Explore Official Dialogue Feedback

Differing views on scale and priority objectives Dialogue participants had differing views on the scale of future investment. Some participants felt that investment should be prioritized towards fewer but larger commercial fishing companies and farms. For other participants, investment should be prioritized towards Palau's many artisanal fishers and smallholder family farmers. Focusing on larger farms could increase nutrition and health, whereas focusing on smallholders could secure more livelihoods. Production versus Consumption There were divergent views about the drivers of nutrition object... Read moreives. Some participants argued that increasing production would lead to improved nutrition outcomes, whereas others argued that a focus on education to shift consumption away from preferred unhealthy foods should be a higher priority. There were also divergent views about existing school lunch programs. With limited budgets, the current school lunch program ensures a minimum amount of food for all (thereby reducing hunger), but sometimes relies on unhealthy and inexpensive imported foods. Some participants argued that government buying power should be shifted to healthier foods, whereas others argued that prioritizing hunger reduction should remain the focus. Production and Food Waste Some participants argued that food should be used more efficiently before increasing production. They note that high amounts of food go to waste, especially in schools, arguing that production is currently high enough to meet the current demand. Others argued that food waste is a matter of distribution. Foreign Labor There are divergent views on the role of foreign labor in the food system. With a small local indigenous Palauan population, the local labor pool is limited. Some participants felt that maintaining or even increasing foreign labor is necessary to scale up production, especially for pelagic fishing operations and labor-intensive agriculture. Other participants felt that a contraction of the labor pool and a focus on Palauan labor could supply enough production to meet needs, if this production was more efficient and commercialized. Read less

Producing as an Essential Profession The majority of food producers - from fishers to farmers - are smallholders with limited access to markets and limited business acumen to achieve profitability, yet they must operate in a cash economy with global influences. Using education to change the mindset of production from one of a part-time pursuit to a full-time essential job, combined with specific training in how to plan for and navigate Palau's tourism-oriented cash economy, is needed to commercialize these professions. Social and behavioral marketing is also needed to make these foreign-labor ... Read moredominated essential industries "trendy" for Palauan indigenous citizens. Given Palau's high-end tourism market, "Farm-to-Table" and "Dock-to-Dish" programs that track and tell the story of producers and their products would also boost respect and production. Sustainable Blue Economy Palau's large ocean resource offers enough natural resources to support sustainable livelihoods in a variety of sectors (food production, tourism, industrial fishing, conservation), yet it is underutilized and constantly shifting due to climate change. Cross-sector planning that incorporates climate adaptation into diversified livelihoods will help stabilize and expand on Palau's Blue Economy, which will then contribute to expansion of a sustainable green economy. Stabilizing Supply and Demand Driving demand for locally produced and diverse products is essential to improving income for offshore fishery and agriculture producers, and requires a cross-sector approach (school education, tourism markets, government mandates and buying policies, certifications and branding, and access points). Increased demand will secure increased production and provide stability to these industries, thereby securing livelihoods. There is also room for diversified fishery and agricultural products, and indeed demand exists but supply is unstable. Investment into training and small-scale added-value processing facilities are needed to enable diversification. This will also enable better livelihoods for women producers and other vulnerable groups. Efforts to drive demand, however, should be aligned with nutritional guidance, especially in the case of tuna sourced from the PNMS. Technology is underutilized and could more efficiently drive demand. Low use of technology in Palau's food system means that producers are missing out on opportunities for distribution and consumption and thus losing value along the supply chain. Similarly, producers struggle with inconsistent inputs (such as breeding stock in aquaculture and livestock production) that would also benefit from improved use of technology to connect supply and demand. Private-Public Partnerships for Production A successful program that is ready for scaling is the Ngiwal Taro Program, which utilizes a Public-Private Partnership to increase production and share profits. However, expanding on this program to make private lands available for public farming with profit-sharing would require policies to ensure that local labor participates and benefits. Reducing Risks through Diversification and Cooperation Current systems make smallholder producers take on the highest levels of risk. Cooperatives can help reduce these risks and help stabilize supply. Putting securities in place, such as guaranteed government buying programs, designating a clear buyer and market buying mechanism (such as the 10% purchasing rights offered under the PNMS through a private-public Partnership), and helping to set up networks of buyers and producers can reduce risk and improve the sustainability of livelihoods in the food system. Diversified career training for women and vulnerable people, especially in processing and adding-value, would further increase profitability and resilience of food system livelihoods. Read less

