Explore Official Dialogue Feedback

LEVER OF CHANGE “Finance” and its links with ACTION TRACKS #1, 3, and 4: the focus of the Dialogue was on ways to scale-up blended finance (i.e. combining development finance and philanthropic funds with private sector capital) as an enabler for transitional investments needed to produce food more efficiently and sustainably to (1) feed an increasing population with changing diets, (2) achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (‘SDGs’) and (3) meet the 1.5°C ambition of the Paris Agreement. Investment opportunities in sustainable food systems are limited by three key market failures (... Read morelock ins) including (1) the lack of a deep pipeline of bankable projects; (2) high (perceived) investment risk, and lack of primary data/information asymmetries; (3) lack of efficient connection between investment needs of farmers and producing companies and different pools of capital (e.g. DFI’s, banks, pension funds, insurance capital). These market failures are exacerbated by a severe funding gap and a strict regulatory framework. One of the solutions to these failures is blended finance, which on the one hand enables governments to use limited public money to crowd in a much larger scale of private finance, and on the other hand allows corporates and financiers to have some costs and risks partly covered by public finance, boosting their investment appetite in sustainable food production solutions. This dialogue aimed to integrate the viewpoints of different types of stakeholders around blended finance mechanisms. The role that blended finance can have in the food system transformation was analysed and new ways of collaboration were discussed to truly accelerate tangible action towards the UN FSS in New York in September and beyond. Read less

1. Main limiting factors (a) lack of incentives for the private sector to invest in sustainable food production (b) lack of knowledge/common understanding of innovative blended finance mechanisms by all actors involved, including which type of solution works best in specific situations, how the risk sharing works and what is the return on investment; (c) difficulty in building an investment pipeline, especially when this entails reaching out to the smallholder farmers (d) investment risks are perceived higher than for BAU (e) lack of data, metrics and standardization (e.g. for measuring impact... Read mores) limit transparency on the environmental and social impact of blended finance instruments, product structuring and bankability (f) disconnection between actors within the production supply chain, between production and financial actors, between different pools of capital, and between different donors 2. Ways to address these limiting factors CREATING INCENTIVES: (1) Work towards a price of food that reflects the true social and environmental costs of production (2) Transition to a more encompassing definition of “economic return” in business cases to consider the long-term and the internalization of hidden costs to natural capital (3) Stakeholders and investors to increase pressure on food corporates reduce risks related to unsustainable production and create incentives for farmers (4) Investors to reward corporate investing in capacity building and technical assistance of farmers (5) Reduce investment barriers/incentivize farmers, e.g. by lowering certification costs for smallholders, approving longer-term loans linked to sustainability targets, lowering interest rates (6) Financial institutions to have top management-endorsed sustainability objectives and to create incentives for staff to get this type of deals off the ground (7) Governments to work across ministries to reach common goals in different sectors, to create an enabling environment for investments, and to redirect public finance support towards food systems that add instead of subtracting value through hidden costs ADDRESSING LACK OF KNOWLEDGE: (1) Incubate business models and scale-up successful experiences through technical assistance, with emphasis on the youth and on innovation, and with a geographical focus (2) Technical assistance to farmers (e.g. to analyze markets for sustainable produce, to adopt agricultural innovation and adapt it to local circumstances, to prepare a business plan to access finance, to optimize returns over 5-7 years instead of short term) (3) Technical assistance to investment officers BUILDING AN INVESTMENT PIPELINE: (1) Create more investment funds with a transformative potential (2) Develop small-size ticket financing solutions for smaller farmers, distinguish between blended finance for the farmers and for off-takers (3) Build relationships between farmers and local financial actors (4) Simplify structures and process of blended finance instruments to attract more investment opportunities/standardize contracts (5) Increase MDBs support when projects are not bankable (6) Advance innovation on institutional aspects for participatory planning of investments that can then be financed through blended solutions (7) Include investors in the blended finance mechanism’s board room, to assure that projects in the pipeline are attractive to them ADDRESSING INVESTMENT RISKS: (1) Allow farmer cooperatives/communities to receive financing to lower risks and costs (2) Direct more public and private funding towards science-based innovation to de-risk investments (3) Step-up innovation around risk mitigation & sharing solutions (e.g. climate finance lab, blended finance pilots) (4) Develop tools for climate and biodiversity risk assessment tailored to investment officers of local / regional banks MEASURING IMPACT, TRANSPARENCY, AND TRACEABILITY: (1) Low-cost digitization solutions to allow data gathering and increase transparency (2) Address the digital divide, by supporting farmers to access and use digital solutions (3) Work towards standardization of impact measurement, building on KPIs being developed by the research and innovation ecosystem, e.g. avoided emissions, water productivity, etc., but considering that measuring impact can be very costly as it may require specialized people (4) Aim for a standard impact matrix that is science-based and can be certified (5) Rely on local organizations to measure baselines and impact (after providing technical assistance) CONNECTING ACTORS: (1) Work towards a shared ambition level to push sustainable food systems to the top of the agenda (2) Build partnerships to build trust and guarantee the availability of operating loans (3) Address the fragmentation of the value chain, by mapping and addressing all actors in the value chain and make sure that all these economic agents, can reap the benefits of their investments in sustainable food production (4) Develop common narratives for all stakeholders to bridge expectations, institutional cultures and mindsets (5) Improve successful matching between investors and producers, by mapping the different sources of finance around food (6) Connect donors to work on common requirements for concessional capital in the food sector to maximize the catalytic role of concessional capital and development impacts (7) Connect farmers with tech partners to scale up agritech adoption, with aggregators encouraging farmers to adopt technology (8) Intracompany and intercompany collaboration to make the use of blended finance mainstream among corporates. 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What Actions can be used to improve Affordability? Corinna Hawkes presented five propositions about the nature of the affordability problem, and potential solutions emerging in the Action Track 1 process of the Food Systems Summit. Problem 1 is low and variable incomes of poor households: rational management of such incomes drives households to choose staples and cheap, often less healthy options. Potential solutions include women-led enterprise for neglected crops, nutritious social safety nets and school food programmes. Problem 2 is that nutritious foods that people want to eat are more exp... Read moreensive. Potential solutions include investment in infrastructure for nutritious foods and expansion of food at work actions. Problem 3 is that there may be low-cost nutritious foods available which are perceived as having low value,( e.g. millets). Potential game-changing solutions include developing an innovation platform for SME manufacturers of convenient nutritious foods. Problem 4 is the perception that nutritious foods are more costly when they may not be. A potential solution is public awareness campaigns with commercial knowhow. Problem 5 is the wide availability of appealing “ultra-processed” sugary drinks and snacks, fried street foods, oils and sugar, which people are willing to pay for even when they may be more expensive than more nutritious alternatives. Potential solutions include clearly defining “unhealthy food”, a package of food environment policies, and disincentives for unhealthy food marketing. Bringing these game-changing solutions together to achieve systems change will achieve greater collective impact. This involves changing the “rules of the game” to provide an environment which enables a nutritious food economy. Read less

