Explore Official Dialogue Feedback

Issues that featured strongly during group discussion and plenary session are as follows; 1. Lack of defined markets of AE products 2. The existing policies are inclined towards conventional agriculture 3. Lack of political will to support smallholder farmers to adopt agroecology 4. Uncoordinated efforts among agroecology stakeholders at inter and intra levels 5. Lack of strategies for promoting the use of bio-inputs (e.g. bio-pesticides) and native seeds 6. Ineffective extension services

THEME 1: Policy on Research and Development, Training and Extension The National Agriculture Policy, 2013 recognizes organic agriculture but not agroecology although some of its practices are addressed. Also, in relation to agroecological intensification, the National Livestock Policy of 2006 does not specifically address absolute issues in agroecology. However, it points out some issues of concern for agroecology. Furthermore, the Plant Health Act (2020) has provisions for licensing bio-input suppliers. It is, however, noted that this legislation is yet to become operational pending the compl... Read moreetion and sanctioning of Regulations that would spell out details on procedures and processes for operationalization of the law. What to do? - Training & extension should focus on the coexistence of conventional and agroecology knowledge - TARI and other research institutions should recognize and participate in AE related research - Effectively coordinate AE stakeholders by agroecology Hub in Tanzania. - Promote dissemination of AE technologies and knowledge to the community level through ICTs - Promote production by farmers of market-led AE products - Publicize AE products through various methods including media - Advocate strongly for AE through various methods including media Theme 2: TARI/TALIRI/SUA cluster Strategies for promoting AE Research -AE research should form part of the mandate of TARI and other research institutions -Technology transfer units should develop mechanisms for the dissemination of technologies on Agroecological Intensification (AEI) -Adopt participatory programs in identifying AE technologies in collaboration with farmers and other stakeholders -Agroecology Hub in Tanzania and the Ministry of Agriculture (Lead Ministry) should prepare a document containing a variety of agroecology technologies relevant to specific geographical areas/regions in the country. -Revise the National agricultural research agenda (NARA) to incorporate agroecology issues. -Mapping of research needs for generating appropriate AE technologies. THEME 3: NGOs/FRNs cluster (. Key issues identified • NGOs are weak in advocating for evidence-based AE sensitive agriculture and livestock policies • Poor documentation of challenges to the existing policies • Lack of training of extension staff on AE • Lack of extension approach towards AEI at various levels including at grass root level • Extension staff are implementing their duties based on existing government policies and programs which are inclined towards conventional agriculture • Existing policies do not adequately capture AE issues • Low ratio of extension staff to farmers • Extension officers undertake activities other than extension work What to do? - Revise curricula in technical training institutions to include agroecology - Conduct refreshers training on AE for in-service extension staff - Promote a positive attitude towards AE - Establish platforms for coordination of AE stakeholders (Agroecology Hub in Tanzania-AEHT) - Promote use of participatory approach involving various stakeholders (e.g. researchers, policymakers, agro-dealers, and producers) in advocacy and out-scaling of AEI technologies - Identify policy and strategic bottlenecks hindering widespread adoption of AEI practices in Tanzania Read less

The Market Cities Initiative was established to advance a new vision for public market systems at the scale of cities, regions, and beyond. The best way to overcome the challenges that face markets is for markets to work together in partnership with other groups with common interests in order to maximize the impact of public market systems on their communities. Creating and strengthening a local public market system improves health, reduces inequalities, improves livelihoods, and supports a more sustainable distribution of food throughout cities and regions. The Market Cities Initiative is bei... Read moreng carried out through four key strategies: Resources, Training, Advocacy, and Network Development. Each strategy has associated activities, ranging from issue area webinars, trainings, and conferences, to a resource library, evaluation tools, and case studies developed through on-the-ground projects. Participants in the breakout were specifically asked to focus on the network development components of the initiative in order to better understand the interest in meeting more regularly. Participants identified areas of interest including measuring markets, creating stakeholder groups locally, support vendors and market managers, and creating markets as community spaces. Participants in each group agreed that they wanted to connect regularly and preferred to meet regionally (North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America) as participants felt like people within their own regions would share similar issues. It was felt that meeting regionally, but with a diverse group of stakeholders within each region, would garner the most benefits. However, all agreed that meeting once a year with the other regions would also be helpful. Participants also identified the desire to participate in more skill building events. Moving forward, the Market Cities Initiative will be developing ways for stakeholders to connect through online platforms, events, and conferences. Opportunities to connect to an even larger group of stakeholders will also be explored. Read less

