Independent Dialogue African Non-State Actors Independent Dialogue: A Pre-UN Food Systems Summit Geographical focus: No borders Area of divergence a. Involvement of youth to own, control and be accountable to the Food Systems process. However, the youth need to clearly state and demonstrate what they can do. b. A concern that the UNFSS will be used as a conduit to echo the business-as-usual, quick-technofix policy prescriptions of the agribusiness agendas – a summit geared towards repeating the agribusiness-as-usual model to solve the food and climate crisis cannot deliver on the envisioned transformation of revitalized, sustainable and healthy food systems. c. The economic landscapes in which smallholder farmers in Africa have traditi... Read moreonally operated are shifting rapidly, however, the future of the food supply lies in the hands of smallholder and peasant farmers yet enabling environment for this emerging future is being curtailed by major players in Food Systems (Governments, Development Partners, Large Multinational Commercial companies and Large Scale Farmers. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Keywords: Governance, Human rights, Policy, Women & Youth Empowerment
Independent Dialogue African Non-State Actors Independent Dialogue: A Pre-UN Food Systems Summit Geographical focus: No borders Discussion topic outcome Proposed interventions in Food System for National, subnational and lower levels for Action track 1 and cross-cutting issues (based on overlooked issues) Governance 1.Equip Leaders, farmers and key actors in food systems value chains with transformational leadership skills to: -inspire and motivate farmers and other actors in food systems to high-performance levels Model: CAADP-USAID/Africa Lead on ‘Champions for Scaling Up Food Security Initiatives” has been a game-changer. The over 2000 trained champions introduced major changes in their regions. e.g. current Vice President of Tanzania D... Read morer Philip Mpango. 2.Mindset shift – Change narrative by thinking positively about agriculture and governance. 3.Tackle corruption head-on food systems value chains as it is an engrained issue and also a mental sickness that is encouraged by dysfunctional systems. (educated on enterprise and wealth creation that is sustainable and long-lasting; upholding professional values; a Judiciary which is supposed to deal with offenders need to be above reproach like Ceasor's wife) 4. Joint Sector Reviews at County Levels to receive and debate County Annual Progress Report. Action Track 1 1.Mindset shift – Change narrative by thinking positively about agriculture. 2.Redirect flow of capital from multi-national companies to have proper and targeted financing in the production system aimed at SMESs, to develop the supply chains. 3. Women and Youth’s economic empowerment in agriculture and agribusiness from tilling the land to manufacturing- (WYEEAA Manufacturing Retouch Model). This entails a market analysis, documentation of the processing procedure including the required equipment, inventory of the women and women/youth groups who may be interested and ready to occupy this space, connections that need to be entered into with the producers, forward contracts signed with producer farmers, contracts with by the future buyers of the processed products, tap into African Continent Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and export to other countries intra-regional trade. 4. Increase road, railway coverage /interconnections and reduce tariffs on food transportation networks to ease food access and lower the cost of food. 5.Adopt action research to develop and implement innovations with the end-users of the technology. e.g. Egerton University Agro Science Parks which facilitate seed production and establishment of seed banks. 6. A change of proposal and grant design to intentionally incorporate action research - move the lab to farms and other parts of food systems where there is action. 7.The extremist middleman factor in agriculture: attach value to food and create awareness programs to empower producers to determine the prices of their products, use aggregation and structured markets e.g. Ethiopian Commodity Exchange system for coffee farmers model. 8. Investment in action research and improved data systems. 9.Catalyze north-south and south-south research collaborations focusing on climate change and resilient food systems. 10. Increased budgetary allocation to research and innovations. 11. Research should develop agricultural innovations which respond to the priorities of our food systems. 12. Invest in building the capacity of researchers to develop home-grown, contextualized solutions. Read less Action Track(s): 1 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Finance, Governance, Innovation, Policy, Women & Youth Empowerment
Independent Dialogue African Non-State Actors Independent Dialogue: A Pre-UN Food Systems Summit Geographical focus: No borders Discussion topic outcome Gamechanger propositions to African Common Position on UNFSS based on identified overlooked issues in Track 2 1. Establish multi-stakeholder frameworks (public and private sector, business and households) that innovatively address overall food loss and waste with a bias towards incentives rather than sanctions in a way that builds a circular economy. 2. Pilot and/or scale-up existing investments in reducing on-farm and post-harvest losses through networks, partnerships and other collaborations. Action Track(s): 2 Keywords: Governance, Innovation, Policy