There were no strong areas of divergence but there was clear recognition of the potential trade-offs between affordability and other economic, social and environmental issues. In particular it was recognised that affordability should not be achieved at the expense of poor social conditions (low wages, low remuneration to producers), poor environmental conditions (excessive land clearance, over-use of chemical inputs, intensive animal production), or adverse economic conditions (trade protectionism). Digitalisation - there was divergence on the issue of digitalisation. While some participants w... Read moreelcomed the opportunities for digital technology to create more efficient food systems, other participants considered that digitalisation could widen the inequality gap. There was consensus that we must ensure that digitalisation is inclusive of smallholders. Some potential game-changing innovations identified included e.g. digital communications for market prices. Systems - Ensuring Resilient Systems are critical for food, health, social protection etc. However, a potential trade-off was identified between designing ‘very lean’ systems, and having systems that are efficient but also have capacity to flex, adapt and respond in a time of crisis. Read less

The main focus of the dialogue was to discuss how programmes promoting women’s empowerment can contribute to improved women’s nutrition and health, looking towards the Food Systems Summit 2021. The concept of nutritional empowerment as a method to identify barriers to increased nutrition was presented. The discussion presented findings from research and case studies from Irish and other NGOs undertaking projects focussed on women’s empowerment. The event was a platform to explore lessons on programme design and implementation of development interventions which can simultaneously contribu... Read morete to women’s empowerment and food security and nutrition. Read less