Participants in all the breakouts agreed that they wanted to meet regularly through regional networks. The Market Cities Initiative will begin this work. Due to COVID and the ongoing restriction on travel, we will explore online means to bring people together and develop governance models for each regional network. Membership in the networks and participation in meetings will be the main way to determine progress towards this outcome. Challenges include time to participate and access to reliable technology in some parts of the world to be able to meaningful participate.

Another outcome, is the importance of ensuring that local public markets are considered an essential part of a sustainable food system. Markets should not be viewed as independent entities but rather should be considered as part of an overall system. Given markets' critical role in distributing healthy, fresh, local, and safe food, their lack of profile and discussion is a problem for overall sustainability. By investing in a Market Cities strategy, public market systems can help address multiple high-level societal issues as outlined in the UN’s Sustainable Development goals and the five Ac... Read moretion Tracks. These include: Tackling economic, social, gender, and racial inequality; Increasing access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food year-round; Creating safe and socially resilient environments where diverse people interact; Decreasing violence and discrimination against women and increasing the number of women leaders; Expanding decent work and business opportunities for all, but especially for the most marginalized. The Market Cities Initiative partners will prepare a paper that will outline the ways that markets can help achieve all 5 Action Tracks and will be seeking addition ways to ensure markets are considered an essential part of the food system. Read less

There was no real divergence among the groups in terms of supporting the need to continue to meet regularly. However, the researcher/academic group would like to continue to meet as a sector. The other groups felt that regional groups made more sense. Both are possible and there's no need to prioritize. There were, however, groups not well represented in the dialogue. Farmers were not present and therefore their views are not included in the dialogue. Government officials were also not well represented (although they were represented). Further connecting with government and learning more about... Read more how they want to connect is important. Read less

One of the most undervalued assets of cities and regions are traditional public markets. As became even more evident during the Covid 19 pandemic, successful markets play a critical role in supporting local food systems, helping to grow and connect urban and rural economies. They offer low-risk business opportunities for vendors and farmers and feed money back into the rural economy where products are grown, raised and produced. And importantly, they increase access to fresh, affordable and healthy food. Despite their many benefits, public markets across the globe are endangered by a combinati... Read moreon of many forces, ranging from a lack of management capacity and investment in infrastructure to exclusionary economic development practices. Through this dialogue we explored the need and opportunity of the Market Cities Initiative and why such an approach is a key component to a healthy food system. The dialogue convened market operators, governments, researchers, civil society, and the private sector to discuss how these groups would connect and collaborate to advance local Market Cities’ strategies. Read less

Participants from the government sector expressed their appreciation of the contribution by the business sector in driving the sustainable food systems agenda, and highlight the areas in which private sector can utilize its expertise in strategic implementation, communications with consumers, and market insights, to work together with the regulatory and public policy bodies. Thailand's 13th National Economics and Social Development Plant is currently being developed, and will incorporate the food systems approach towards SDGs alignment.

A number of participants raise the issue of food loss and food waste - which is a complex topic and is currently being managed by various government agencies. For example, 'food loss' is being regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture, while 'food waste' is under the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Environment. The first step to increasing the effectiveness in management of food loss and food waste is to align data and policy among these different agencies, and then working more closely with a number of NGOs and businesses currently active in this field.

The role of seafood companies, and other food-related companies in mitigating plastic and other waste in the marine environment. Food companies, including retailers, must design and manage their packaging to reduce the risk that their packaging materials would leak out of the waste management system into the natural environment, usually ending up in the ocean. Additionally, seafood companies should influence their suppliers to improve their management of fishing gears (or implement recovery program of ghost gear) and waste management aboard fishing vessels.

Plant-based food and alternative protein - while the market for these products is still relatively small in Thailand, in many export destination countries, the markets are more mature. Leveraging this international market potential can help promote domestic market as well. Plant-based proteins should be more actively promoted, and support on both the supply side (e.g. R&D funding, training) and demand side (communications campaign) are necessary.