Recognizing Hunger Hunger remains a problem in Palau, particularly in rural areas. The first step to reducing hunger is to recognize that hunger exists, both through government recognition and planning and cultural recognition. Experts on hunger at the Dialogues strongly advocated for the definition of hunger to include "nutritional hunger", especially for families who cannot access healthy fish and agricultural products due to distance or affordability issues. Increasing and commercializing production through "Partnerships for Production" will increase the supply of healthy foods and help imp... Read morerove its affordability. These partnerships can also bring new actors to the food system, especially in rural areas. Targeted outreach could also help change the perspective about food and increase willingness to eat healthy foods that are growing locally. Cultural Networks to Reduce Food Waste While there is hunger in Palau, there is also significant food waste, often arising from customary events, government facilities (schools), and larger retail outlets. Most of this food waste goes to the landfill. Scaling up successful programs such as the Koror State Collection and Composting Program, ideally with a Private-Public Partner, could divert this food waste and use it to further improve production. Closing this gap between hunger and food waste is a priority and there are cultural networks in place to connect food waste to producers. Palau's youth and their high technological savvy could be better utilized to make those connections. Reprioritize Policies Dialogue participants suggested a review of government policies to address hunger and to align approaches with nutritional guidance. School lunches remain important to minimizing hunger, but school facilities need investment to ensure food safety and waste minimization, and updated school food policies could be promoted more to meet nutritional standards and encourage more students to shift to healthier foods. Read less

Changing Consumption The focus for improving nutrition and health needs to be on consumption. Food preferences lean heavily towards imported, unhealthy foods, both because of historical tendencies and misperceptions. Changing consumption means changing the story about healthy food, with a focus on education and outreach and cross-government aligned policies. Healthy foods are abundant in Palau, both in the sea and on land, but are not appreciated by the populace. Aligned Government Policies for Nutrition Government policies needed to transform healthy eating include aligned government buying p... Read moreolicies (by reducing spending on unhealthy imported foods to instead support local producers of healthy fishery, aquaculture, livestock, and agricultural products), aligned educational policies (and implemented simultaneously by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education), and aligned infrastructure and investment policies (such as modernizing food preparation and storage facilities in government facilities to reduce the need for canned foods and improve safety). There are few consumer protection policies, which when combined with improved tracking and feedback systems would improve safety and decrease negative perceptions associated with food safety. A coordinated government plan to connect healthy consumption with increased sustainable production needs to be championed by a "Nutrition Champion." Private-Public Partnerships could be drivers of a shift in consumption and could be utilized to modernize public facilities to ensure safety while also offering business opportunities in the food system. Partnerships to Modernize As in other sectors, nutrition approaches need to be modernized and to rely on partnerships, for instance by partnering with media experts to create social media trends and using popular technology platforms (such as YouTube) to increase knowledge about nutrition. Localizing food guidance, for instance identifying healthy levels of tuna and taro consumption, are also needed as targets. Successful programs ready for scaling include the Airai State Elementary School Farming and Cooking Training Program. Proof of concept is abundant and families and children are willing to shift their consumption to healthier foods if they grow it or catch it themselves. Affordability through Production and Policies Increasing production of fishery, aquaculture, and agricultural products will increase supply and therefore increase affordability, which remains an issue. Additional financial mechanisms to make healthy, locally-produced foods more affordable and attractive may be needed, such as taxing imports and unhealthy foods and using those streams of income to offset the costs of small batch locally-produced healthy foods. As in production, rebalancing and reducing subsidies and free handouts is needed: handing out free agricultural and fishery tools does not appear to reduce food insecurity as well as training, cooperative negotiation, and discount programs. Data and Profiles Finally, as with production, improved data collection and analysis is needed to fully understand the food system and how it relates to nutrition and health. Read less