The aim of the webinar was to identify ways of addressing the problem of widespread lack of access to nutritious foods due to lack of affordability. This is a major challenge for the global food system: recent research has estimated about 3 billion people globally cannot afford a healthy diet. This has huge implications for achieving SDG2, and is a major focus of Action Track 1 (AT1) of the UN Food Systems Summit. The webinar provided an overview of the global extent of the challenge: this was presented by Anna Herforth, one of the lead analysts of the global extent of unaffordability of nutri... Read moretious food. This was followed by case study evidence from projects and analyses involving Irish and other NGOs in Liberia, Malawi, Niger and Zambia. This evidence was based on using the Cost of the Diet methodology to calculate the least-cost nutritious diet and identify the number of households unable to afford this diet. An overview of different explanations of the problem of unaffordability, and solutions emerging within the Action Track 1 process, was then provided by Corinna Hawkes, lead of the Access to Food pillar of AT1. Please note that we have also included in this feedback some findings from the first webinar held in the series, which was conducted before the events were officially registered as Dialogues. The first webinar addressed the issue of Food Systems and COVID-19: Irish development organisations’ role in building back better. Read less

The main challenge identified is how to promote women’s empowerment and improved nutrition and health in such a way that women’s individual needs are being met. Often nutrition programmes that focus on better community and childhood nutrition are targeted at women, but their own nutritional status is neglected. Evidence shows that empowering women can lead to increased household diet diversity and food security, however women’s own nutritional status does not correlate to their empowerment status. Gender -based inequalities exist within the nutrition. Women require access to resources, a... Read moregency, knowledge and institutional support to ensure the are in a position to lead healthy lives as individuals in order to support the promotion of improved nutrition within their households and communities. This webinar created a platform to discuss the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to addressing a complex challenge. From the discussion after each presentation and the group discussions there was extreme interest in how to use the nutritional empowerment tool. Participants saw the value in measuring women’s induvial experiences and their own nutritional empowerment. Many questions were targeted at the use and adaptability of the nutritional empowerment index. Both the content of the speakers presentations and the discussion portion illustrated the complexity of women’s empowerment and nutrition as induvial issues. The challenge is to identify the main drivers of women’s disempowerment and malnutrition and the link between the two issues. Once the drivers and links can be identified; the appropriate multi-dimension approach to simultaneously address both issues can be designed, without any trade-offs. Some of the key findings are; • Women’s nutritional empowerment is a concept introduced as a method to capture underlining structural factors determining poor nutrition and health of women. • The determinants of women’s nutritional disempowerment are context specific and require detailed analysis to identify the main barriers to improved nutrition. • Both women’s empowerment and nutrition are extremely complex issues, and have multi-sector influencing factors and therefore a multi-sector approach to address them both simultaneously is needed. • There are opportunities to use new approaches to identify the main barriers to ensure appropriate future planning on women and nutrition. • The potential negative outcome of over burdening women with increased workload should always be considered and closely monitored. • Social behavioural change of relationships within families and communities can off-set the over-burdening of women. Read less

Key Messages  Currently 3 billion people can’t afford the least-cost healthy diet recommended by national Governments  Actions are needed in social protection and in agricultural investments to improve access to nutritious food; social protection transfers need to increase  The cost of nutritious foods should be reduced by diversification and connection, not by externalising the true cost of food  Some community-level solutions can help address affordability and access, including home garden production of nutritious food, nutrition-sensitive aquaculture, developing recipes based ... Read moreon locally available foods, improving infrastructure and market access  The perceived low value of some nutritious and lower-cost foods needs to be challenged  The food environment needs to be changed to incentivise healthy foods and disincentivise wide availability of highly processed unhealthy foods, including working through corporate governance mechanisms  We need to work on multiple game-changing actions collectively to bring about a fundamental shift in how food systems operate and achieve co-benefits across food system outcomes. Read less

How to Link Women's Empowerment and Nutrition: the Women's Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI) The Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI) was developed by Narayanan et al., (2019) to contribute to a shift in thinking about empowerment in the context of women’s nutrition. The index bridges the missing link between empowerment and individual women’s nutrition and health. The WENI introduces the concept of nutritional empowerment as a method to identify barriers to increased nutrition for women. It encompasses the basis of both empowerment and drivers of nutrition to expand on hous... Read moreehold nutrition but also examines the causes of female malnutrition. It measures women’s knowledge, resources, agency and achievements in food, health, fertility, and institutional support. There was discussion on the adaptability of the WENI, and how it may be used within the food system in different agricultural setting (arid-semi-arid areas), the WENI was developed with interchangeable indicators to allow for this, and the initial research was validated in different geographical and agricultural settings within the food system. There was interest of how the WENI could be used, participants discussed the role of the WENI index as a tool to use before project design and programme development. One of the main advantages of WENI is that it evaluates the most important factors in an area and could be used to identify the main priorities of a project sample. It will highlight the domains in which women need the most attention or the least. The index can be also used as a diagnostic tool to understand the needs of a community better. It can also be used as an outcome measure. The main role of the WENI is to capture underlining structural factors impacts women’s nutritional empowerment. The complexity of women’s empowerment was illustrated through the discussion, with certain domains of empowerment signifying a positive contribution to empowerment or in some cases negative. For example, the index can show that working women achieve empowerment by gaining access to income, however in other cases, women who work are disempowered due to their working conditions. One of the main outcomes of this webinar is the development of a networking grant proposal to continued discussion and potential for connection and collaboration between speakers and their organisations. Read less