The definition of "sustainable agriculture" is still under debate. Stakeholders from various groups hold diverse views as to what qualify as "sustainable agriculture". Some consumer group only consider organic or chemical-free agriculture as 'sustainable', whereas others believe responsible and effective use of chemical input is acceptable as sustainable. More science-based public discussion on such topics will be helpful.

The event brought together the government agencies that regulate the food and agriculture sectors, farmers, food producers and processors, NGOs, academia, and IT and technology companies, to allow all parties to share their perspectives about what topics are important to them within the food systems discussion. The dialogue covers all 5 action tracks, with particular attention to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and what solutions are needed to alleviate and respond to such crisis.

Mecanismos e Instrumentos para garantizar la SAN Desde el punto de vista de la planificación del Estado, ¿Cuáles son algunos mecanismos e instrumentos que permitan garantizar la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional? ● Establecer un sistema de vigilancia alimentaria y nutricional, esto con la finalidad de fortalecer la formulación de políticas y programas. Además, incorporar un sistema como este al proyecto de ley en discusión, permitirá realizar mediciones a los resultados de dichas propuestas. ● A fin de impulsar la seguridad alimentaria, es importante lograr una mejor articulació... Read moren (gobernanza) entre las instituciones responsables del caso ● Establecer un proceso de diagnóstico previo al desarrollo del proyecto de ley. Donde bajo un enfoque integral, se pueda pensar también en la alimentación de los agricultores quienes a veces enfrentan situaciones de pobreza. ● Mejoramiento de la productividad desde un punto de vista sostenible, permitiendo así un mejor acceso a los alimentos mediante una articulación institucional. ● Dar un fortalecimiento de los mecanismos existentes, de las secretarías pertenecientes a las entidades o instituciones encargadas, lo cual permitiría una mejor articulación. ● Crear mecanismos como agendas conjuntas, utilizándolo como base para monitorear los procesos llevados a cabo. ¿Cuáles son las condiciones que permiten generar entornos favorables para la efectiva implementación del marco normativo del Derecho Humano a Alimentación y la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional? (educación, salud, protección social, agropecuario, ambiente, tecnología/innovación) • Es necesario propuestas realistas, viables que permitan analizar de mejor manera los impactos en los sectores productivos (productividad, desarrollo tecnológico, la incorporación de las ingenierías alimentarias) • La tecnología y la innovación son fundamentales para impulsar el desarrollo agropecuario. Se deben promover insumos(moléculas) de mejor calidad que logren dinamizar la producción, y que cuiden de nuestro medio ambiente. • Se debe generar acceso al crédito blando, muy blando, para que el acceso a la tecnología no se vuelva un obstáculo insuperable. • La capacitación es importante de igual manera, para generar así un mejor conocimiento de la actividad misma, e inclusive para el uso de herramientas. • Agilización normativa • Participación Intersectorial. Read less

Gobernanza de la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional ¿Quiénes deben estar involucrados en la gobernanza de la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional y cuál debe ser el rol de las diferentes instituciones implementadoras (normativas, investigación, información, ejecución entre otras), sector público, privado, sociedad civil y academia? • Estado: Ministerios, Instituciones Autónomas, Municipalidades Rol: Rectoría, marco legal y educación • Sociedad Civil- Asociaciones de desarrollo, pueblos indígenas Rol: como eje transversal • Sector privado: Cámaras empresariales Rol: Posibilida... Read mored de importación y exportación, financiamiento y dotación de recursos) • Academia: Universidades Rol: Investigación nutricional y en producción ¿Cómo debe ser la rectoría de la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional? • Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería y Ministerio de Salud con la participación del Ministerio de Comercio Exterior y el Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Comercio Roles: • Toma de decisiones por medio de mecanismos de vinculación • Articulación con el sector público, privado y la academia • Órgano multidisciplinario compuesto por diversas instituciones incluida la Secretaría de la Política Nacional de Alimentación y Nutrición • Coordinación Técnica con el sector académico y educativo para mejorar la ejecución y evaluación. Read less

