Explore Official Dialogue Feedback

Not many areas of divergence were brought up due to time constraints. On the topic of derisking, there was debate whether the fund would be better directed toward small enterprises, which clearly have need, but lack the resources and know-how to become an engine of transformative change. A strong case was made for investing in mid-sized firms that have the capacity and demonstrated staying power to lead transformative change now. These firms have the best chance of driving and catalyzing transformative change.Trade was emphasized as highly important, but there is a sense that the Summit p... Read morerocess is not paying adequate attention to this topic. Read less

VALUE CHAIN FINANCING A strong functioning middle value chain contributes to derisking; value-chain aggregators can help overcome scale-efficiency issues and can support collective action among producers. Multi-sectoral partnerships are needed for storage and food preservation, re-insurance, innovation, and technology transfer. Financial needs assessments are required for funding programs to ascertain if they match needs of farmers as well as tailor-made solutions, recognizing local context. Encourage digital payment options such as mobile banking to reduce information asymmetry and link ware... Read morehouse receipts to financial system to support farmers’ access to credit. Read less

NATURE POSITIVE Governments need to invest in developing tools and methods that create a level playing field globally and that can be used to valorize nature-based solutions. Public sector needs to provide standards and framework to define the prices of food by focusing on water, nutrition, and emissions. Investment in big data informatics and analytics can help with true pricing on natural capital/natural resources to quantify better the value of nature positive approaches, inclusiveness, or positive nutritional outcomes designed to position the primary producer.Investors and donors sho... Read moreuld prioritize climate-smart investments across food systems and value chains. Green bond issues, carbon credits, and sequestration should create income for farmers to cover the cost of transition to more sustainable agriculture. Affordability is key for many consumers so assess the risk of food prices going up. Read less

INCLUSION Governments should invest in educating the youth on business, technology, and entrepreneurship from an early age. Capacity-building especially among women and youth through training to resolve the lack of human resources and technical skills for easier access to finance is critical. Such education usually takes place at the tertiary level, but this is considered too late. This includes a focus on CFS Voluntary Guidelines on land tenure which could guide country policies on land governance and land tenure.

DERISKING To get the world’s small farmers to drive a food systems transformation, their situation, characterized by high risk and extreme consequences of failure, needs a strong political signal to draw attention to opportunities to link changing consumer demand with the need for market-based incentives for farmers to take on risk. There needs provision of greater incentives for financial institutions that understand farming to provide new instruments that support new practices, inputs, food products, and processes. Blending of public and private finance can lead to new financial instrum... Read moreents that increase the size and tenor of loans for transformational (as opposed to incremental or otherwise insufficiently large) investments. Read less

ACCELERATION Risk is the critical factor from start-up through scale-up with, typically only 4% of the funding comes from government. To get private sector engaged Government can and needs to play the role of catalyst and specifically focused on risk reduction, not just investment risk but also government stability within and across regions as the agriculture sector is highly fragmented, with diverse and context specific production, financial and investment costs. Incentives are needed to encourage banks to provide faster and context specific financing to SMEs. Government needs to play the ro... Read morele of catalyst and specifically focus on risk reduction. Banks typically operate with a financial regulatory framework, but this framework prevents them from engaging in business activities that may have significant early-stage risk as is the case in agriculture. To overcome regulatory hurdles to supporting early-stage companies and start-ups banks sometimes participate in higher risk financings by forming arms-length investment arms or by attracting other financial institutions to provide financing. Creating a financial structuring vehicle through partnerships which are geared at establishing a pool of individual loans can de-risk them and will attract investment. Read less