The Challenge How can nutritious diets be affordable for all? What is the current situation? Anna Herforth presented findings from her recent global overview study. Using the World Bank’s 2017 International Comparison Program (ICP) dataset, the study estimated that 3 billion people globally can’t afford to purchase the least-cost form of healthy diets recommended by national governments. On average it costs $3.68 per day to meet dietary recommendations (which differ by country): healthy diets cost far more than the international poverty line of $1.90 per day. World Bank data estimate that ... Read morethe poorest people in Low Income countries spend an average of 63% of income on food. Based on comparing the cost of diet with 63% of incomes, 1.3 billion people in South Asia, 829 million in Sub-Saharan Africa and 556 million in E. and SE Asia can’t afford a healthy diet. More diverse diets cost more: staples and oils comprise just 16% of the cost of a healthy diet, but fruit and veg cost 40% and protein foods plus dairy comprise 44%. Therefore low-income consumers find it impossible to achieve healthy diets based on current cost structures. What can we conclude from this analysis? First, there are implications for poverty lines: these are clearly set too low and need to be adjusted to allow for the cost of a nutritious diet. Second, agriculture and rural development programmes need to prioritise reducing the cost of vegetables and fruits, and protein-rich foods including dairy, in ways which improve livelihoods and the environment. Third, social protection programmes need to be re-designed to have a stronger focus on nutrition, possibly including assistance for home-based production of nutritious foods. Read less

Evidence and Responses from Irish and International Development Partners The results of UCC’s research ‘Women’s Economic and Nutritional Empowerment: Gergera Watershed Project, Tigray, Ethiopia.’ were presented. The study was conducted by applying the commonly used Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (AWEAI) and the WENI along with a series of food security, diet and health metrics. The objective of the research was to illustrate the complexity in measuring women’s empowerment and the links to nutrition. Goal Global has created the UNITLIFE project aimed at connect... Read moreing women’s empowerment to undernutrition prevention and treatment in Niger. The project aims at sustainably contributing to stunting reduction through agriculture market systems and social behaviour changes. The three main expected outcomes are: improved production and availability of healthy foods, improved women’s empowerment for child nutrition and wellbeing and improved health-seeking behaviours, nutritional practices, and community well-being. The project recognises that this area requires taking a multi-disciplinary approach to achieve the outcomes by working within the food, agriculture, health, and sociology sectors. COUNSENUTH’s project ‘Lishe Dodoma’ is a community-based gender driven nutrition programme in Chemba District, Dodoma Region in Tanzania. The key programme delivery approaches are stakeholder’s engagement, Transformative Reflective Leadership Approach (TRLA) and Village Health and Nutrition Days (VHND). TRLA is an approach which actively engages influential community leaders and whole communities in a participatory way to comprehend existing gender disparities and empowers them to address these for improved nutrition. Chemba is a strong patriarchal society, empowerment of women without active involvement of men is impossible. Maureen Muketha contributed her Food System Summit Action Track 1 Leadership Team’s ‘Game Changer’ solution. This entails a need to increase the availability of safe and nutritious food, making food more affordable and reducing inequities in food access. It focuses on promoting women-led enterprises to grow and sell nutritious but neglected crops. It aims to support women currently facing poverty and inequality to create small enterprises, generating economic empowerment and agency in decision-making in producing, eating, and selling nutritious foods. It may also encourage leadership programmes for innovators at the community level. Read less