Independent Dialogue African Non-State Actors Independent Dialogue: A Pre-UN Food Systems Summit Geographical focus: No borders Discussion topic outcome Proposed interventions in Food System for National, subnational and lower levels in Action Track 2 1. Launch public awareness campaigns on food safety and enforcement of food safety standards through a cascaded training model to empower producers and consumers in organized cohorts e.g. farmer groups, professional bodies, welfare groups 2. Empowering women and youth in agri-nutrition through nutrition education and social behaviour change communication, and conducting participatory cooking training 3. Deploy promising models: -strengthen the performance of community health volunteers by incenti... Read morevizing, - Bring Food back to the schools - Improve marketing of farm produce and value-added products through digital platforms, linking farmers to markets e.g. Aquaculture digital platforms - Success stories include Aqua Park model for fish production in Busia Kenya, Fish cage culture technology (One Acre Fish Cage farms of Prof Khama Rogo in Ogal Beach, Kisumu, Kenya) 4.Commercialize the traditionally grown food crops and invest in upgrading the same to ensure farmers engage in upgraded traditional food crops that are high yielding 5. Mainstream reduction of Post-Harvest Loss and Food Loss through a built-in post-harvest intervention with proper tracking - Identify context-specific solutions to address losses/waste at the critical loss points in the priority commodities. 6. Reliable data on Post Harvest Loss PHL and Food Loss should be generated and centralized to guide PHL strategies. 7. Adequate investment should be channelled into reducing PHL and Food Loss through: 8. Scaling up appropriate technologies and practices to reduce upstream losses targeting: a. Small scale processing technologies/facilities to transform the unsold or unsaleable perishable produce into shelf-stable products. b. Minimize losses and leakage from the system at each step, including through correct use of the technologies and storage arrangements c. The voucher system which enables off-take is already working under the East Africa Grain Council. 9.Targeted Capacity building – farmers and other stakeholders in the food supply chain (at all levels) and. intentionally deploy the innovations from research to impact the end-users (e.g. at University of Nairobi (UoN) the ‘lab to land’ approach using the ‘Hub and spoke model’ to build the capacity of diverse stakeholders in the food systems including farmers, processors, traders, extension agents, entrepreneurs among others. b. Low-cost cold storage technologies demonstration unit at UoN to train potential users of the technologies on good practices and technologies for cold chain management. c. Strengthen curricula in tertiary institutions to adequately cover the aspects of postharvest management. 10.Incentivize the private sector to participate in marketing and export of the locally produced products while also participating in processing and value addition. 11.Streamline and harmonize customs operations and simplify documentation processes 12. Leverage and employ the AfCFTA to move goods, including perishable foods as a priority element to the food system. 13. Implement cross-border and agreements for perishable foodstuffs holistically. This requires separate regulatory mechanisms, taking note of the right to food, food standards, the impact of the raised process on consumer and the injustice of poor prices/no price for producers Read less Action Track(s): 2 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Finance, Governance, Policy, Women & Youth Empowerment
Independent Dialogue African Non-State Actors Independent Dialogue: A Pre-UN Food Systems Summit Geographical focus: No borders Discussion topic outcome Gamechanger propositions to African Common Position on UNFSS based on identified overlooked issues in Action Track 3.1 and 3.3 3.1.1 Explore and pilot the Sustainable Agriculture and Just Rural Transition initiative with a view to mainstreaming it into domestic policies that direct resource allocations and investment towards sustainable agricultural practices that support climate action 3.3.1 Promote sustainable food production through a mix of practices that balance and build ecological connectivity and human-wildlife coexistence among local communities Action Track(s): 3 Keywords: Environment and Climate, Governance, Human rights, Policy
