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- There are politics involved in ending hunger and inequities- leads to trade-offs, such as focusing on scaling up production, using non-organic fertilizers that harm soil health, and large scale producers instead of smallholder farmers - Water scarcity a major issue of hunger - Need to scale up innovative practices, such as the use of wastewater and fecal sludge in the growing system, which could assist in the affordability of fertilizer; could also learn from other regions with water scarcity - We must include the community, as they are the ones impacted by hunger and directly impacted by cl... Read moreimate change- community should be educated on climate change so they can advocate and provide accountability. - We need to replenish indigenous crops and recognize the value of traditional methods of agriculture - How will we incentivize or recognize farmers for using conservation agriculture? - The humanitarian / development communities need to ask themselves if their work is creating cycles of dependency - Women and youth need to be empowered more, especially when it comes to livestock ownership to improve nutrition outcomes and where youth can serve in the value chain - Direct food relief should not be used as a long-term solution, we need to be looking at empowerment models that encourage local self-reliance Read less

- Build agency of local leadership and strengthen local food systems through the promotion of indigenous crops and traditional forms of agriculture - Complement traditional agriculture techniques with conservation and climate-smart agriculture techniques that are accessible to all local communities. - Ensure smallholder farmers have access to quality inputs and resources to grow for their own consumption and sell at prices that allow them to live adequately - Empower women and youth to be directly engaged with agriculture value chains and improve market access for both income generation and nu... Read moretrition outcomes - Ensure that foreign assistance truly supports communities in becoming resilient and self-sufficient rather than perpetually dependent on aid Read less

The focus of our Dialogue was to help elevate the voices of those who are most directly impacted by development and humanitarian initiatives. It was open to development and humanitarian implementers, local leaders, and community members, as well as field and extension officers, national and local governments, and companies interested in providing contextual perspectives for how humanitarian and development strategies impact communities. Our purpose was to encourage a diverse and expansive pool of voices to help improve the representation and empowerment of local leadership in influencing the S... Read moreDG goals. Therefore, the Dialogue was an exploration of food systems in the development and humanitarian context and was intentionally open to discussion topics related to all five Action Tracks to allow people to bring their own interests and individual roles within the food system to the table. Read less

The Innovation track in the UN FSS focused on Building Healthy, Nutritious and Affordable Food Systems for Rwanda through Innovations. The keys discussions were on the Innovations that are needed for smallholder farmers and small and medium enterprises to sustainably nourish Rwanda now and in the future. The participants identified the following innovation gaps in the food system and suggested ways in which they can be addressed. 1. Infrastructure - Nutritious value chains require sophisticated technology to sustain that smallholder farmers cannot afford. There is a need for post-harvest stora... Read morege and process technologies and an effective logistic distribution system. 2. Access to Funds and Investments – Most financing companies are willing to provide either huge funds or nothing. But smallholder farmers need access to small-scale financing as they cannot afford high risks. 3. Knowledge – Farmers should be able to collaborate through one platform or a network such as an innovation hub that enables them to address concerns as well as share resources and knowledge that can add value to their produce.  Read less

Reactions by panel There is a systemic shift in food systems to suit the urban class we are seeing more distance from the farmer to consumers and the middleman is controlling the safety of our food. consumption of aflatoxins, for example, have a big impact on public health responsible for liver cancers and are also linked with negative growth. In March 2021, there were challenges with trade between Uganda and Kenya due to aflatoxins contamination, this means we need entrepreneurs to help solve the commercial challenges. Grain losses due to aflatoxins are between 14 to 35% annually. How can we ... Read morereduce losses and rejects? We need innovation but must be affordable for smallholder farmers otherwise it will not be successful. For example, hermetic storage bags which has been around for about a decade but there has been a low adaptation level by farmers. Probably the key solution will be to engage entrepreneurs who will reach the farmers to educate them and supply them with his packaging at affordable prices. Read less

Innovation What are the key factors that help drive innovation? It takes more than one key factor for innovations to scale in an emerging economy like Rwanda. For innovations to be successful in LMIC’s there needs to be the 3 C’s. They are: 1. Creativity 2. Capacity Building 3. Collaboration Entrepreneurs are extremely creative and market savvy but in emerging economies with the enabling system is so sub-optimal, entrepreneurs have to create the conditions that will enable their venture to operate successfully, and these enablers will often include capacity building with other players alon... Read moreg the value chain that affects their business whether their vendors, customer or retailers. They have to collaborate with the social sector such as NGOs, the government to make sure their venture functions smoothly. Unlike entrepreneurs in high-income countries, the 3Cs are the foundations to be successful in LMIC’s. Read less

