it contributes fully to Action Track #1 in providing safer and healthy foods. Other views bordered on its negative on the agricultural sector budget vote since some critical services such as research and extension suffer low allocations despite that the overall agricultural budget is able to meet the Malabo target of 10% of the national budget. قراءة القليل

Action Track # 2 Outcomes The opportunities identified towards shifting to sustainable consumption patterns were as follows: • Availability of natural resources that can be used to advance food system goals such as consumption of indigenous foods; • The political will and this needs to come together with citizen empowerment; • There are various/diverse stakeholders working in the food sector that need to be coordinated to enhance sustainable consumption patterns. Enablers that can allow the country to advance sustainable consumption included: • ICT Infrastructure; • Road networks/Inf... قراءة المزيدrastructure; • Investment in machinery and equipment for processing; • Capacity development/human capital efforts in food systems; and • Private sector engagement and interest to invest in value addition, processing etc. Game changing priority actions The game changing priority actions under Action Track #2 were as follows: (i) Policy review and foster implementation (cross cutting across various levels, that is, ICT, markets or private sector engagement), (ii) invest in technologies/innovations for value addition, (iii) enhance knowledge levels/sensitization on food systems, nutrition, health and education system, (iv) promote post-harvest handling and management practices, (v) establish National Waste Management Strategy on food systems, (vi) support access to agri-finance (by private sector, NGO sector and small-holder farmers) to enable them invest in food systems, (vii) invest in agrobiodiversity especially protection of indigenous seeds/crops, and (viii) improve food safety standards – enforce policies and regulating standard through the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) قراءة القليل

Action Track # 3 Outcomes The opportunities identified under Action Track # 3 to boost nature positive production were as follows: • Robust policy framework in the environmental management sector; • Fairly good political will; • Space to review and enact new legislation is always available; • Availability of unused land and water for irrigation; • Youthful population that can be exploited in nature positive production systems • Increased public private investment; • Data is also available from different research efforts to drive nature positive production; and • Space to promot... قراءة المزيدe biodiversity Enablers identified included the following: • International markets; • Local expertise; • Strong network of traditional leaders; • Availability of farmer organizations; • Private sector innovation; and • Potential for value addition. Game changing priority actions The game changing priority actions under Action Track #3 were (i) enhance soil, land and water management, (ii) increase availability and access to seed technologies, (iii) enhance integrated pest management, (iv) invest in irrigation infrastructure, (v) zoning or ecological preferences for crops, (vi) ensure a just and equitable land tenure system, and (vii) promote agriculture diversification. قراءة القليل

The Malawi’s inaugural dialogue was held under the theme “Building healthier, sustainable and equitable food systems for a better Malawi”. The national dialogue session was the first in a series of many regional and district specific dialogues that were held in the country henceforth. The objective of the dialogue was to share information on the UNFSS and reflect on the status of Malawi’s food systems, identify challenges and constraints, potentials and opportunities, and game-changing solutions and ideas for its transformation, including defined roles and responsibilities. Based on th... قراءة المزيدe guiding remarks of the Convenor, the dialogue covered all areas of the food systems and were organized around the five Action Tracks of the Food Systems Summit Dialogues: • Action Track 1 – “Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all” – participants examined whether all Malawians currently have access to safe and nutritious food. If not, what is it that makes it difficult for Malawians to access safe and nutritious food? • Action Track 2 – “Shifting to sustainable consumption patterns” –participants had conversations about what are the key issues affecting healthy and sustainable food consumption in Malawi. • Action Track 3 – “Boosting nature-positive production at scale” – participants examined how Malawi’s food production systems can be transformed to ensure sustainable food and nutrition security for the people. • Action Track 4 – “Advancing equitable livelihoods”– explored inequalities within the Malawian food systems. • Action Track 5 – “Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks, and stresses” – participants examined actions to ensure the resilience of the Malawian food system. The Convenor emphasized the need to link the dialogue sessions with existing national policies and strategies such as the Malawi 2063 Vision which has a pillar that focuses on “agricultural productivity and commercialization”. The Secretary for Agriculture noted that the Malawi’s food systems touch every aspect of human existence. She therefore encouraged delegates to focus the discussion on what would be a well-functioning food systems that have the power of bringing families, communities and nations together since if that fails, there could be disorder threatening education, health and economic outcomes. The Secretary further noted that rising incomes, rapid urbanization and growing middle classes lead to strong adjustments in dietary preferences and consumer behaviour and require public and private investments for improved food market integration. Therefore, she concluded with acknowledgement that increasing agro-food production has not reduced malnutrition levels. Therefore, the dialogue outcomes and recommendations need to feed into the new National Agricultural Policy (NAP) and the National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP). The presentations from session 2 provided context, noting that the landscape and mapping analysis of institutions, players, and policies will provide information useful for the prioritization of actions/interventions and policies to build a food system that deliver healthy and sustainable diets. Therefore, consensus was reached that the national dialogue is not a parallel, stand-alone process rather it is building on existing structures and it is not duplicating past efforts. It was noted that the dialogue process would be underpinned with clear principles such as (i) ensuring that sustainable healthy diets for all is the basic vision, (ii) considers food system transformation as the long-term process, (iii) takes a systems approach to this challenge, (iv) adopts an iterative approach, considers national governments as the lead in all matters of governance, (v) takes a supportive and co-creative rather than prescriptive approach, (vi) build on existing structures when feasible, (vii) create new ones only when necessary, (viii) embrace both evidence and innovation, (ix) proactively address frictions related to facts, interests, and values, and (x) approach the challenge with an attitude of learning, humility, and optimism. قراءة القليل