Independent Dialogue African Non-State Actors Independent Dialogue: A Pre-UN Food Systems Summit Geographical focus: No borders Discussion topic outcome Proposed interventions in Food System for National, subnational and lower levels for track 3 (based on overlooked issues) 1.Targetted strengthening of existing small and medium scale food producers groups and formations of new organized movements to advance SMEs. 2. Acceleration of Cooperation and Investment. Restoring degraded lands, biodiversity and enhancing forecasting, early warning, and accelerating the provision of adequate investment in natural and man-made resources and inputs is key, to ensure sustainable production and productivity. 3. Introduce formal recognition, incentives and ta... Read morengible rewards for all categories of farmers and small scale producers.3.Parliamentarians should endeavour to defend the biodiversity, indigenous cultures and national systems. There is a need for policies that will allow farmers to produce food using indigenous seeds that are readily available and that they can be shared amongst themselves. The policies should allow farmers to produce safer and healthier food in an environmentally safe way, not punitive policies designed to eliminate farmers and have our food system controlled by corporations out to make profits at the expense of our health and our environment. 4. Ensure availability of both macro (N, P, K) and micronutrients (S, B, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, Mn, etc.) fertilisers in all agro-input shops and wholesalers in all agricultural corners of the country. 5. Harness the creativity and energies of the youth towards pursuing nature-positive agricultural production, and inharmonious collaboration with the relevant actors. 6. Continuous emphasis on the link between resilient food systems and associated environmental and social systems to a larger extent. 7. Promotion and support to business incubation for youth as a key driver for commercialization of agro opportunities 8. Apply The Yala Hub Participation Framework for Optimizing Community Participation in the Management of Yala Wetland Ecosystem in Lake Victoria Basin, Kenya. A 5-steps model with Community Facilitator and Information Resource Hub (By Prof Victor Odenyo and Dr Douglas Ouma, University of Eldoret, Kenya). Read less Action Track(s): 3 Keywords: Environment and Climate, Governance, Innovation, Policy, Women & Youth Empowerment
Independent Dialogue African Non-State Actors Independent Dialogue: A Pre-UN Food Systems Summit Geographical focus: No borders Major focus The theme of the dialogue was Overlooked issues in Transforming Food Systems in Africa. It sought to contribute to the articulation of Africa’s Common Position on UNFSS by analyzing and bringing overlooked issues on board and further cross-fertilize these with the outcomes of the then ongoing Africa’s UN Member States and Independent Dialogues. The overlooked issues based on aligned to FSS 5 Action tracks were identified from a comprehensive analysis of Food systems literature on Africa, Regional and Country level dialogues, some topical independent dialogues and interim analysis from UNFS... Read moreS pool of information reported to date. In addition, forgotten factors on cross-cutting issues were identified, additional game-changers and required interventions were proposed. The convenors sought to make the food system dialogues complete by looking at these forgotten issues and ensuring that they were incorporated in the strategies for transforming food system in Africa. Among the identified issues include: lack of recognition and prioritisation of smallholder farmers/producers contribution to food systems; lack of transformational leadership among food system actors; inadequate support to Agri-MSE that can transform them; influence of a few corporations and philanthropists on the food system, at the expense of the micro, small and medium scale enterprises; corruption undermining food systems transformation initiatives; inability to address core barriers to unleashing the power of youth and women in food systems, consistent underbudgeting for agriculture by allocating less of 10% consistently and not doing something to meet the minimum set by CAADP; inadequate investment in generating and disseminating reliable data; adoption of food systems that are good for the environment and reclaiming lost land and resources; scaling up appropriate post-harvest technologies, and building capacities of farmers on post-harvest management, , reduction of food wastage across the supply chain and food system is not valued leading to a drain on the system’s output; low investments beyond traditional main crops such as other indigenous crops that are nutritionally important in the food systems. Further to this, there is no prioritization for easy movement at border points, thus impacting producers and consumers; exacerbated by lack of legislation to facilitate such fast-tracking. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Finance, Governance, Human rights, Innovation, Policy, Trade-offs, Women & Youth Empowerment