• La alimentación requiere de un tratamiento multidimensional, se necesita promover el consumo de alimentos que cumplan con las características socioambientales, culturales y nutricionales. Se requieren asociaciones intersectoriales e interministeriales para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional. • Es necesario la planificación urbana y de los territorios, especialmente en la conservación de las áreas destinadas a la producción agrícola y generación de nuevas áreas designadas para la producción que sean al mismo tiempo, espacios de educación participativa. • Dentro... Read more de los gobiernos locales se requiere un plan sobre promoción de acceso a alimentos, a través de acciones integrales. • Muchas instituciones públicas han levantado información, no obstante, aún no existe un repositorio común, e iniciativas que promuevan que los programas y proyectos sean interministeriales. • La visión asistencialista sólo resuelve un problema agudo pero no crónico, el repositorio interinstitucional permitirá tomar decisiones informadas y conjuntas para abordar de manera más permanente el acceso a alimentos saludables. Se debe transformar del enfoque asistencialista hacia el enfoque de construcción de capacidades. • Se requieren espacios como huertas escolares y comunitarias para empoderar a la sociedad civil sobre la alimentación saludable. • Se requiero un censo nacional que identifique las problemáticas con un enfoque regional, para que las soluciones sean hechas a la medida pensando en su situación socioeconómica y cultural de cada territorio. • Se requieren mecanismos y fortalecimiento de capacidades, especialmente en zonas costeras y fronterizas para garantizar medios de vida que a su vez les permitan acceder a una alimentación saludable. • Existen problemas estructurales respecto al acceso a la alimentación, en especial, la situación de pobreza actual del país, aproximadamente 20% de la población se encuentra en condición de pobreza, lo cual impide acceder a una alimentación digna, para ellos se deben generar empleos y fomentar el crecimiento económico del país. • Es fundamental el involucramiento de las juventudes en el rescate de la cultura tradicional para evitar consumir alimentos procesados y rescatar las comidas tradicionales. Read less

Derecho Humano a la Alimentación ¿Cuáles son los obstáculos para garantizar el Derecho Humano a la Alimentación en el país y cuáles son algunas posibles soluciones? ● Están los intereses particulares a lo largo de la cadena, en donde los que más tienen se imponen y se juegan con las reglas de ellos, son quienes tienen acceso a los líderes del país y mueven o cambian las políticas, leyes y demás instrumentos de política para sus intereses. ● Prevalece los intereses económicos antes que el Derecho Humano a la Alimentación DHA. ● Acceso Económico: no se tiene el dinero para... Read more el consumo de alimentos. ● Carencia de información, conocimiento sobre salud, enfermedades, para compra de productos (alimentos de temporada), preparación y planificación de alimentos. ● Falta de información nutricional que genere consciencia nutricional. ● No existe un etiquetado nutricional clara y no se sabe usar para seleccionar alimentos. ● El estado de vulnerabilidad de las mujeres, para el acceso a la tierra, semillas, falta de conocimiento para cocinar. ● Debe darse prioridad a las mujeres más vulnerables a través de mecanismos de acceso a la tierra y semillas para la producción y mejorar sus medios de vida. ● Promover que en los territorios rurales puedan sembrar productos básicos ● Modificación de leyes para mejorar el acceso a créditos rurales, porque esa zona tiene mucha dificultad. Los pequeños productores requieren más acceso a estas herramientas de financiamiento ● Programas a nivel institucional donde se trabaja desde el asistencialismo, no se fortalecen las capacidades de las personas para poder implementar por si mismos. Cambios institucionales ● Se requiere la voluntad política se necesitan cambios en los reglamentos , un ejemplo es la Canasta Básica Tributaria, donde hay evidencia científica donde se sabe que es importante la alimentación saludable, prevalecen los intereses económicos ● La cultura de asistencialismo, se requieren programas que promuevan la ejecución de las acciones para ellos mismos (la población). ● Falta voluntad política: desde el poder ejecutivo existe las intenciones de promover políticas pero no hay voluntad política para llevarlas a cabo. ● Se requiere cambios en el desarrollo de reglamentos para que prevalezca el derecho a la alimentación y salud. No se llega a un consenso y siempre prevalecen los intereses económicos. ● Limitada disponibilidad y acceso físico a alimentos locales. ● Poco acceso a recursos institucionales, a procesos de capacitación, actualización, sobre salud, nutrición, tecnologías. ● Hace falta un repositorio nacional interinstitucional, de acceso libre de estadísticas, censos sobre el estado de la SAN. Además, programas, proyecto para coordinar todas las acciones. ● No hay regulación de los alimentos. ● Existe un problema estructural de la condición social y económica del país. El empleo y crecimiento económico, impacta el acceso a los alimentos. ● La estructura productiva y comercial del país, provoca un aumento del precio de los alimentos y un incremento del acceso de alimentos que carecen de calidad nutricional. ● Se resaltó la necesidad de rescatar la comida tradicional, las recetas tradicionales y promover acciones y estrategias con un enfoque de derechos humanos en toda la cadena agroalimentaria. ● Se sugirió promover más allá al DHA y la participación de las mujeres, poblaciones indígenas y jóvenes. Enfocarse en el qué y cómo. Además, de las herramientas para lograr el DHA. ● Se recomendó fomentar huertas en los hogares (jefas de hogar) ● Se resaltó la necesidad de fortalecer los programas sociales. Pregunta 2. ¿Cómo podemos garantizar que el Derecho Humano a la Alimentación sea integrado en el marco normativo del país (políticas, mecanismos e instrumentos)? • Empoderando a la población, para que puedan vigilar el cumplimiento de la normativa ya existente y balanceando las fuerzas políticas para que las acciones que se realicen sean para el bienestar de la mayoría y no de unos pocos. Además debe capacitarse a más técnicos en el tema, para que con sus acciones busquen ese cumplimiento. Read less