ACCELERATION Governments, financial institutions, research centers and investors as a whole need to partner to accelerate growth in the nutritious food production sector by facilitating access to funding. Banks typically must operate with a financial regulatory framework which, effectively, prevents banks from engaging in business activities that may have significant risk. Many ‘acceleration’ initiatives would not pass these regulatory hurdles and risk is the critical factor preventing ‘accelerated’ financial participation. Governments have a key role to play to provide the right envi... Read moreronment to promote new financing modalities as even successful start-ups and high-growth opportunities must often be self-funded because the financial industry shows no interest until a threshold of EBITDA is attained. The need for acceleration will require the clarification of the costs of reforming food subsidies (both implementation and compensation costs) towards subsidy/taxation mechanism that offer positive incentives for sustainable food systems (payment for environmental services of food systems, better pricing of land and water; taxes for environmental degradation; and polluter pays principle for greenhouse gases) and financing for income support to poor households to increase the affordability of nutritious diets. DERISKING A strong political signal/leadership is needed to draw attention to opportunities in the middle of the value chain that can help to link changing consumer demand with the need for market-based incentives for farmers to take on risk and adopt new practices, inputs, food products, and processes. The environment farmers work in is full of risk and high borrowing rates compound the risks to farmers, and lenders in any case are unwilling to take on risk and prefer highly liquid or marketable collateral. There are various sources of risk in the natural as well as institutional environments and these need to be addressed. Technology can play an important role by providing specialized instruments that redistribute risk or directly cover against important specific sources of risk. It can also help by reducing transactions costs and hence the cost of borrowing, and by improving transparency in market functioning and reducing information asymmetries among borrowers, lenders, and other market intermediaries. It is important to take a larger perspective, embracing the whole value chain from production, transformation, distribution, and consumption. INCLUSION Ensure inclusion of women and youth specifically by addressing the problem of capacity building, especially for youth and startup companies and ensure that the voices of the youth are heard. This also includes the access to financing for women, improve their ability to start business and capacity to prepare a business plan etc; need for education for women; access to technology for women in rural areas; legislation to ensure that women can access the finance. NATURE POSITIVE A move to Nature based solutions will require the following: efforts to achieve Zero emissions; regenerative agriculture; and emphasis on a circular bioeconomy while maintaining economic viability. Therefore, its necessary find ways to valorize nature-based solutions – such as attributing value to biodiversity, carbon sequestration (carbon trading systems exist but the methods to reliably measure are not yet available). Other options include green bond issues, carbon credits and sequestration which could all create income for farmers to cover costs of transition – for ex. planting cover trees and using their carbon sequestration capacity to generate income while other crops grow to maturity underneath. There is a need to harness assets and technologies that were not available 5 or 10 years ago to develop out-of the-ordinary solution thinking: use of satellites/drones to monitor progress across multiple small holding reserves; and cheap monitoring sensors that were not previously available to help with issues like fertilizer, water, soil carbon etc. Academia and food producers must collaborate to reflect the realities at different scales for better policy and impactful finance. VALUE CHAIN FINANCE Value chain finance is obstructed by high transactions costs arising from lack of information, lack of understanding and trust between participants, lack of standards and regulations, and simple logistical challenges, all of which make it hard to measure and manage risks (as required to allow financing to flow). The responses mainly focus on different ways of reducing these transaction costs. Technology is key to overcoming informational challenges leveraging also financial innovations and improved warehouse receipt systems, improved regulations and standards also help overcome information gaps. Read less