Independent Dialogue African Non-State Actors Independent Dialogue: A Pre-UN Food Systems Summit Geographical focus: No borders Main findings Additional 24 gamechanger propositions based on identified overlooked issues added to African Common Position on UNFSS as shown in section c below. b. Identified overlooked issues and proposed interventions required to create sustainable food systems at national and subnational levels in all the 5 action tracks as detailed in section C below. c. Governance of food systems as key transforming food systems in Africa. Transformative leadership and mindset change at all levels are required for transforming Africa’s Food systems d. Coalition of Non-state actors to create momentum and more coaliti... Read moreons for implementation of these overlooked issues in the implementation of UNFSS summit outcomes in Africa. Youth defined networks, for example, are identified and will be used as the entry point on policy, strategies, implementation, evaluation. These networks are finding their common youth agricultural agenda which will be endorsed by the AU and others e. There is a need to strengthen the resilience of food systems and explore tradeoffs across environmental and social systems to a larger extent. f. Rethink about Africa’s research agenda, taking the opportunity of indigenous technical knowledge to enhance innovation capacity and integrate indigenous ecological knowledge and science in natural resource management through action research. g. Make specific policy choices and investments to strengthen curricula in tertiary institutions to adequately cover the aspects of postharvest management and agriculture positively Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Finance, Governance, Human rights, Innovation, Policy, Trade-offs, Women & Youth Empowerment
Independent Dialogue African Non-State Actors Independent Dialogue: A Pre-UN Food Systems Summit Geographical focus: No borders Discussion topic outcome Gamechanger propositions to African Common Position on UNFSS based on identified overlooked issues in Action Track 1 1.Increase road, rail, ports and other transport and logistics connectivity and reduce tariff and other non-tariff barriers to ease food access and lower the cost of food. 2. Increase smallholder farmer incomes, agricultural productivity and equity by enabling access to inputs, technology, mechanized services and finance through public-private partnerships. 3. Address smallholder farmer self-vulnerability by ensuring priority access to seeds that support crop diversity, and serv... Read moreices, support, advice and inputs to optimize soil health. 4. Launch Coalition of Youth in African Agriculture within the formal AU framework. 5.Establish food and nutrition business development, innovation and financing hub for high-impact African agri-SMEs distributed around regional clusters around and within Africa (“hub and spoke” strategy). 6. Modernize the micronutrient value chain to support staple food biofortification and complimentary food industrial fortification strategies. 7. Develop systems and capacities to track and monitor food safety standards over time. 8. Develop systems and capacities to enable rapid responses to foodborne disease and related outbreaks. 9. Develop Digital Data and Knowledge Management frameworks to guide multiple food systems transition and transformation pathways in various settings and circumstances that ultimately support the “access to safe and nutritious food for all” framework around food security and the reduction of hunger, and access to food that is both nutritious and safe. Read less Action Track(s): 1 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Governance, Innovation, Policy, Women & Youth Empowerment
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Nigeria Geographical focus: Nigeria Main findings One of the main areas of discussion in the Dialogue was the conception of a “healthier” diet, the current policy frameworks regarding nutrition in Nigeria and the challenges that exist with regard to their implementation. Here, the main finding was a need to enhance stronger interaction and coherence between State and federal policy creation and implementation for a concerted effort to embrace a multi-sector approach to nutrition. A second main finding was an agreement that whilst addressing malnutrition as a major issue facing Nigerians, the international community’s trend to move past ... Read morecaloric intake towards healthier diets represents a worrying trend which ignores massive issues regarding food availability. The second main area of discussion focuses on the interventions that could address the challenge of increasing availability of food (production-side interventions) and for the consumption of “healthier” diets. One of the main findings here was a need to increase agricultural research on the food system. Only with improved data on the food system can effective interventions be implemented to create a sustainable food system transformation in Nigeria. Other findings included an identification of the possibility of increasing social protection, the consumption of biofortified crops, and the delivery of nutrition education, especially when provided with consideration to cultural and seasonal variation. Read less Action Track(s): 1 Keywords: Policy, Trade-offs