Building back better from COVID-19 - Irish Development Organisations Role in building back better. - Building Back Better from COVID-19: 2021 presents a window of opportunity for ‘transformational change’ towards reaching the SDGs. In doing this we must ensure that we reach the furthest behind first, and take a ‘food systems approach’. Policy responses to COVID-19 must also be gender sensitive if we are to ‘build back better’. One tool identified is the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) which is a practical guide for transforming gender and unequal power relations in value chain... Read mores. - Inequality is a key consideration in building back better from COVID-19. For example, IFPRI research from Ethiopia demonstrates that the poorest households were disproportionately affected by the income and nutritional impacts of COVID-19 compared to Middle and Higher Income Households. - Irish development organisations have a role to play in building back better. In particular there is a need to support resilient systems, emphasise local and collaborative approaches and ensure the voices of the marginalised are heard through inclusive and democratic processes. Donors can support this role through flexible financing, for example, Irish Aid flexible funding was effective in enabling development partners such as Trocaire and Concern to respond to the immediate impacts of COVID-19. - On tackling malnutrition, we must look at all aspects of the food systems, including WASH, Health, social protection and livelihoods; this came out strongly from IFPRI and IDS research. - Social protection systems have been adaptive to COVID-19, and safeguarded the most vulnerable. Positive examples shared were the PSNP Ethiopia, Cash Safety-net Transfers in Haiti and Bangladesh (Concern). Advocacy and oversight of social protection systems is also necessary to ensure government transfers are sufficient to allow beneficiaries access a Minimum Expenditure Basket (Concern programme in Kenya). In the longer term, countries need to be supported to develop shock responsive social protection systems - In order to understand food economies in food insecure environments, it’s important to know how households meet their food needs. Tools identified were the Household Hunger Scale(UCC), and The Livelihood based Coping Strategy Index (LbCSI) which uses ‘coping strategies’ as an indicator for stress regarding access to food (Trocaire). Read less

Discussion Panel There was extreme interest in exploring the reasons that women’s empowerment did not correlate with household’s food security indicators. The evidence shown from the research in Tigray illustrated why the WENI is important, often induvial women’s health and nutrition is overlooked when programmes focus on women as a route to improve childhood nutrition. Again, there was interest in all speakers in this group towards adaption current practices to other contexts. Throughout the webinar the discussion both from the panellist’s and the audience was used to share resources ... Read morefrom the speakers and the attendees. The presentations from Ethiopia, Niger and Tanzania showed that there are complex issues when addressing nutrition and the first step is to identify the main driver factors of malnutrition. The speaker from GOAL Global based in Niger showed innovative methods to addressing malnutrition through mass awareness by using digital technologies to spread information. Reaching communities that were further away from the sample site. All presentations added the conclusion that both separately women’s empowerment and nutrition are determined by a multitude of driving factors. What was proven to be even more complex is trying to promote both increased women’s empowerment and improved nutrition in a multi-disciplinary manner. Read less

Examples from Liberia, Niger, Malawi and Zambia Case studies conducted by different NGOs using the Cost of the Diet methodology highlighted some of the affordability issues in different contexts. A study undertaken in Liberia by Concern Worldwide in three livelihood zones found that most poor and very poor households would need to spend more than 100% of their annual income to achieve a nutritious diet. The price of fish has a significant impact on affordability. Seasonal price fluctuations, currency depreciation/import dependency and production constraints also influence affordability. Potent... Read moreial solutions include a focus on community-level food demonstrations, home-garden production, nutrition-sensitive aquaculture and snail-rearing, promoting recipes incorporating nutritious local foods, and increased use of micronutrient powders. Save the Children (UK) pioneered the Cost of Diet and Household Economy approaches. SCF presented recent work in Malawi and Niger combining both approaches to explore the impact of covid-19 on diet affordability. The likely causes of impact are restricted movement, curfews, market disruptions, disruption of livelihoods, border closures, and food price increases. In Niger (Zinder District) grains comprised about 50% of the cost of a nutritious diet. Prices and affordability increased in January-February 2021 compared with the previous year: in February 2021 the affordability of a nutritious diet was 129% of the income of very poor households. In Malawi’s Chilwa Lake Zone the cost of a nutritious diet was 250% above average incomes of very poor households. The second wave of covid 19 was contributing to a worsening of affordability and increased malnutrition in both countries. SHA presented findings of work on affordability by Self Help Africa in their Local Development Programme implemented in two remote Districts of the Northern Province of Zambia, with high prevalent stunting rates (about 50%). The cost of an energy-only diet was estimated at 58% of average income, but the minimum cost of a nutritious diet was 14 – 18 times more expensive than the energy-only diet –far out of reach of most households. Factors influencing affordability included limited availability of vegetables in the cold season, the high cost of sources of Vitamin B12 (mostly animal-source foods), poor infrastructure and remote location, and food preferences - millet is considered a food of poor people although it is a better sources of micronutrients than maize. Read less