Increasing Efficiency of Initiatives like PNMS A primary priority for increasing nature- and culture-positive production is scaling up and commercialization of existing successful initiatives at sea and on land to make them serve multiple purposes (food security, conservation, and tourism marketing) and thus be more efficient as the basis for a more sustainable Blue Economy. Palau's National Marine Sanctuary, for instance, has provided proof of concept that setting aside an area of the EEZ for domestic production led to increased Palauan participation in the offshore fishery including through ... Read morecooperative business models. Tying the initiative to culture increased pride and knowledge about offshore fishery products which led to an increase in consumption of healthy, locally-produced pelagic fish. Expanding on this initiative with Private-Public partnerships to increase supply and diversify products offered will further improve resilience and drive consumption. Sustaining and expanding on Palau's Blue Economy (pelagic fishery and tourism-based) will support growth in the Green Economy (agricultural innovation). Decentralization through Private-Public Partnerships for Production Similarly, Palau has proof of concept for clam and rabbitfish aquaculture, and in fact is a global innovator in the science of endangered giant clam aquaculture. Scaling up these successes will be most fruitful through decentralization (physically to outer States as well as logistically away from the national government) and by transferring and supporting production by private parties. Commercialization of agriculture on land requires Private-Public Partnerships to expand and secure public lands available for agriculture while enabling private businesses to operate them efficiently. Existing decentralization of actors in the PNMS's Domestic Fishing Zone has shown proof of concept. Support for Modernization Modernizing Palau's system away from smallholders to cooperative systems of fishers and farmers needs specialized training, access to improved technologies, mentoring and assistance with relationship-building and networking, and planning to identify and manage risks and stabilize supply. Local and global technical and trade partnerships would facilitate modernization. Cooperation and Financial Shifts An additional recommendation of the Dialogue is to reduce subsidies and giveaways across blue foods and agricultural products and instead support cooperative fishery and agriculture associations and corporations negotiate reduced prices for inputs and guaranteed buys (secured at first with a shift in government spending away from imports). Innovating Food Waste Simple, highly successful programs such as the Koror State Collection and Composting Program can easily be scaled up to reduce food waste and provide a lower-cost nutrient input for agriculture (fertilizers) and aquaculture (feed). Technologies to do this are available, and would be most efficiently applied through technical and business partnerships. Better coordination of available materials would drive down the cost and temporal instability of many inputs. Business Incubation Investment into small, cooperative processing centers combined with business incubation services would allow for small business development leading to processing of more fishery and agriculture products into a diverse selection of foods. Data and Profiles Improving data collection and analysis is necessary across all parts of the blue food system (offshore fisheries, nearshore reef fisheries, aquaculture) and the agricultural system (livestock and crops) to better understand the supply chain and to understand how the profile of producers and consumers has changed in modern times. Shifting to Local Labor Finally, Palau should actively develop a plan for increasing Palauan indigenous citizen participation in production while utilizing foreign labor more strategically. Read less

Systems Perspective The overarching finding from the Food Systems Dialogue is that Palau must apply a "Systems Perspective" to food in order to reduce the multiple cross-sector factors contributing to food insecurity. This requires elevating food insecurity to the level of a national emergency with a whole-of-government response. This also means integrating the short- and long-term cross-sector impacts of climate change into Palau's Blue and Green Economies. Taking a systems perspective requires a coordinated government response plus the partnership of civil society and the private sector. Par... Read moretnerships for Production The dialogue confirmed the immediate need to increase, innovate, and commercialize production of offshore fishery, aquaculture, agriculture, and livestock products through "Partnerships for Production", particularly Private-Public Partnerships but also those that facilitate technical innovation. Education and Policies to Transform Consumption At the same time, education is needed to drive demand and consumption of healthier, locally-produced foods. Investment into training on processing and diversification will further improve resilience, especially in the face of natural, climate, and economic disasters. A "Buy Local" initiative, backed up with a shift in government buying power to support local pelagic fish, sustainably produced aquaculture, and agricultural producers, would contribute to improved nutrition, production, and livelihood objectives. Modern Market Connections The Dialogue also confirmed the continued need to improve connections between subsistence and smallholder fishery and farming producers to local businesses and markets. These connections should rely on Palau's culture of cooperation to reduce and spread financial and environmental risks, but also modernize to take advantage of technology to find new markets and improve efficiency. Within the Fisheries sector, transitioning to a more resilient Blue Economy requires more efficiently utilizing, connecting, and marketing Palau's National Marine Sanctuary (PNMS) and Domestic Fishing Zone to achieve joint food (healthy proteins), tourism livelihood, fishery income, and conservation benefits. Cultural Values Finally, Palau maintains it commitment to increasing production in line with its cultural values. Read less