Food finance interventions in both the public and private sector do not yet add up to a coherent and commensurate response that will lead to a thriving, sustainable global food system. We need to tackle inefficiencies in the way food systems are financed, rapidly shift capital out of the old economy and into more sustainable food assets. We need to clarify additional capital requirements to transform food systems, disaggregated for different geographies and Action Tracks. While many measures are individually constructive, they are not shifting capital at the scale and speed that is necessary... Read more and we need targeted interventions to unlock/redirect public and private capital. This dialogue has allowed for guests to exchange on the below five topics. ACCELERATION Support to food systems financing through initiatives focusing on blended finance, digitalization, data, and long-term investment needs to accelerate with institutions, public/private financial service providers adjusting /developing systems and approaches. Actual accelerators active in the space of encouraging entrepreneurship and new ideas were present, though often are not joined up to global financial institutions. This need for acceleration is closely linked to finance as it will require the clarification of the costs of reforming food subsidies (both implementation and compensation costs) towards subsidy/taxation mechanism that offer positive incentives for sustainable food systems. DERISKING Many developing markets have challenges raising capital and farming itself is exposed to a wide range of risks because agricultural production relies heavily on the natural resource base and climate conditions. We need to appreciate the various sources of risk in the natural as well as institutional environments and address these as well. Similarly, shocks to the market from both domestic and international sources can result in price volatility. This directly affects the economic returns from agriculture, the livelihood of farmers, and in the long run, the capacity of farmers to invest and innovate. Derisking private sector financing could mobilize, an estimated, over $2 trillion of private capital towards food system transformation. INCLUSION Ensure inclusion of women and youth specifically around financing and access to finance. Support for financial inclusion also requires a systematic approach to impact measurement, including indicators for inclusivity, as well as information on financial and agricultural performance, and that calculate the true value of food. The World Bank recently made available the Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) database to measure and track the progress of financial inclusion. There are some indications that financial inclusion only helps to lower poverty and income inequality when overall economic conditions empower people to use access to finance for productive purposes such as expanding a business. NATURE POSITIVE Supporting farmer transition in adopting more sustainable agricultural practices through attributing real value to the stewardship of nature will be paramount if food systems are to respond to the Action Track work streams of protect, manage, and restore. A move to nature-based solutions will require efforts to achieve zero emissions, regenerative agriculture, and emphasis on a circular bio-economy while maintaining economic viability. VALUE CHAIN FINANCE The shift to long-term sustainable financing requires focus on inclusion and integration across the entire value chain while creating new financial services. Read less

There were few divergences within and amongst the discussion groups, but participants highlighted some critical areas of divergence that involve difficult trade-offs:1) The tension between locality/resiliency and affordability in order to scale virtuous food systems especially in light of population growth.2) The tension between the efficiency of highly technological food systems vs. going back to nature and the multiple benefits in terms of health and environmental of diversification.3) The trade-offs in terms of what are most important issues to tackle in terms of distribution ... Read morepractices: the competitiveness of low-cost imports versus local production versus the need to ensure efficient and nutritious food distribution; etc.4) The risk of over-romanticize certain professions linked to agricultural production and farming as this over-romantization risks to impede connecting traditions which are revitalized by innovative approaches.5) The trade-offs between consumers’ access (buying capability) and producers’ income.6) The question on how to reshape and redefine agricultural and production incentives (including subsidies).No clear answers have been identified to address these challenges, however there has been consensus that the majority of these questions could be better approached by using a true cost approach. These aspects will be explored further in light of the redaction of Bites of Transfoodmation manifesto. Read less

Producers need to be paid and supported in such a way that they can have a higher financial gain for their labor and work. This will also give them more autonomy in selling their products to a greater majority of people at an affordable price. Distribution needs to change its current way of working, namely to take the best products (in terms of product and nutrient quality) and send it to the bidder of highest price (wealthy nations or wealthy neighborhoods). In order to achieve this transition, we need to give education and access to all communities, not just those with status, power, and we... Read morealth. We need to further connect networks of people, producers, consumers, distributors so that there is transition of information along the value chain, transparency, care, and understanding about how a product is made. This will imply changing the status of food from commodity to public good. There is a necessity for change in terms of how we frame our food system. We can do this by collecting data at all points in the supply chain. This data should not serve as a marketing strategy or profit tool for retailers / brand owners but rather as a way to shape food and trade policy to support local communities, create new financial instruments to support producers, and create information that is useful for consumers. Read less

Tradition is a dynamic and complex concept due to its constructed nature. For this reason, it cannot be said that tradition and innovation are opposed, because the latter needs the former and innovation has always been part of development. The future often draws inspiration from the past and it would therefore be more accurate to speak of innovations as "new traditions". Moreover, innovation is necessary when the current situation does not produce sustainable results. In order to link tradition and innovation to create a better future in terms of food production and consumption, cooperation be... Read moretween the different generations is necessary as much as the reform of the education system. Finally, responsibility lies in our personal choices and for this reason it is essential that all those who care about the world and our future take a few small steps in the right direction. Read less

