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Summary of outcomes The top challenges identified by network participants in both groups fell under four headings: 1. Limited bankable demand on the agri-SME side. This includes: a. limited capacity (particularly in terms of business management) of individual entrepreneurs and companies b. market-level factors that affect agri-SME bankability (e.g. fragmentation of farmers, high transaction costs of doing business in rural areas, value chain malfunctioning, lack of business development service models that work well at scale). 2. Limited capacity to engage with agri-SMEs among financial ... Read moreinstitutions. This includes: a. limited capacity or willingness to engage with agri-SMEs for some types of institutions (due to lack of understanding of the market, risk factors, etc.) b. lack of proper segmentation of the agri-SME market and, consequently, clear asset classes in this market c. ill-suited product offerings (particularly among traditional financial institutions) d. processes of client acquisition and client management with high transaction costs 3. Limited capacity of agri-SMEs and finance providers to address new environment or climate-related challenges or to tap into climate finance and the sustainable investors’ market. a. Environmental and climate pressures bring new risks and costs for many agri-SMEs (including for compliance with new standards etc.), but only a fraction of public and private finance for climate mitigation and adaptation goes to agri-SMEs b. Many finance providers are ill-prepared to design and issue investment products for to green/sustainable investors to deploy in agriculture, nor do they easily access or have capacity to manage funds from public sources of green finance for this sector 4. Policy and coordination gaps. This includes: a. political interference or policy gaps (e.g. at Central Bank level) b. lack of coordination, information gaps and information asymmetries among different actors in the agri-finance ecosystem c. lack of convergence around shared standards, e.g. concerning effective business development services or agri-SME bankability. The proposed "game-changing" actions that the Summit could help launch or amplify/scale were: 1. A clear recognition by governments of the key roles of agri-SMEs in delivering against various public goods related to food systems and commitment to reward the positive development externalities generated by agri-SMEs through their business models. 2. A multi-actor initiative to bring more transparency into the business development service market for agri-SMEs, including an evidence-based benchmarking of effective models against impact on access to finance, an effort to standardize BDS curricula on the basis of such benchmarking, and value-for-money metrics for funders of such services. 3. One or more large-scale regional risk reduction facilities (e.g. risk capital pools plus technical assistance) to mobilize regional commercial capital, including long-term, patient investors’ capital, for regional (local currency) investments for agri-SMEs (particular focus on Africa). 4. A platform targeting agri-SME users with information about the universe of potential investors in their markets, their product and services offering, their bankability requirements, and their potential suitability to each company's growth stage. 5. A shared international reference framework on the use of blended finance for agri-SME investments in a “food system transformation” context, allowing evidence-based decisions about where to focus “subsidy” to leverage private capital for agri-SMEs, how to phase it out and how to assess additionality in agri-SME finance from a holistic food system standpoint. 6. An international platform or programme to: a) support innovation in digital technology and in business models applying digital solutions to agri-SME finance, b) address barriers to scale for business models with scale potential, c) roll out digital solutions among a broad community of financial institutions serving agri-SMEs, focusing on solutions that reduce the costs of acquiring smaller clients, managing risk, and achieving positive environmental/climate impact. Read less

On 11 January 2021, SAFIN partners held a "Food Systems Dialogue," as the first contribution of the network to the preparatory process for the UN Food Systems Summit (FSS) to be held in September. The objectives of the dialogue were to: • Allow SAFIN partners to be well informed about the FSS, so they can reflect on what opportunities and expectations this brings for the network; • Reach clarity about why and how agri-SME finance most fits into the FSS agenda, so that the network can focus its engagement and develop a compelling narrative around it; • Identify 2-3 priority issues or... Read more challenges in agri-SME finance that are critical to address in order to achieve impact in the FSS Action Tracks; • Brainstorm about 2-3 potential "game-changing" actions around these issues or challenges. In line with the standard structure of Food Systems Dialogue, the event started with a framing presentation (an overview of the Summit process and intended outcomes by Alison Cairns, Partnership Lead in the Summit Secretariat) and then moved into two interactive breakout sessions facilitated by Kindra Halvorson (Technoserve) and Brian Milder (Aceli Africa and CSAF). Both breakout groups discussed the top challenges in agri-SME finance that should be addressed in order to transform food systems in line with the FSS Action Tracks, and the top "game-changing actions" that could be launched around the Summit to address these challenges at scale. Read less