Action Track #1: Ensuring safe and nutrition food for all Current challenges • Low agricultural production and productivity; • Limited food and diet diversification with too much emphasis on maize and high cost of nutritious food, especially animal source foods; • Food safety challenges mostly due to lack of national level food safety policy, standards and regulations; • Limited coordination across the sectors on food security, nutrition and food safety (no delivery mechanism to enable this); and • Limited training programmes in food and nutrition in primary schools that has resulted... قراءة المزيد in high rate of malnutrition especially among under 5 years of age. Drivers • Gender inequalities persist in accessing safer and health foods including incidences of gender based violence and abuse; • Policy bias towards crops, specifically maize production with very little on livestock and fisheries; • Lack and inconsistency of NAP implementation and investments e.g. no alignment of the budget to the National Agriculture Investment Plan despite the agriculture budget being over 10% of the overall national budget; • Masking of nutrition under agriculture that result into limited utilisation of processed food and lack of agriculture nutrition programmes in the national education curriculum; • Lack of food safety standards and legislation; • Unequal intra-household food distribution and mind-set towards foods e.g. Resistance to behaviour change with regard to production and consumption of nutritious foods; • Lack of nutrition sensitive safety nets and social protection programs; and • Limited linkages between agriculture extension messages and nutrition messages. Action Track #2: Shifting to sustainable consumption patterns Current Challenges • Lack of a comprehensive definition of sustainable consumption; • Limited use and consumption of indigenous foods because these are deemed inferior though highly nutritious; • High food waste and pollution; • Low dietary diversification; • Low accessibility of some food types in some parts of the country; and • Increased post-harvest food losses. Drivers • Uncoordinated actors in the food systems space; • Misconceptions and myths surrounding indigenous food types despite the high nutritive value; • Lack of knowledge in value addition and modern post-harvest management technologies that result in food waste and losses; • Poor road infrastructure to reach out to most parts of the country affecting supply and distribution of diverse food options; and • Capacity challenges in enforcement of food safety standards by the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS). Action Track #3: Boosting nature-positive food production Current challenges • Poor soil and water management practices; • Limited access to inputs such as seedlings for afforestation and agroforestry initiatives; • Weak interventions to manage flora and fauna and their interaction thereby endangering biodiversity; and • Over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture has resulted in low productivity and production including fluctuation and seasonality of production. Drivers • Policy incoherence, contradictions and weak coordination in the environmental management and agricultural sectors; • Low awareness by actors on effective nature based practices that lead to sustainable production systems; • Poor land management and soil conservation measures; • Challenges with market access and linkages, for example input markets; and • High poverty and unemployment levels. Action Track # 4 Advancing equitable livelihoods of people involved in food systems Current Challenges • Women and youth are marginalized in the agri-food systems, in particular, on access to land; • Limited access to productive resources by women. Despite that women are the custodian of productive resources like land (in the south and central regions), they don’t have control since decisions regarding land use are dominated by men; • Limited access to financial opportunities. There are structural barriers associated with smallholder farmer access to finances; and • Limited investment in processing, marketing and value addition that creates employment and boosts the economy. Drivers • Lack of policies to enhance equitable access to productive resources by all; • Limited focus on the value chain approach which focuses on the food systems towards processing, value addition and marketing of end products; • Unconducive land laws, hence the need for thorough review to address land tenure through titling; and • Market failures: There are no marketing incentives and low enforcement of minimum prices. Action Track # 5 Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses Current challenges • Production challenges include low productivity due to low technology use, fragmented land size, low access to quality inputs and high pests and disease infestation; climate change challenges that lead to floods and droughts; and high lending costs/bank interest rates for farmers and these discourage to access financing; • Processing challenges included limited technology adoption, low energy availability and high post-harvest losses; and • Distribution challenges included poor road infrastructure, poor storage facilities, long distances to access inputs and outputs points, and high cost of transport. Drivers • Poor road infrastructure; • Degraded habitats due to deforestation and wanton cutting down of trees; • Poor storage facilities; • Long distances to access inputs and outputs points and high cost of transport; and • Destroyed biodiversity that has led to loss of local indigenous fo قراءة القليل