Waste and losses of non-renewable resources do not exist in ecosystems. By considering the true cost of food (including externalities such as human and natural resources, transport, health, subsidies), the system will not produce food waste and losses anymore as the price will be too high. A solution would be to have shorter and more circular supply chains, exchanging only the goods necessary for every community to have a healthy diet. We need transparency and trust, accompanied by a change in regulations in a way that waste and losses are considered either as expensive or as a resource t... Read moreo close a loop. We need to reconsider the status of consumers as queens and kings and accept what natural resources can give us without compromising their ability to do so for next generations. Lastly, concrete initiatives to reduce food waste and losses (such as the app "Too Good To Go”) are useful if they bring the system closer to the true costs of food, thus as a transition instrument. Read less

There is a strong need to focus on avoiding conflicts between urban and rural areas; trying to create a denser bond between theses two realities and destroy that invisible wall that divides them. Rural and and marginalised areas should have access to new technologies, while urbanized habitats should be reorganized with an eye on nature and urban/peri-urban food production and processing. Education and trust should be the entry points to create new important supply opportunities and consequently a higher quality of life for all. We define this approach using the term of social proximity. T... Read morehis implies more sensibilization, awareness, passion, curiosity, knowledge, and inclusion in all sectors of the food systems. A controlled and responsible use of new DNA editing technologies is accepted, only if these will not compromise traditions, typical products, biodiversity and health. Read less

The Dialogue was characterised by rich and animated discussions. The variety of participants' profiles in terms of background and profession allowed mutual learning and paved the way for new perspectives, while confirming the relevance of some central points such as the importance of embracing diversity through new and adapted traditions, to bring about a culture of empowerment and social proximity, to consider the true cost of what we are doing and the need to transform and adapt our habitats.Participants acknowledged the need for a change of narrative, with a stronger focus on embracing... Read more diversity, bringing about a culture of empowerment, and rethinking our habitats while reconsidering the value of food with the lenses of a true cost approach. This implies that we look at sustainability, a key feature of a true cost based economy, beyond a technical ESG approach. For this, an increased awareness, passion, curiosity, knowledge and inclusion in all sectors of the food systems are guiding features. Tearing down the invisible wall that has traditionally divided urban and rural areas, means linking sustainability with social proximity, where enacting through food a virtuous cycle of civism, responsibility, connectivity and education, will lead to new forms of social fabric. One way to get there might profit from initiatives aiming at setting up a new tradition pattern, where our natural need for a sense of belonging couples with the revaluation of ancient know-how blended with innovative approaches. Often this can happen with an initial incentive, thus with a political will. Critically in this respect are pre-conditions, where inequalities and power concentration is persisting as this might be a frustrating factor, especially in terms of accessibility. Changing the status of food from commodity to public good, might help. After all, food is a recognized right. This recognition leads to taking into account its true cost but also its true value. A fresh look into production, transformation and distribution towards a healthy and sustainable diet for all will bring us to profound systemic changes.During the Dialogue, particicipants embraced the two real life examples of Valposchiavo and Altatto as positive and future-desirable realities. But how can they be connected, multiplied and expanded? Imagine the world of the future as one big and dense fabric, made up of smaller economic, social, natural and governing fabrics or networks. Within each of these, small, independent and well-functioning realities, such as Valposchiavo and Altatto, stand ready to be connected with one another. Common elements and shared values as well as communication, exchanges, new standards, incentives and norms enable this connection and ultimately form the building blocks of the world’s fabric. By creating more of these realities and reinforcing the density of the different fabrics, a unifying vision for a more sustainable and resilient future is both communicated and enacted. We keep hearing that these realities can not grow because they rely on a romantic perception that can only work on a small scale and among the wealthiest of the world. What about reconsidering the concept of the notion of scaling up? After all, the interconnectivity, the access to know-how, the change of the perception of reality introduced by the digitalization era is showing that, while an acceleration in terms of classic scaling up is occurring, at the same time a tissue of new forms of interconnected local economies blending new traditions, social proximity, sustainability and affordability is growing fast. To have an inclusive conversation and truly embrace diversity, thus avoiding a Eurocentric (or romantic?) vision of the future, we must discuss and dive deeper into the topics of inequality, power concentration and accessibility. Read less