Reactions by panel What are the most significant challenges entrepreneurs struggle with and how can the FSIH help lift across the hurdle? There are several hurdles faced by entrepreneurs these are: 1. Lack of resources to trial new ideas the Food System Innovation Hub (FSIH) can help surmount this hurdle. 2. Inconsistencies in energy supply render most small-scale enterprises not able to deliver goods and services on time. The FSIH can help by clustering entrepreneurs. 3. Good quality raw materials. It has to do with economies of scale as they cannot buy in bulk, again through clustering on en... Read moretrepreneurs this can be solved 4. Cash flow constraints might hinder sustainable businesses, small companies will lose out on orders after their first or second deliveries if payments are delayed. 5. The FSIH must link entrepreneurs to dietary guidelines to help improve the quality of diets being produced by SMEs as they produce new foods. Read less

Reactions by panel What resources are most important for entrepreneurs to produce nutritious foods? 1.Infrastructure for post-harvest activities for example in storage and processing 2.Transportation is also another key area 3.There is the need for laboratories to test the nutrition of the foods being processed Entrepreneurs are creative but without the help of nutritionists and laboratories, it will be difficult to produce good food. Premixes are also needed and SMEs look up to the private sector to supply premixes and other specialized processing inputs. Advice for entrepreneurs: 1. Entrepre... Read moreneurs are advised to reach out to the academic institutions for help 2. Collaborate with researchers and innovators and also engage with farmers 3. Graduate training at factories will go a long way to help them gain knowledge to produce nutritious foods. Read less

Advocacy and Policy Youth represent the backbone of the country. new policies should provide them with access to finance and training, as well as build capacity to engage youth in agriculture sectors. Young agro entrepreneurs should be given grants and training by FSIH. As the Rwanda government is willing to provide funding to youth, these strategies should be reviewed. The findings should be more accessible for youth, otherwise, money will not be used.

The Dialogue Building Healthy, Nutrition and Affordable food systems in Rwanda through innovations was divided into four breakout sessions: innovation, food safety, creating demand for nutritious food and advocacy and policy. The"Innovation" session aimed to answer two main two questions: what innovations are needed for smallholder farmers and small and medium enterprises to sustainably nourish Rwanda now and in the future? Aggregation is the answer identified for small-scale farmers and SMEs. Individual small food system actors confront far too many challenges, such as financial access and in... Read moresurance. These issues can be mitigated when individual SMEs or farmers are brought together. Indeed, policymakers will be more aware of cooperation, and banks will be more willing to invest in innovative ventures. The second question was, what innovations make nutritious food accessible, affordable and desirable to all Rwandans? The answer to the second question focuses on the necessity to find out an innovation that makes healthy and nutritious food aspirational for consumers. This will lead to opportunities to market healthy food and guide consumers towards healthy foods. Overall, the FSIH will play a critical role in addressing all of these issues. The ‘Food Safety’ breakout group aimed to answer the following question “How do we address the issue of aflatoxins and its effect, mitigation options, and traceability”? The participants raised identified few key areas of interest which serve as a starting point to answer the problem statement, namely technology transfer and knowledge dissemination. In terms of technology and transfer, although it was mentioned that the Rwandan FDA is putting a lot of effort into mitigation (e.g., Government purchased mobile dryers and contracted entrepreneurs to support cooperatives), mycotoxin testing capacity remains a challenge (e.g., rapid test for aflatoxin is far from adopted). Indeed, farmers’ lack of access to these technologies needs to be addressed. Additionally, although affordable technology does exist, farmers are often not aware of it. It was agreed that both government but also entrepreneurs have a key role to play to promote this technology transfer. With regards to knowledge dissemination, it was underlined that communication between government and cooperatives must be improved and that this improved communication should be supported by universities as well as entrepreneurs. The breakout group "Creating Demand for Nutritious Food" emphasized the need to take actions to change consumer perceptions of healthy foods; one example given was the consumption of orange sweet potatoes, which has been related to a rise in diarrheal episodes in children. Furthermore, private-public partnership (PPPs) was pointed to an important role in increasing demand for healthy and nutritious foods. The government should take the lead in this process and give incentives for the private sector to participate. For example, given that plastic is prohibited in the country, how can the government assist SMEs in the preservation and management of healthy foods? Finally, the government should educate consumers on what constitutes nutritious food while also ensuring that such food is readily available and affordable. In few words, without awareness of health and nutritious food, there are not investing opportunities. In the "Advocacy and Policy" breakout session, it emerged the need to establish two key connections among the food systems. Policies should link food production to healthy food production in order to avoid the availability of unhealthy foods on the market. The government should improve the connection between academia and agribusiness entrepreneurs to mind this gap. Secondly, because entrepreneurs have the ability to influence the food environment, policy should connect entrepreneurs to the upcoming food dietary guidelines in order to engage the private sector with healthy and nutritious food. Lastly, it was pointed out that Government should implement further research to study the local healthy diets which are part of the culture but are not anymore visible to consumers. Read less