a) The presence and importance of ecosystems services (carbon market) need to be clarified and emphazised more in food systems. Considering ecosystem services is crucial in Latin America due to its vast diversity of ecosystems.b) Areas that need further exploration are addressing trade-offs and developing ways to measure progress. Moreover, the different stakeholders should be linked to specific actions to pin down responsibilities. It remains unclear what is expected form the younger generation, what is specifically meant by the younger generation (current or future) and what their potent... Read moreial jobs will include in the future.c) Practices needed for food system sustainability include equitable value distribution along the whole food chain as well as between genders. Furthermore, critical ecosystems should be maintained, restored and further protected from the possible impacts of agriculture. Besides, the transformation of the food system should deliver healthy and nutritious diets for everybody in Latin America.d) Policies and incentives need to be tailored to the different types of farmers that we find in the region in order to enable the transition towards a more sustainable food system. Additionally, especially the link and partnership between science, the public- and the private sector should be prioritized, as well as the link between producers and consumers. Read less

Actions to engage young people in science-based social movements include raising awareness by visualizing the potential future of food systems through education and exposure on social media platforms. In order to close the gender gap, access to family care and child support are essential to enable women to work in agriculture. Other enabling factors are reinforcing women networks, equal payment for men and women ensured by the private sector and recognizing women for their work.

Actions to provide end-to-end solutions to transform food systems should include access to healthy food, consider young people in agriculture, strengthen local supply chains and economic incentives through innovation systems. To unlock sustainable finance, a distribution mechanism is needed to ensure equitable value distribution all the way down to the farmers. Working hand by hand with the private, public sector and civil society, as well as the establishment of sound regulations and policies will create an enabling environment for money to flow into the region.

Besides, promoting local markets can enhance greenhouse gas emission reductions. To achieve 50% reductions in food loss, improving and increasing technologies, logistics and innovation are found essential. Alliances should be promoted along the whole food chain supported by transparency, interdisciplinary communication and promoting the use of scientific information in regulation.

To address malnutrition and obesity, a standard should be created to inform consumers about nutrition and establish social protection policies to secure nutrition levels. Besides, policies need to address food costs, as this is a huge barrier to nutritious food access for all members of society in Latin America.

To stop agriculture from impacting critical ecosystems we should no longer convert lands, use water resources unsustainably or modify the natural ecosystem to produce food. Hereby, science should take the role of translating and bringing science-based solutions to farmers through technical assistance. Farmers will be empowered by providing access to new simple technologies that include scientific and traditional information to ensure food and nutritional security while maintaining cultural diversity.

Business as usual is no longer sustainable, particularly in the light of the pressures of Covid-19. Therefore, more synergy and public-private partnerships are key in order to create a sustainable and resilient food systems in Latin America. Game changing solutions are needed which should reach all stakeholders and deliver multifaceted benefits for society including healthier diets and reducing inequalities at demographic level and in value chains. Innovation should be brought to scale in order to reach the SDGs. To empower actions at scale, place policies, regulations and incentives are nee... Read moreded which enable a sustainable recovery at regional level. Innovative solutions and technical assistance should be able to reach farmers and be delivered in partnership with the private sector. To stimulate investment from the private sector, good examples should be measured and reported as evidence of success. Additionally, a distribution mechanism is needed to ensure equitable value distribution all the way down to the farmers. To ensure the future vision of food systems, a generational change of producers is needed by empowering and including youth and women; ensuring equal payment and raising awareness is essential. Partnerships are essential in bringing diverse food systems stakeholders closer along the whole food chain through innovative partnership models which enable action. Stakeholders should step out of different siloes to ensure integration and cooperation between different sectors and enable their alignment. Strong partnerships require transparency and interdisciplinary communication. Different solutions are required for the diversity of the food systems in Latin America with its wide range of products and producers. These solutions already exist for different contexts; however, they need to be scaled up through investments and policies. The diverse region should find a unified voice by doing these kinds of dialogues. The Food Systems Summit is a key opportunity to articulate the regional vision, innovations, actions and partnerships on the global stage. Read less