There was a general consensus surrounding the issues of women’s empowerment and nutrition, however the approaches to address these did differ. Some could argue that using women’s empowerment as a method to improve households or child malnutrition, as successful as that has been in the past, could also lead to the over burden of women and in some cases and ignore the needs of the induvial women themselves. There was also discussion on the nutrition-livelihoods pathway, on whether better nutrition leads to improved livelihoods, the discussion offered that there was a positive relationship be... Read moretween improved nutrition and livelihoods outcomes, however the opposite is not always true, that improved livelihoods lead to better nutrition. There was a note of the amount of research that is available to back these statements. Read less

The Dialogue gave the opportunity for the participants to express their thoughts, share best practices, discuss insights, and put to light some of the pressing concerns about ensuring sustainable food systems within the contexts of education, research, and governance. Important key points for each discussion session are as follows: • Innovative Curricular Program and Pedagogical Approaches An age-friendly curriculum toward lifelong learning is needed since higher education institutions are now catering learners from the Generation Z and the Alpha generations. Interconnectedness is important.... Read more Agriculture should be linked with health, human nutrients, and agribusiness to make agriculture more interesting among the youth. Promoting agripreneurship among the youth and developing a curriculum that is responsive to the market and the labor force will go beyond training future employees but also in harnessing future employers who would usher further innovations in agriculture. Developing courses to reskill and upskill people from outside the university, such as farmers, should also be looked into. Credits could be earned and saved in a university credit bank to be used later. Degree may be conferred when farmers have accumulated enough credit units to get a degree. There is a need to foster national and international collaboration in a non-traditional way by utilizing information and communication technology. • Leveraging Research for Development and Extension (RDE) for Stronger Alliances toward Sustainable Food Systems Education and research institutions must be transformed for food systems to be transformed. There is a need to stop working in silos and synergize operations, to work with the whole value chain players from farmers to consumers. Agroecological problems are compounded by climate change factors. Sustainable agroecosystems depend on sustainable productivity. Research should embrace a food system approach to cover not just pre-production and production, but also processing, post-production, machinery, trade, infrastructure, nutrition, and health, among others. The academe and research institutions should engage the communities, farmers, private sector, and government agencies. We do not work for them but with them, in setting up agendas to directions. Our food system is very vulnerable to risks and shocks. We should set up platforms and interdisciplinary alliances to share information and best practices and look at opportunities to work together. • Imperatives for Governance and Policies toward an Enabling Environment There is a need for a governance system for food security for all, one that leaves no one behind. Investments on key public good are necessary to ensure that science and technology and education and extension converge towards the shared purpose of securing adequate, accessible and quality food for all. We need to start small, and with small successes, we can build models for upscaling solutions in the food system. To determine the effectiveness of level of linkages, it should adopt the national agricultural research extension system model. There is a disconnect among different key players in the food system, such as among HEI researchers and extension agents to the actual needs of farmers. These gaps need to be addressed by involving all the key players in the food system (i.e., consider farmers as partners and key players, not beneficiaries; bring together the problem and provide solutions to fill the gap between farmers and educators). Overall, the key recommendations emerging from the discussion were as follows: · Focusing on “family farmers” approach in addressing gaps in the food systems; · Including family, culture, and resources, in the context/narratives of food systems; · Focusing on younger generation, entice the youth to engage in farming; · Ensuring interconnectedness of academe, policy, research, and governance to provide holistic approach/system on food systems; · Recognizing the need for resilient food systems, future-proof agriculture; · Establishing collaboration of all actors in the food systems (e.g., farmers, processors, businesses, governances, policy, research, academe), with focus on value chain; and · Investing in key public interest and making sure that RDE go forward together to address gaps in the food systems, generating support, and making sure that policies on food systems should be for all. Read less