Este diálogo enfocado en la vía de acción 2: Garantizar el acceso a alimentos sanos y nutritivos para todos convocó a representantes del Parlamento de Costa Rica, asesores legislativos, actores sociales clave de la institucionalidad pública y del sector académico que trabajan en los diferentes ámbitos de la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional y del Derecho Humano a la Alimentación con el objetivo de fortalecer la agenda de la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional a través de un del diálogo nacional y comunicación llevados a cabo entre parlamentarios, organizaciones e instituciones pú... Read moreblicas, academia, con el fin de dar a conocer la realidad del tema alimenticio y nutricional en el país. Específicamente los temas que se abordaron fueron: • Derecho Humano a una alimentación adecuada • Mecanismos efectivos para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional y el Derecho Humano a la Alimentación. • Mecanismos de gobernanza en términos de participación, inclusión y mejora de la calidad y relevancia de la información para tomar decisiones. Read less

Territorial governance can have greater impact in the short term through Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) to enable: • The availability and institutionalization of support services needed by territorial communities and landscape partnerships. Tools and scale-appropriate technology are needed to support community engagement and information flow for agroecology, resource management, advocacy efforts for multi-level policy reform and access to markets. • Strengthening local governments along with strong transparency and accountability mechanisms for decision-making on public expe... Read morenditure and strategy design for communities to have adequate oversight and influence to support their needs. • Bridging the gap between communities in territories and policymakers at different levels through organization, coordination, and advocacy efforts that include women and youth by providing tools, facilitation, and support services. • Land-tenure rights and land concession policy reform can provide common good benefits for natural resources and help ensure common good is established as the goal not a simplistic productivity focus by private landholders and private sector. For the longer term, need to develop cross-generational territorial visions that integrate community needs developed through a bottom-up process including women and youth to manage pressures on natural resources while balancing livelihood needs. This requires resources to support the planning, design and implementation of landscape-wide visions and action. Private sector intervention and participation within INRM needs to respect each community and be managed through facilitation services so community stakeholders direct natural resource management. Support for conflict resolution and management across a territory and/or landscape can foster this process. There are more project-based approaches versus a process-based approach for longer-term action plans that span over the time needed to support natural capital (e.g. 20+years). Projects can be integrated so they take place over a longer-term timeframe agreed upon by communities, preferably initiated at the design and implementation stages. This requires: • Continued support for community cohesion, engagement and policy advocacy to enable INRM through forest networks at micro and macro levels across agriculture, fish-farming, production, and resource management. In particular support for the implementation of landscape-scale action plans to support land tenure through community advocacy and reform at different levels of policy. • Support for local government strengthening, through technical assistance, development of policy frameworks, policy advocacy for the mainstreaming of INRM approaches so bottom-up input stimulates national level changes. • Support for agroecological transitions through small-family agriculture projects and linking these to broader landscape-scale initiatives and international support organizations. • Co-create and re-design agricultural extension services which integrate local and indigenous knowledge to ensure contextual understanding and needs. Institutionalizing these services with cross-ministerial collaboration to ensure incentive and expenditure efficiencies. • Design public and private finance contextualized at a local level to support farmer and community transition to agroecology, processing and infrastructure with a wide variety of instruments and mechanisms: nature-positive subsidies, carbon credits/payments for ecosystem services, agricultural/forestry insurance products, grants for development processes, technical assistance, equipment, longer-term tenure loans, etc. • Support for inclusion of women and youth within territories, particularly through targeted interventions for capacity building in business development, self-awareness, self-confidence, and agricultural work. • Participatory monitoring efforts with communities serve the double function of engagement, validation, and trust building; as well as measuring contextually established indicators for success (i.e. watershed restoration, has of riparian area restored, ha under agroecology, food production, etc.). Read less