Action Track #1 Outcomes The opportunities for Action Track #1, to ensure safe and nutritious food for all were identified as follows: • Strong donor support that can be fully utilised by the new government in Malawi that is promoting change of mind-set; • Availability of diverse local foods; • Existence of a digital technology strategy can also advance positive outcomes of the food system. Technology needs to be used to harness information distribution; • New agricultural technologies are available (climate smart agriculture, new varieties and seeds); • Existing policies and strateg... قراءة المزيدies to address safer and healthy foods; • Social programmes which are in place can be expanded to support diversified production and nutrition itself by looking for support in critical areas; • Nutrition education system in place including care group model useful to disseminate information; • There are nutrition teams, with a lot of capacity and competence from national to district and local level to support nutrition sensitive programs; and • With regard to research, there is a huge amount of data, evidence that need to be put at the disposal of policy makers, private sector to understand the landscape better. Game Changing Priority Actions The game changing priority actions under Action Track # 1 were as follows: (I) promotion of bio-fortified crops for sustainability, (ii) supporting nutrition education in communication for social behaviour change towards production of diversified food and diets, (iii) coordination, linking extension and research (whereby research findings ought to reach and transform the household), (iv) allowing nutrition frontline workers to translate messages from production to consumption and they should be visiting household more often to strengthen existing social and behaviour change communication interventions, (v) promotion of food safety and hygiene practices across the food system that will entail development of food safety policy, standardisation and enactment of food safety legislation, (vi) enhancing production, food processing and marketing to ensure that there is increased access to safe and nutritious food, (vii) supporting communities to develop community driven solutions, (viii) enhancing public private partnership for effective markets for good distribution and better access to safer and health foods and (ix) ensuring that there is adequate budget allocation towards food systems aligned priorities that promote diet diversification. قراءة القليل