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Nigeria Geographical focus: Nigeria Discussion topic outcome Healthier diets The first discussion topic in the Dialogue centred around the conception of a “healthier” diet and dietary composition in Nigeria. The first issue that was raised was the complicated nature of Nigeria’s Food-Based Dietary Guidelines such that they cannot be easily communicated to people. Moreover, Nigeria is currently experiencing a triple burden of malnutrition (food insecurity, micronutrient malnutrition, overweight and obesity status rising). This has very significant costs, especially over time, as the rising malnutrition rates increase the need for healthcare to the ... Read morenon-communicable diseases (NCDs) which result from poor diet. Participants also highlighted the considerable issues regarding the design and implementation of nutrition policy due to the state/federal system. The federal level cannot force states to adopt a policy but effort has been made to call council level meetings which have the state organs present in order to encourage them to implement and domesticate nutrition policies at the state level, for example policies regarding nutrition-sensitive agriculture, cassava and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. A further problem in implementation and policy design has arisen due to the siloed nature of thinking on nutrition, with it widely considered to be a health issue as opposed to an issue warranting a multisectoral approach. Therefore, in order to strengthen the concept of healthier diets in Nigeria coherence between state and federal policy needs to be made, as well as a concerted effort to embrace a multi-sector approach. Furthermore, whilst Nigeria is undoubtedly facing extensive challenges in policy design and implementation, there is also considerable diversity within the large, complex country exacerbating these problems. Specifically, the concept of healthier diets speaks more to the urban population who tend to experience a higher level of accessibility to food compared to the rural population whose problems often focus on a lack of access to food, as opposed to which types of food they are eating. Participants therefore raised concerns with the trend within the international community to move past caloric intake towards healthier diets, without addressing this massive ongoing issue of food shortages. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 5 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Policy, Trade-offs
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Nigeria Geographical focus: Nigeria Discussion topic outcome Challenges and Interventions The second discussion topic of the Dialogue centred around the challenges that exist in Nigeria’s transition to a sustainable food system and the interventions that can be introduced to support the transition. Participants agreed that the food system in Nigeria is fragile with serious output challenges in both primary and secondary production, which are further complicated by climate change, land use, greenhouse gas emissions, desertification, human conflict, and other factors. However, whilst all participants agreed that Nigeria has a long way to go in terms of ... Read moreefficiency of the food system and infrastructure (for example, the lack of roads in rural areas preventing farmers moving food to the market), there was extensive discussion on the areas and avenues of potential progress in Nigeria. An example of this is the change in aquaculture which is bringing significant opportunities for production and food consumption patterns, with benefits for food security. More specifically two distinct challenges were raised in Nigeria. The first highlighted area of intervention in Nigeria raised by participants focused on how much food people are eating. In certain areas of Nigeria, the focus needs to remain on increasing caloric intake as people are unlikely to focus on what they are eating and nutritious diverse consumption if they are not eating enough. In this regard, several potential interventions were raised by the participants. The first was an increase and repurpose of social protection programs both to ensure sufficient access to food but also to provide more nutrition knowledge and benefits. The second was programmes to increase consumption of biofortified crops at household level and encouraging households to produce nutrient dense crops which would have benefits both for dietary diversification and access to micronutrients. The third was an increase in agricultural research to improve the data on food systems in Nigeria so that interventions can be appropriately targeted, and funding effectively used. Currently, there are massive disparities in global funding and agricultural research with the primary focus being on grains, maize and soybean compared to fruits and vegetables. A further highlighted potential intervention in this regard is the increase in capital flows to SMEs that have innovative ideas in providing healthier and more sustainable food. The second area of intervention which participants raised as crucial to sustainable agricultural transformation in Nigeria centres around nutrition education and a focus on what types of food people are eating. Specifically, attention needs to paid to appropriate dietary education, tailored across different groups and with a focus on what is culturally and seasonably available. Whilst in part this is about increasing households’ assets and income so as to increase the affordability of nutritious foods, it is also about increasing the capacity of institutions which provide nutrition education. One potential area of innovation that was raised by participants was the role of institutional buying programs, such as prisons and schools, whose shift in food purchasing can cause value chains to react, leading to different availability of food for the institutions but also potentially for others in the local areas. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 5 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Governance, Policy, Trade-offs