The narrative that has emerged in the last years shows a massive reduction in biodiversity, a de-link to seasonality of consumption, more food sophistication, and a reduction in the time we devote to prepare food to adjust to our increasingly busy and quick lifestyles. Food used to be the main element of societal and family gatherings, and has slowly become more a matter of feeding and keeping us fit. This trend is also the result of globalization of trade that came about with colonization and reduction of the costs of production, opening the path to shifting from primary sector based economie... Read mores to cheap labour based industrialization. After the Second World War and up until the 1990s, this trend was further accelerated by the massive use of marketing strategies, the fast urbanization of the population, the reduced average size of family units, the growth of pre-cooked food with the de-linking between rural and urban areas, all intertwined with rapid economic and tertiary sector growth. In this context, big data was already starting to influence and enforce specific narratives. Did this narrative work? Yes - but fundamental elements such as equity and sustainability were missing in the equation. The narrative started to change in the 1990s focusing on a technocratic language, slowly starting to shift the focus towards sustainability (ESG in financial terms), as well as to an increased rights-based approach to food while feeding a fast growing and urbanized population.What about the narrative of the future? Our first two BoT worshops showed us that the future of food is an indicator of the new macro-narrative which tells us that time has come to embrace diversity, bring about a culture of empowerment, assure that in anything we do we are considering the true cost of what we are doing, and this implies that we need to rethink our habitats. Why? Because we feel the requirement to do it and more importantly, we also can. We have all we need to do this. We have better knowledge of the true costs and the trade-offs; we are going towards personalized diets determined by health considerations; we know that inequalities exist and increasingly define social determinants of health related to food consumption; and that food marketing can be better tailored to drivers of sustainable modernization of food-related processes.The major focus of the Dialogue was to discuss the future of production, transformation and distribution systems keeping the evolution of consumption patterns as an entry point. Participants were helped to project themselves into this subject by two showcases, namely a Swiss valley that reorganized its social fabric and structure with local organic farming and processing and the experience of a zero waste catering based on a defined traditional contest.The discussion was focused around four main questions/discussion topics:a) How can we link the need to rethink our urbanized habitats to evolving production systems? Will be proximity and diversification of production a way to unite consumers and producers?b) Speaking about true costs, is food waste prevention and reduction a way to create awareness and commitment by both citizens and authorities?c) In the evolution towards sustainable urban life habits, how will key components of civism like empowerment and rights based approaches be affected by traditions and innovations in the food chains?d) Will reduction of inequalities in terms of food consumption depend on a total reshuffle of the transformation and distribution chains? Read less

Durant la concertation du 7 janvier 2021, la facilitation et l’approche adoptée avait permissent une meilleure compréhension commune et inclusive de toutes et tous participants. Il sied de noter qu’il n’y a pas vraiment des points des divergences au point de dégager deux tendances, mais, certains ont affirmés que malgré la modicité du budget alloué aux secteurs du Développement Rural et de l’Agriculture un accent doit être mis sur la recherche scientifique par le mécanisme de subvention des Instituts Nationaux de Recherche Agronomique au pays. La stratégie et le plan d�... Read more�action qui sera bientôt élaboré serviront de support pour la promotion des systèmes alimentaires durables en RDC. Read less