On July 8, 2021, the fourth video-conference of the Brazilian National Dialogue took place under the theme “Sustainable Food Systems: Proposals from Brazil”. It addressed the Brazilian contributions to the development of sustainable food systems, highlighting responsible production and consumption, food safety and nutrition, dietary patterns, and the reduction of food loss and waste. Special attention was given to the effects of the current Covid-19 pandemic and the importance of sustainable and resilient food systems that promote the production of healthy foods, ensuring food and nutritio... قراءة المزيدnal security (FNS) for all the population. It was emphasized that food systems should contribute to economic growth, the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as to social inclusion. The initial presentations sought to showcase different Brazilian proposals for sustainable food systems. The VC4 presented contributions of the Brazilian experience in the development of sustainable food systems relevant to the current international debate on the topic, as well as identified the challenges of the multiple burden of malnutrition (coexistence of malnutrition and obesity), the relevance of Brazilian traditional diets and the positive effects of investments in research and development. While sharing best production practices, the discussions addressed the positive impact of free and fair international trade on prices and supply levels. Under the current pandemic, it became essential to improve and guarantee food security, despite the challenges at national and international supply chains. In this regard, it was emphasized the fundamental importance of the Brazilian agricultural sector in this debate, as it encompasses several agrifood systems coexisting in a sustainable way, such as agroecology, family farming and extractive systems, intensive and monoculture systems, which cover livestock systems, production of biofuels and planted forests. It was observed that modern agricultural methods are compatible with national and international standards for environmental conservation of rural properties. The VC4 also pointed out the pivotal importance of formulating policies that respect cultural differences, ethnic, racial and gender specificities, young people and traditional communities. To that effect, it was deemed important to integrate policies that aim to guarantee food and nutrition security and the protection of the right to adequate food, together with environmental protection. The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need to promote public and private food distribution to vulnerable groups (in line with recommendations established by the Food Guidelines). Social policies aimed at water access are crucial to ensure human consumption in homes and schools and to foster food production, providing guarantee of FNS for low-income rural families living in areas with regular water shortages. قراءة القليل

The debates in VC4 identified the need to foster collaboration among all (countries, governments, producers, consumers, industries, civil society, etc.) to make sustainable food systems a global reality in the shortest possible time-frame. However, it was also evident throughout the discussions that different challenges should be addressed to advance in the development process, for example, the implementation of the SDGs and compliance with the 2030 Agenda. In this sense, it is worth remembering that the extraordinary development of the Brazilian agriculture promoted since 1970’s strengthene... قراءة المزيدd economic growth and contributed to the evolution of environmental regulations, social standards, and the well-being of rural and urban communities. State investment in agricultural research, innovation and development contributed to the sustainability of food production in the country and was essential to obtain robust and consistent results, in line with the Millennium Development Goals and later to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable healthy food systems depend on permanent policies that integrate health, science, agriculture and social sectors. Climate change implies finding new solutions to adapt to problems such as droughts, pests and excess rain. In order to ensure an adequate and healthy diet and to overcome the obstacles identified in this dialogue, healthy and sustainable food systems must be developed, based on the Food and Nutrition National Policy, the Brazilian food Guidelines and other relevant principles. They (não está claro a que refere “they”) must also be supported by inter-sector public policies and protective measures that guarantee the access to food and promote a healthy and adequate diet. For Brazil, the Summit preparatory process played a positive role. It contributed to identifying the challenges faced by national food systems, especially those that are closely related to tropical agriculture. In this context, it is necessary to highlight the importance of the governance and management policies, which should be strategic, coordinated, based on scientific evidence and on qualified information, allowing the country to transform part of its natural potential into effective production, incorporating technologies at their various levels in favor of sustainability. قراءة القليل

Strengthening programs and institutions that deal with issues related to FNS and food production using the various production systems in place in the country and incorporating/adapting external technologies. Increase support to local food production with active government policies, including credit incentives for small producers. It is necessary to foster dialogue with civil society, with a view to encouraging the promotion of food and nutrition security. It is also urgent to stimulate and enhance the dialogue among different classes of producers – exporters, small farmers, transformation in... قراءة المزيدdustry - consumers, and researchers in order to find a consensual roadmap to promote public policies that connect the economic, social and environmental aspects of food systems in a balanced way. The food system governance structures should be revised and strengthened, based on robust public policies that consider the principles and practices for the exercise of nutritional education. The Brazilian food guides are of utmost importance to encourage healthier eating habits and to develop policies and programs that broaden the access of the whole population, especially people in situation of vulnerability, to healthy and adequate food, while respecting cultural circumstances and local realities. Consideration of an environmental policy based on the tripod of sustainability: economically viable, socially fair (based on solidarity) and ecologically balanced. Label information on the characteristics of marketed foods: short-term standardization. Transparency in clarifying the taxation of different types of food. قراءة القليل