The most important factor brought up multiple times is the strong need for alliances between science, the private- and public sectors, farmers and other key actors to create a sustainable and resilient food system. To improve trust and create strong partnerships, transparency is stressed as essential. With the use of these alliances, stakeholders can align their programs, initiatives and experiences. Creating platforms for the exchanges of methodologies and experiences between different sectors and countries can contribute to the alignment of these programs and to the strengthening of the alli... Read moreances. Sharing experiences will help in bringing actions and innovations to scale and generate economic incentives through innovation systems.Innovation is essential in order to stop converting natural lands, limit the use of water resources to produce food and minimize the loss of natural ecosystems. To accelerate sustainable innovation, investments are key to provide farmers access to new technologies and assistances, for which funding pathways should be established. Additionally, local value chains should be strengthened together with relations between producers and consumers to enhance healthy and nutritious diets.The inclusion and empowerment of women and youth in Latin America food systems is key to address the generational change issue. Agriculture should be visualized as an opportunity for young people to create their own pathway. Furthermore, education and communication campaigns are emphasized as important pathways to raise awareness among youth. Reducing inequality between men and women is of major importance which can be achieved by ensuring equal payment.It was found that trade-offs are important and should be addressed more. Measuring progress is still hard and therefore indicators or monitoring and evaluation systems should be implemented or improved to measure progress and success. Read less

Indonesia is such a large country, there are so many options to choose from in terms of processes and products, and potential resources to support the Summit's Objectives. Different regions prefer different processes to be pursued.

EMPOWER CONSUMERS TO MAKE INFORMED, HEALTHY, SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD CHOICES An empowered society is a society that knows, is willing and able to make a change. There is a change of habit to make a society empowered. Lack of education regarding food is also the main cause because the average person who gets sufficient education tends to be more aware of this problem. The government is also aware of this by launching the Healthy Community Movement. Empowering consumers to make informed, healthy, safe and sustainable food choices can start with product branding, to create healthy food, espe... Read morecially sustainable local production, it is necessary to educate producers who are adapted to the local socio-culture about the importance of transparency and low emission food production. Starting from raw materials with low emissions, the production process from upstream to downstream also needs attention to implement an environmentally friendly process. Transparent production processes are used as one approach towards consumers so that consumers can choose healthy, safe, halal, and sustainable food. Manufacturers also need to increase honesty and responsibility in the production, sales and promotion processes. It is also important to have Informative and interactive smart food packaging that is easy to understand, to provide information on nutritional value, product processing flow, and the quality of food ingredients contained in packages such as level of maturity, and product freshness. Providers of facilities / platforms are needed to enable local communities to access healthy and sustainable food items, such as bulk stores, recycling stores, and uglyfood. Also important to provide facilities for communities to purchase as well as self educate about environmentally friendly products. Read less

HEALTHY EATING 1. A diet that takes health into account is what ensures nutrition. It is better to take foods from nature and reduce processed food. In addition, education is also needed for food producers to maintain food hygiene and sanitation during food processing to ensure health. 2. An environmentally friendly diet is one that does not have a large carbon footprint. This diet can be achieved by: a. Paying attention to locality, naturalness, and type of product (reduce consumption of animal products, prioritize more carbon-friendly vegetable products). b. Reducing food waste and pla... Read morestic packaging that is not environmentally friendly c. Guarantee the totality of the full use of food ingredients so that food loss does not occur. d. Processing of kitchen waste in the form of compost and replanting. e. To maintain food sustainability, it is necessary to pay attention to locality. We need to explore food ingredients that are widely developed in our area and diversify food sources. 3. In order for all levels of society to be involved for a diet that takes into account health and is environmentally friendly, education is needed starting from the pre-production, processing, to marketing stages. Education is carried out to producers, distributors, and consumers. Read less

NON-RICE CARBOHYDRATES Indonesia has at least 100 types of carbohydrates sources. With high biodiversity, Indonesia also has high food diversity. The sources of carbohydrates that the body needs should not only be fulfilled with rice. Several regions in Indonesia consume non-rice carbohydrates such as corn, sago, cassava, taro, potatoes and various tubers beat the popularity of rice in daily meals. Non-rice carbohydrates can be found in almost all corners of Indonesia. Because of this, each region has various ways and cultures to process these food sources. These foods are also plant-bas... Read moreed complex carbohydrates that can go a long way in reducing the carbon footprint. This is appropriate if measured from biological reasons. In the economic structure, what we need to pay attention to is the contribution of carbon emissions from the supply chain. As distribution and production will obviously produce a lot of carbon, what we can do is try to grow food in our areas. The government and communities need to diversify food sources in an effort to fulfill diversify carbohydrates sources. Some of these alternative are barley, processed sago and palm sugar, elephant foot yam/stink lily, various processed cassava products, and tapioca cakes. Furthermore, these alternative sources of carbohydrates must be promoted and intensified strategically through several effective steps, from providing training and knowledge for local food producers to providing a special place for the sale of local processed food as a substitute for rice. Read less