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Nigeria Geographical focus: Nigeria Area of divergence One area of divergence occurred within the Dialogue over the extent to which priority in the Nigerian food system transformation should be given to issues of value chains and production, or whether the focus should be on mass scale nutrition education. Ultimately, participants seemed to agree that both were major issues and areas of intervention to promote sustainable food systems in Nigeria but the comparative importance of one or the other depended significantly on the context, for example North/South, rural/urban divides. It was deemed that in urban areas nutrition education could have a la... Read morerge positive impact whereas in rural areas potentially the focus needed to remain on production and value chains to ensure sufficient caloric access to food, before the focus migrated to dietary diversification and “healthier” diets. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 5 Keywords: Environment and Climate, Policy, Trade-offs
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Nigeria Geographical focus: Nigeria Major focus The Dialogue was an exploration of the nexus of food security, nutrition and climate change in Nigeria with a specific view to receiving inputs on reasonable steps towards a food system transition pathway to healthier diets in Nigeria. Specifically, the focus of the Dialogue was to receive inputs and feedback from stakeholders on proposed context-sensitive healthy diets, what they view to be the criteria and consideration for healthier diets and food system transformation, and the possible interventions and policies to achieve this based on their prior experience and opinion on potential opp... Read moreortunities. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 5 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Policy, Trade-offs
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Malawi Geographical focus: Malawi Major focus The Dialogue was an exploration of the nexus of food security, nutrition and climate change in Malawi with a specific view to receiving inputs on reasonable steps towards a food system transition pathway to healthier diets in Malawi. Specifically, the focus of the Dialogue was to receive inputs and feedback from stakeholders on proposed context-sensitive healthy diets, what they view to be the criteria and consideration for healthier diets and food system transformation, and the possible interventions and policies to achieve this based on their prior experience and opinion on potential opportu... Read morenities. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 5 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Policy, Trade-offs
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Malawi Geographical focus: Malawi Main findings The main areas of discussion in the Dialogue were the role of interventions that diversify production and increase the production of nutritious foods, the need for an increase in nutrition education and educational awareness of healthier diets, and the role of policy frameworks and legislation in sustainable food system transformation. One of the main findings of the Dialogue was the need to explore the nexus of food security, nutrition and climate change in greater depth so that food system transformation and the policies to bring it about are cross-cutting and not considered in silos. Other ... Read morefindings included an identification of the need to start the process of constructing Food-Based Dietary Guidelines for Malawi which can be implemented consistently across the government, and an awareness of a lack of resources for implementation of existing policies and interventions that could bring about sustainable food system transformation. Specifically, in Malawi there are lots of policies and strategy plans, and a lot of support, especially from donors, focuses on the production of these documents, as opposed to their implementation. Focus needs to be given to the translation of these frameworks into policy. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 5 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Policy, Trade-offs
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Malawi Geographical focus: Malawi Discussion topic outcome One of the key issues that emerged from the discussions was the affordability and accessibility of nutritious foods in Malawi. Some participants noted the continued need for supply-side interventions, especially those with a focus on improving the production and preservation of foods. These would have nutritional benefits by covering seasonal gaps and covering micro-nutrient gaps. In particular, nutritional benefits have been observed from orange-fleshed sweet potatoes and biofortified foods such as pro-vitamin A maize and iron-fortified beans. However, there are several anticipated challenges... Read more to achieving increased production and diversification. For example, the increasing shift of the fertiliser subsidy programme towards increasing maize production, which although beneficial from a production perspective, is nutritionally problematic as relatively cheap staples increase compared to more nutritionally beneficial foods. To overcome these challenges, there is a need for incentives or financing mechanisms to create an enabling environment for start-ups and entrepreneurship which would encourage farmers to take risks and diversify their production, and potentially explore commercial productions. Other participants highlighted the fortification program in Malawi which was deemed to be fairly good. Alternatively, the key issue identified was whether it was affordable to the people that needed it. Here, subsidies or community level fortification were identified as actions that could be taken to make biofortified foods more accessible to the communities that require them. Read less Action Track(s): 2 Keywords: Environment and Climate, Policy, Trade-offs