Actions that address the role of finance and related tools in territorial governance and food system sustainability need to: • Link actions to the SDGs through coordination across scales with public procurement as a tool to bring goals together. A food lens is needed for all the work being done with the SDGs. We are missing the interconnections between different challenges—for example, biodiversity, climate change, food and nutrition security and access to water. Territorial perspectives that work through a community-based approach can address many of these challenges at the same time whil... Read moree stressing the right to food. • Bring local food into care facilities. Move away from reliance on major oligopoly of food service providers. Why is food an auxiliary service rather than core service? Look to other places –e.g., Europe – for examples and models about how to make healthy food central to care. • Connect food procurement to climate change and the opportunity to move toward territorial approaches for sustainable food procurement. Address the contradiction between cutting budgets and fulfilling commitments to SDGs. Sustainable procurement can result in healthier people and ecosystems and so can be a cost saving in the long run. • Require longer transition periods for suppliers to adjust and working together to set expectations. Keeping out some of the goods that can be procured locally to look for closer sources. Establishing relationships with local suppliers—need tenders to have more competition. • Link procurement to education to show how food is grown/harvested/ transported to help inspire future farmers and support learning about food systems. For example, in cooking class curriculum, add growing own plants to see full cycle. • Create networks of actors, for example procurement officers, to help understand the landscape of people involved and possible actions. School food programs could help build public procurement dialogues and infrastructure. • Breakdown government silos. Post-COVID periods will be important so school food programs ensure every child is getting a decent, nutritious meal. Lowest price tenders as a priority versus other social attributes including sustainable diets. There are gaps where people can work and push back against misconceptions, such as the notion that trade agreements are a solid barrier. Rather, we can make a lot of change within the current system and also chip away at the other parts. • Procurement networks, infrastructure, and knowledge-sharing to foster knowledge co-creation and knowledge mobilization. • Bring Indigenous communities and those using traditional practices to the table as decision makers to include knowledge that has supported sustainable food systems for millennia. Document and support different knowledges and different diets that are adapted to territorial circumstances. • Write school food programs into law. Brazil provides an example of success in food school program. • To monitor change, there is a need to steer away from outcomes that can create problems and false, over-simplified understandings about the dynamics and complexity that is the food system. Instead, there is a need to focus on process and deliverables. Dynamic monitoring systems that use targets and metrics, for example, process indicators, can be really helpful at shifting the narratives. The divergence between narratives and actions within countries—some may be funding programs through development initiatives but don’t have programs in their own countries. New Zealand provides an example of how to start from a needs-based approach and scale to a universal program. • More people need training and there needs to be succession planning for leaders within procurement to pass on process for success and share tacit knowledge. • Organizations can contribute by joining networks and linking up across networks. This can include support for Food Policy Councils, educating people in legal terminology, and/or food policy for local procurement. Read less