Innovative Curricular Programs and Pedagogical Approaches Outcomes: · Adopting age-friendly curriculum towards lifelong learning, openness, and massification of education that will result to wider access to knowledge and research results, given the demographics of our current learners. · Recognizing micro-credentials, nano-degrees, multiple learning pathways, alternative mode of earning credits (e.g., allowing registration for modules, getting credits and accumulating it in university credit banks, or giving credits for work experience) will enable those who do not fit the traditional learne... Read morers’ profile to earn a degree even in 8-10 years. Transforming the curriculum where 20-30% of the study program will be conducted outside the classroom will cultivate global competence. · Incorporating culture in the curriculum will develop a sense of responsibility among the students. Food as an expression of culture should be the central focus of agricultural programs instead of food as business. · Strengthening agriculture through the inclusion of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary perspectives and approaches in the curriculum so that the students can learn from other disciplines and innovations in ICT and the environment. Student exchanges among partner universities would also allow learning best practices from other institutions and culture. · Promoting agripreneurship among the youth and developing a curriculum that is responsive to the market and the labor force will go beyond training future employees but also in harnessing future employers who would usher further innovations in agriculture. One strategy could be by providing students opportunities for internships in agribusiness enterprises or by engaging students in agribusiness projects. · Incorporating Agriculture in the STEM program in secondary school education as well as promoting a career on technical education will help attract the youth’s interest in the field. · Shifting from Teacher-Centered Learning (TCL) to Student-Centered Learning (SCL) and Community & Student-Centered Learning (CSCL) will help contextualize the food value chain and food security, discuss the participatory model of sharing localized and contextualized best practices, contextualize the role of food justice, integration of traditional knowledge, and the development of place-based learning projects that promote community well-being. Actions to be taken: • Promote student enrollment in agriculture-related fields, through building a more positive career image in this sector, together with scholarships and other academic perks. • Train agriculture students to be business owners who would return to their villages or to the countryside after graduation, rather than becoming employees in the cities. • Support non-traditional learners, such as farmers, to earn their degrees through a flexible learning system that gives credit to farmers' field experience/practice. Read less

Leveraging Research for Development and Extension (RDE) for Stronger Alliances toward Sustainable Food Systems Outcomes: · Moving away from silo thinking to multi-dimension development thinking facilitate multi-perspectives and transdisciplinary approaches towards reducing food loss and waste among suppliers and consumers. · South-to-South collaborations facilitate wider sharing of knowledge, skills, expertise, and resources to meet development goals through concerted efforts. · Institutionalizing a regional curriculum on food system, recognizing that the food system encompasses activities,... Read more people and resources involved in getting food from farm to plate. · Harnessing the use of digital tools and technology to transform agri-food systems, improve access to market, knowledge, and information. · Directing more cross-regional internships towards research so that interns will gain more experiences in conducting research, information, or data analysis, etc. · Empowering and connecting women and increasing their participation in policy making to address their needs and challenges through digital technology. · Investing on sustainable family farming production, processing, and marketing. · Conducting research with the farmers themselves (participatory action research). Farmers must be equal partners in research design; blending of traditional and modern knowledge to give way to innovative farming practices should be considered (e.g., Farmers Field Schools or FFS). · Increasing policy appropriateness and relevance, stakeholdership, ownership and responsibility, deepening trust and partnership among stakeholders involved though participatory policy making processes. This recognizes farmers and farmer organizations not only as beneficiaries of these policies but also as equal partners in crafting and implementing policies and programs. · Adopting the landscape approach, looking beyond the farm, and taking a more holistic approach to sustainability. Mindset transformation is needed to contextualize into wider complex problems, including the aspect of climate change. · Integrating and synergizing ecosystems; enabling conditions are needed to improve food systems and its sustainability using agroecological approach. · Need for adequate and competent human resources that is attuned to landscape-based type of development; train farmers as farmer-extension agents. · Promoting greater understanding and competence along with robust policies and institutions through RDE. RDE agenda and food systems must be inclusive of farmers. · Evidence-based advocacy of farmer organizations and researchers (e.g., SRI or System Rice Intensification in Cambodia). · Need for Academe-Industry-Government interconnectivity models on research collaboration and co-sharing of financial resources to shorten the gap between research and knowledge utilization, and commercialization of research innovations for the benefit of farmers and society through extension programs. Actions to be taken: · Focus RDE directions on agroecosystem and landscape scale; long-term studies and observations of agroecosystems; alliances with local communities, NGAs, and private sector. · Focus research on impacts of agroecosystems on environment and vice versa; interactions of agroecosystems with other ecosystems; thresholds, safe operating space, and carrying capacity at various scales; mechanisms for multistakeholder engagement in landscape/ecosystem-based land use planning and for integration of multisector and agency plans; framework and tools for landscape/ecosystem-based land use/development planning; and tools and mechanisms to enhance uptake of STI in policy and planning. · Incorporate social dimensions in research, so adaptive capacity is checked and considered in implementing initiatives. This includes factoring in concerns such as adaption to technology, which is often difficult. · Pool research initiatives (e.g., experts and laboratories) to help share governance and themes for participatory work. Looking at long-term experiments for sustainability and adopting a multidisciplinary research approach (e.g., introduce multi-disciplinarity in curriculum and teaching). Read less