VEGETABLES We have to identify edible vegetables and dishes that can be created from those vegetables, and promote them through education, policies and programs, to encourage healthy plant-based food consumption. In Indonesia the combined consumption of fruits and vegetables is 209.89 grams/capita/day. WHO generally recommends the consumption of vegetables and fruits for a healthy life of 400 grams/person/day, consisting of 250 grams of vegetables and 150 grams of fruit (equivalent to 3 fruits. When compared with food expenditure, the total expenditure on fruit and vegetables in Indonesia i... Read mores only 11.41 percent. Kangkong (water cress/morning glory) is the most consumed vegetable commodity at the national level, which is 10.46 grams per capita a day. Then, spinach and eggplant were the second and third most consumed vegetable commodities, namely 9.26 grams and 7.76 grams per capita a day, respectively. Participants identified all kinds of vegetables and dishes to be promoted. As an example Pohpohan (Pilea trinervia) is a commercial vegetable crop and is indigenous with great potential to be developed. This plant also contains antioxidant compounds, fiber, and vitamins can provide benefits for human health. Indegenous / traditional vegetables need to be introduced so that they can be accepted by many. In addition, it is necessary to carry out pohpohan plant conservation activities so that the utilization can be maintained in a sustainable manner. A healthy egetable dish called Trancam contains cucumber, bean sprouts, basil, and spiced shredded coconut which are the key to the specialty of this food. Kesum (Polygonum minus Huds) is a plant endemic to West Kalimantan. Kesum plants are known as a substitute for MSGs and used in soups and other dishes, giving umami taste. Bamboo shoots can be processed into vegetables and ingredients for chips/crackers. Adding bamboo shoots to crackers making can improve organoleptic characteristics (color, aroma, texture, and taste) Read less

We have to preserve local traditional foods and drinks and encourage sustainable consumption of such foods. They are healthier, local, and more environmental friendly, have low carbon foot prints, and provide livelihood for producers and distributors. Also we have to encourage non-rice for carbohydrate consumption. It is important to identify and map the ingredients, cooking method, culture, recipes, traditions, and health benefits of certain foods. Indonesia has at least 100 types of carbohydrate sources, 100 kinds of nuts, 250 kinds of vegetables and 450 kinds of fruits. A mapping of Ind... Read moreonesian traditional foods and drinks showed that there are at least 35,000 types identified, and the number is still counting. We propose two solutions to facilitate consumer access to healthy and sustainable traditional foods, a macro and micro approach. In a macro approach, the state/government is important in increasing consumer access to healthy and sustainable traditional foods. The state can promote healthy and sustainable traditional foods through policies, programs, promotion, building relevant infrastructure, and to reduce the distance traveled during the distribution of traditional foods to minimize carbon footprint In a micro approach, the community as an agent of information dissemination can disseminate the positive impact of healthy and sustainable traditional food. After that, people can also provide places that provide the food to be distributed to those in the surrounding environment. . It is important to provide education and information to consumers regarding local food products, the health benefits, the processing methods and food safety of local food products, through an attractive and easy-to-understand physical and digital display *social media). Food gardens should be encouraged in communities, government offices, schools and university campuses along with education about local food through planting, harvesting, and cooking together. Read less

OUR DIALOGUE IS FOR ACTION TRACK 2, AND WE DISCUSSED THE FOLLOWING: 1. Food production activities / practices in dialogue participants' areas (urban or rural), both traditional and modern Traditional practices.wisdoms are sometimes more environmental friendly compared to modern practices.2. Varieties of vegetables are in participants area, and what kinds of traditional dishes are best known for these vegetables. Identifying this will help promote plant-based meals which are lower in carbon emission compared to animal-based meals.3. Non-rice carbohydrates in participants area, as w... Read moreell as the types of dishes available, and the ingredients used. As in most Asian countries Indonesia is too dependent on rice, where in many cases people eat rice 3 times a day. Shortage of rice can create social unrest. Whereas there are a number of non-rice carbohydrates available in the country.4. Eating patterns that pay attention to health and are also environmentally friendly5. Empowering consumers to make informed, healthy, safe and sustainable food choices Read less