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Malawi Geographical focus: Malawi Discussion topic outcome With regard to the discussion regarding healthier diets, participants highlighted that nutrition education and greater policy frameworks are needed to promote the awareness, and utilisation, of the existing body of knowledge on nutritious foods and food safety. Even with increased production, education in terms of end products that can be created from the diversified crops is required. Currently, there is a lack of knowledge on the uses of certain nutritious crops. In this sense, progress towards healthier diets could be achieved by the sharing of recipes around the use of nutritious crops, su... Read morech as orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, to increase their consumption and utilisation. Alternatively, there are opportunities for increasing nutritional outcomes through the introduction dietary guidelines in school feeding or in improvements to the provision of food in boarding schools. Such curriculum changes would work towards addressing the nutritional challenges and stereotypes that emerge at an early age. However, it was raised that it is unclear how effective knowledge dissemination is in triggering behaviour changes, especially of ingrained actions and beliefs. A second intervention that emerged strongly from the Dialogue was the role of nutrition frontline workers. In this regard, it was considered that the provisions for frontline workers are available in Malawi, but implementation is lacking. Indeed, implementation challenges emerged strongly from the Dialogue as a key bottleneck for Malawian food system transformation as opposed to an absence of policy frameworks. However, on the other hand, additional policy frameworks are still needed on the taxation of unhealthy foods, so people find healthy foods affordable and better to access cost-wise. Finally, whilst Malawi has food groups, there is a need to establish creating Food-Based Dietary Guidelines and their consistent implementation across the government. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2 Keywords: Environment and Climate, Policy
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Malawi Geographical focus: Malawi Area of divergence The central area of divergence in the Dialogue was whether the key challenge facing food system transformation in Malawi is the lack of implementation or policy gaps. On the one hand, some stakeholders felt that there are a lot of policies and strategy plans in Malawi, but what is lacking is implementation and the translation of these policies into policy. Donors often focus their support on the production of policy documents and frameworks, but less on their implementation. From this perspective, what is lacking is the will and support to bring policies together to the extent that they are fu... Read morended and operationalised. Specifically, in Malawi, institutional and resource capacities are not necessarily the issue, but the lack of tools and funding to implement programmes. However, on the other hand some stakeholders felt that whilst there are implementation problems in Malawi, this does not negate the remaining challenges regarding policy frameworks and capacity challenges. Importantly, there is a need for consistency across ministries. There are often good policies but they are isolated and do not talk to each other, operating instead in silos. For example, there are nutrition education guidance strategic policies that indicate the importance of nutritional frontline workers but at the moment most people are volunteers who lack support. Such transformative policies need to be emphasised more both so that other policies align with their priorities but also so that more is invested into their implementation. The second issue of divergence was over the extent to which sustainability should be considered in the food systems transformation in Malawi. It was fairly unanimously expressed that sustainability is a concerning issue and investments should be directed towards this, but divergence occurred over the extent to which sustainability should be prioritised compared to other pressing issues, such as malnutrition and poverty. For example, it was questioned whether as emissions from Malawi are quite low compared to other countries, it was unfair to ask Malawi to grow its agricultural economy without increasing its emissions. However, other stakeholders felt that it was not a simple issue of emissions and GHGs. They felt that whilst emissions and GHGs are important issues, there are other issues of soil degradation and lack of water (especially at the end of the dry season) that must be considered. Importantly, production is context specific and different levels need to be considered, which is often understated in the dialogues. For example, solar-related community level technologies or the use of firewood offer innovative opportunities to addressing the nexus of food security, nutrition and climate change, but they require more articulation and awareness. In particular, the visibility of climate change issues in nutrition spaces is often very low. Ultimately, there is a need to better understand trade-offs between nutrition, equity, and climate outcomes at both the micro and macro level. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2, 5 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Environment and Climate, Policy, Trade-offs
Independent Dialogue Ceres2030 Deep Dives into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change & Nutrition in Ethiopia Geographical focus: Ethiopia Discussion topic outcome One of the key areas of discussion of the Dialogue was the possible interventions that could be adopted to progress towards sustainable food system transformation in Ethiopia. One of the major issues that arose out of the Dialogue as hindering Ethiopians from having a healthy and nutritious diet was the affordability and accessibility of food items, with fruit and vegetables tending to be more costly than other food items. In consideration of this issue, two potential areas of intervention were raised; market development and integration so that production and seasonality are separate from cons... Read moreumption, and exploration into Public-Private-Partnerships, particularly as they relate to the growing and selling of nutrition food, which was deemed to be particularly relevant for Ethiopia as a net importer of food. However, in part this challenge is linked to issues of seasonality with certain types of foods, particularly fruits, only being available in certain time periods leading to variation in consumption. This is particularly an issue in rural areas where there is a lower prevalence of imported goods. Therefore, it was highlighted that alongside market development and integration, there is a need for supply-side interventions which boost the production of nutritious and diverse foods. In particular, interventions which scale up the production of wild fruits and plants such as spirulina, moringa and wild berries were mentioned due to their high nutritional value and contribution. Finally, linked to this is overarching need of rural development with many communities, especially in rural areas, lacking water sources, not only to grow the vegetables but also to cook the vegetables, and lack of sources of cooking energy. This elucidated how sustainable food systems transformation cannot occur by working in silos, or merely focusing on food security interventions, but must incorporate cross-cutting policies and adopt a multi-sector approach. Another major area of challenge and potential intervention that was raised by participants was the role of nutrition education as an entry point to try to address some of the key issues facing the Ethiopian food system. Here, it was noted that a key difficulty is ensuring that nutrition education is cost effective and is communicated to people in an easily comprehendible manner. Several policy interventions were raised as potential game-changing solutions to this problem. Many participants vocalised the possibility of increasing the number of educated nutrition professionals and targeting adolescents to maximise the likelihood of triggering behaviour change. This would overcome one of the key challenges in Ethiopia of the lack of skills to process, cook and preserve food. Alternatively, it was suggested that nutrition education should be more closely linked with the school feeding programs and university feeding programs, as in Ethiopia there is a large public university system which is boarding and so provides food. This offers a potential platform to provide healthier foods and increase nutritional awareness which can affect future consumption patterns and ultimately affect crop choices. A further proposed platform for nutrition education was linked to the Orthodox Christian beliefs and fasting periods. Currently, the fasting period is seen as a constraint to healthier diets, however Dialogue participants raised the possibility of using it is a platform to promote healthier diets. However, one of the key challenges identified in nutrition education campaigns is that implementation of development programs, especially those concerning nutrition, is often not as good as design. Participants used the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) to illustrate this as despite consciously trying to be nutrition sensitive, it often does not have any significant effect on nutrition outcomes. It was noted that often there is impact in terms of caloric availability and consumption, especially at the household level in terms of quality and diversity, but due to inadequate contact between mothers and health extension workers, there is limited impact on children’s diet and nutrition indicators. Read less Action Track(s): 1, 2 Keywords: Data & Evidence, Innovation, Policy