Imperatives for Governance and Policies toward an Enabling Environment Outcomes: • Reforming research and extension work, wherein farmers must participate in the whole process of co-designing agricultural technologies and innovations. • Treating farm families as partners and key players, not merely as beneficiaries. • Ensuring that agri-extension research and results are more reachable and accessible to the farmers. • Delivering an integrated and holistic approach in curriculum design in agriculture, food systems, and innovation. • Strengthening of major food systems in each country ... Read moreof the Southeast Asian region should be operationalized by integrated innovations in: Plate, Pocket and Policy + People and Partnerships. • Putting incentives in place for farmer cooperatives to work with students from HEIs. HEIs need to set up incubators for green startups and other businesses that are much needed for enhancing the uptake of agroecology practices and approaches that support food system transformation to promote partnerships among universities and research institutions, private sectors, and farmers organizations. Fostering partnerships will be critical. Setting the roles in the public-private partnerships are needed. Academe-industry-government and farmers need to work together. • Enabling financial grants to support farmer-led innovations through funds mobilized by the university research institutions. • Recognizing that a sustainable food system is knowledge-based. There is knowledge held by farmers, particularly indigenous peoples who have been perpetuating indigenous knowledge through their farming practices. Knowledge from the ground is part of education, too, and they are priceless. • Need to see more actions that generate results at the local/farmers level than merely talks. The government must empower local communities to work on their own food systems. • Need to support more studies and activities related to improving design of financial technologies for farmers and encouraging wider participation in these financial systems (e.g., loans and credit systems and agricultural insurance facilities, among others). Actions to be taken: • We need to start small, and from small successes, we can build models for upscaling solutions in the food systems. • To determine the effectiveness of level of linkages, they have to do away with the “controlled by national government system” towards the national agricultural research and extension systems model where it links the research extensions and other stakeholders in the process to have an inclusive, multi-stakeholders/multi-sectoral approach. This will work by building the capacities of farmers and farmers organizations: to organize themselves, to link with each other, to link with cooperatives, to assert that they should be recognized as legitimate stakeholders in the process, to facilitate and to push for the government’s opening that farmers are given a seat in the decision-making. • Look at basic research and policy support for the development of new varieties and breeds, seeds and livestock production, distribution of technologies, agricultural systems technologies, pest and disease management, postharvest management, weather forecasting, farm transport and logistics system, food quality and nutrition, diversified farming. Read less

Transformations needed in education, research, and governance for higher education institutions in the region: · The focus of agricultural education should not be solely on agriculture but what it can do for society. The current pandemic highlighted that there are problems that farmers, or economists, or doctors, on their own, cannot solve. Multi-disciplinarity must be considered in re-thinking agricultural practices and education. · In one of the countries, every year, the educational institutions target 200-300 student to enrol. However, less than 50% enrolled and of those who enrolled, ab... Read moreout 40% drop out. · Living with what you have is key to sustainability. · If innovations are not picked up by the industry, then these will not work. There is a need to commercialize the technologies developed to benefit the people. · Participation in food systems is important for universities but it can be complicated. Sometimes, there is disconnect in curriculum vs research. It is important for universities to have a connected approach between food systems and curricula. · Incentive policy is important to motivate and attract researchers, and to work for productive research. Support from government and industry is also important as well as research support (including capital). Promotion of jobs in agriculture will also contribute to the food systems. · People can resist new technology and so we must strengthen social science in order to help farmers and people on the ground better understand the benefits of digital technology. · Working together and breaking barriers in making policies. · There should be a balance between doing research for work promotion and doing it to improve the food systems. · There is a disconnect among different key players in the food system, such as among HEI research and extension to the actual needs of farmers. These gaps need to be addressed by involving all the key players in the food systems. · Consider farmers as partners and key players, not beneficiaries. Farmers have to be involved as they possess valuable knowledge in agricultural research and development. · Three of the 5 Action tracks for the UN Food Systems Summit received the most attention and interest from participants – 2, 4 and 5. Meanwhile there was least discussion on Action Track 1 in relation to nutritious food and 3 on nature-positive food production. Read less