Our Dialogue focused on the role technology and innovation can play to make sure safe, healthy, and nutritious foods is available and accessible to all people regardless of their economic status. Through Food Systems Innovation Hubs (FSIH). FSIH looks to stimulate investment in resilient and responsive food systems and facilitate relevant technology transfer and knowledge from high-income countries, who benefit from large consumer markets and large pools of venture capital to test and try innovations to make food systems nutritious and sustainable, to LMIC. Through partnerships, government col... Read morelaboration, impact investors, philanthropies in the context of local entrepreneurs, the hubs will catalyze a transformative change for society-wide dietary shifts towards more efficient, healthier, and more environmentally friendly food systems. The focus of our dialogue was in relation to action track # 1. Read less

The dialogue surfaced certain tensions that need to be considered in the discussion of wild foods within the context of local to global food systems. The areas of divergence identified during the dialogue were expressed as concerns that require further reflection, especially on its implication towards future interventions and its potential impact overall. The following were noted: 1) Wild foods are primarily used by forest-dependent communities for subsistence, personal consumption as well as livelihoods. The question of just how much of these wild foods should be traded and opened up to wider... Read more markets emerged. Some feel that wild foods are best valued for their contributions to local community resilience and food security and as an additional source of income, but should stay within a reasonable scale for it to be sustainable. Another point of view was opening up these wild food sources to a wider market for trade to increase income of communities. On the one hand, certain communities also have aspirations of scaling up their wild foods-based enterprises. Safeguards must be ensured to mitigate risks of commercialization which might lead to overharvests and undue stress. There was a call to be more cautious of this so we avoid the situation where indigenous peoples themselves who produce these food do not lose control over their products. 2) Raising awareness on wild foods and traditional food systems are important to gather support and to advocate for more conducive environments in support of indigenous peoples and local communities. Documentation of these species are also important and should be ensured. However, alongside this increased attention is the threat of overexposing these indigenous and local food to outside threats and communities losing intellectual property rights over their food and cultural heritage and practices. Carelessness can lead to endangering indigenous intellectual property rights. 3) The view that there is a dearth of information about wild foods that are available and easily accessible and the view that there actually is a lot of information and knowledge about wild foods and traditional food systems but perhaps not just in the format mainstream society is used to. In relation to this, there were also discussions on having the need for traditional knowledge and practices to be 'validated by science' in contrast with speaking from a position of strength with regards to indigenous food systems, knowledge and practices. 4) It was observed that there are diverging views on wild food. For some, there is a certain stigma attached to wild foods because people who depend on these sources are viewed as 'backward' or 'primitive'. More attention and value is given to the dominant and more 'socially acceptable' food sources such as rice, wheat, etc. On the other hand, there is the view that people with strong indigenous food systems like rotational farming and wild food gardens are far better off and are more affluent in terms of food security and resilience. IPLCs should take pride in their rich food heritage and change the narrative. 5) Policies on self-sufficiency tend to concentrate on certain species only, encouraging uniformity vs. diversity in species, thereby ignoring healthier and nutritious food options and placing stresses on the environment and threatening biodiversity. There are often well-meaning policies which have negative socio-ecological impacts on the ground. Policy making should be more holistic in its approach, taking into view as well agroforestry and how forests figure in the discussion on food systems. 6) The view that regional and international policies are important to push for versus concentrating efforts on strengthening local initiatives which often require customized or tailor-fitted intervention designs and strategies. What is the added value of regional/global policies, considering that local contexts have varying requirements? There is a need to recognize that not all communities are in a similar position as far as wild foods are concerned and thus require separate strategies. Consider further reflections on possible local-to-global-to-local and global-to-local-to-global actions that impact food systems. 7) During the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, wildlife consumption bans were endorsed and imposed left and right, prohibiting consumption and trade of wildlife to prevent further spread of zoonotic diseases. Dissenting opinions about this were surfaced, with some fully supporting a blanket ban on this, while others called for a more culturally-sensitive view, noting that certain communities have wildlife as part of their local diets and this practice is tied to their cultural beliefs and traditions. A call to co-craft potential solutions and deepen the dialogue on this was suggested. Read less