Les résultats aux sujets de discussion ont rapporté que la RDC pourrait devenir l’un des plus grands pays agricoles de la planète car elle a l’opportunité de mettre en place des techniques durables qui sauvegardent l’environnement et la durabilité des systèmes alimentaire. Ce qui justifie à suffisance l’intérêt que toutes et tous les participants avait manifestés lors de la session du dialogue du 7 janvier 2021. Cependant pour obtenir de meilleurs résultats et assurer la durabilité des actifs créer par la tenue de ce dialogue des Experts multisectoriels, une meilleure org... Read moreanisation et le renforcement des capacités des communautés au niveau national, provincial et local, par la formation et le suivi dans les différents domaines et pistes d’actions coché (1,2,3,4, et 5) d’intervention du CSA dans les systèmes alimentaires est nécessaire et urgent pour la RDC. Ces interventions devraient se faire dans l’ensemble de 26 provinces et la capitale Kinshasa. Les partenaires d’interventions seront le Gouvernement, les privés, la société civile /ONG-Femme et Enfant, et les partenaires techniques et financiers, ONG Internationales et locales intervenant dans le domaine de la sécurité alimentaire. En raison de nombre de ménages en insécurité alimentaire, l’élaboration du Cadre Stratégique et la mise en place du Plan d’Action de la RDC pour renforcer la sécurité alimentaire et éradiquer la pauvreté est urgemment souhaitée. Ce Plan d’Action permettra la mise en cohérence de toutes interventions visant le développement et promotion des systèmes alimentaires durables. Read less

Il sied de noter qu’il existe un défi agro-alimentaire majeur pour la RD CONGO.  Les conditions naturelles sont pourtant particulièrement favorables aux activités agricoles ;  Les précipitations en quantités suffisantes (qui permettent deux saisons culturales par an) ;  Important réseau hydrographique, fertilité des sols ;  Large ensoleillement. Le pays se caractérise également, du fait de sa taille, par la diversité des conditions climatiques et géologiques, ce qui permet une grande diversité des cultures. Triste paradoxe de la RDC : La population vit en deça ... Read moredu seuil de pauvreté et ne mange pas à sa faim ; MAIS, seulement 10 % du potentiel agricole du pays est exploité ; Les données éco-climatiques sont partout favorables à l’agriculture. Ce qui veut dire, qu’en terme de besoins et manifestation d’intérêts de la partie gouvernementale, il y a une manifestation et un engagement formel à ce que la décision d’étudier certains aspects spécifiques des systèmes alimentaires de manière plus approfondie. Donc, il y a bénéfice d’urgence de lancer les activités d’envergure du Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA)en RDC, pour soutenir la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle et renforcer la résilience des communautaire Read less

La tenue de la concertation a respecté les lignes directrices et les recommandations de référence des Coordonnateurs. Le dialogue était conduit de façon interactive en mode atelier- animation ; ce qui a permis l’implication active de tous les participants aux travaux du dialogue et voir même, l’appropriation par toutes et tous des résultats de cette activité en RDC. Les jeunes ont été sensibilisés au programme d’appui dans l’agroalimentaire et la promotion de l’agriculture intelligente face au climat. Les Étudiants en sciences agronomiques dans la salle étaient eux aus... Read moresi, incité à installer des projets agro- alimentaires et à restituer les résultats du dialogue auprès de leurs paires dans les universités, avec les professeurs et les parents. Le modérateur avait permis à tout le monde de s’exprimer librement et tous les points de divergence et de convergence ont été émergé dans la satisfaction de toutes et tous. L’approche genre était également au rendez-vous, les femmes et les hommes s’étaient exprimés parfaitement sans aucune barrière.Les causes et déterminants de la sécurité alimentaire ont été abordés dans les moindres détails ; les facteurs en interaction pour améliore les systèmes alimentaires, éviter les gaspillages et améliore l’état nutritionnel des enfants, femmes, jeunes ont étaient également abordés. Les discussions-échanges et facilitation des groupes, avaient abordés au même moment, les interventions agricoles respectueuses de l’environnement et la nécessité d’adopter les bonnes pratiques agricoles intelligentes face au climat, pour la sécurité alimentaire, les revenus et l’atténuation des nuisances humaines sur l’environnement et émissions des gaz à effet de serre. Tous les axes de la concertation avaient démontré que ce sont les revenus agricoles qui permettront d’améliorer durablement les conditions de vie de population congolaise. Imaginer une République Démocratique du Congo, où la population vivrait mieux, tout en préservant l’environnement et généralisant l’application de bonnes systèmes alimentaire, à tous les niveaux : national, provincial, et des collectivités locales. Read less