The goal of Palau's Dialogue was to examine Food Insecurity from a systems perspective and to determine pathways for achieving Food Security. After confirming the problem - due to reliance on imports, preferences for unhealthy food, and challenges with affordability for high-nutrients foods, Palau is NOT “Food Secure” - the Dialogue set a goal to "better understand Palau’s food system in order to build resilience and improve the livelihood, health, nutrition, and consumption patterns of Palauans." The first part of the Dialogue examined products and processes to create a conceptual model... Read more of food flows throughout the country. The focus at first was on societal, economic, cultural, and environmental factors on production, processing/adding value, distribution, and consumption, and to identify where wastes are generated and where food is transported. The model revealed that societal and economic factors have the greatest influences on the food system, highlighting the essential need for a cross-sector approach. Previously, much of food system focus has fallen to the environment sector and has focused on environmental production limitations. The Dialogue identified the need for a drastic shift in thinking. Thus, the second part of the Dialogue purposefully focused on cross-sector issues using Action Tracks as guides. Based on stakeholder input and a review of the existing body of work on food and especially Blue Foods, the second part of the Dialogue focused on achieving specific objectives to reach the goal of Food Security: Diet and Nutrition: 1) Zero hunger (sufficient food), 2) Access and consumption of nutritious, healthy, and safe food by all - A definition of nutritious foods was established: Healthy, nourishing food that that meets vitamin and mineral needs; rich in micronutrients, fiber, and high-quality proteins and high-quality fats. Non-nutritious foods include those with high levels of added salt, added sugar, and saturated and trans fats. - Unsafe foods were defined as those contaminated with toxic chemicals, metals, residues, bacteria, or pathogens; or that cause foodborne illness. - Gaps in knowledge were acknowledged: a push to convert consumption from nearshore reef fish to offshore pelagic fish needs to consider safe mercury levels by gender and group; this has not been established in Palau. Nature- and Culture-Positive Production: 1) Increasing the amount of sustainable production 2) Steadily/continually offering a diversity of nutritious and safe products, and 3) Maintaining or restoring biodiversity and ecological, social, and cultural systems Participants were asked to think broadly about locally-produced and processed nutritious foods, not focus solely on Palauan traditional foods. Equitable Livelihoods and Value Distribution: 1) Stable livelihoods (jobs, income, and sociocultural stability) for families and businesses from participation in the Food System, enabling a quality of life on par with other peers, 2) Fair and transparent transfer of values among users in the Food System value chain. To reach these objectives, participants focused on Gaps, Barriers, and Challenges (factors, processes, places, things, that stop achievement of Food Security) and then on Opportunities, Solutions, and Scaling up (actions that are already being taken, working, and ready to be scaled up to achieve objectives). Participants were then asked to take a step back and focus on Resilience. This included first identifying vulnerabilities ("those parts of the model that, when stressed, may lead to poor achievement of objectives"), then areas of resilience ("the ability of any part of the model (person, thing, process, place) to maintain functionality in the face of change, thus ensuring continued access to adequate, healthy, nutritious, and safe foods, livelihoods, and values"). After sharing findings based on objectives, the Dialogue then examined links between Action Tracks and objectives in an effort to guide a whole-of-society response. Read less

Women Unhealthy candies are sold at school canteens since they are appealing to children, however, the same candies could be produced using fructose as substitute of sucrose. Other countries use other substitute for sucrose such as coconut sugar etc, so lot of scope in these areas as well Sugar which has for decades tied up good agricultural land and the same land could be used to feed Fiji if government could revisit the international agreements on sugar. Equitable livelihoods, building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress. COVID restrictions including border closure has left wome... Read moren with less choice but to sell produce cheaply from nearest town where food prices are high in the supermarket. Youth Government has an important role to play in encouraging young people to participate in redesigning our food systems - whether by making agriculture more appealing through new technologies or making the system financial rewarding. Perhaps run a Food System Game Changer campaign? But it needs to be appropriate and practical and also needs to be evaluated. Rural Communities and Informal Settlements Land issues in informal settlement can be a concern, since it’s difficult for women to acquire land as an asset and access to most government led initiatives requires ownership of land and women and minority groups in rural communities lose out on such opportunities. Informal settlements need better organised landscape but people don't have landscaping knowledge. Trees usually need more time to grow than crops and technical knowledge on soil rehab, food forestry systems, processing methodology, product development & marketing is required. Access to soil improvement resources. Sand is often mentioned to use for drainage improvement, but the sand would need to be mined from rivers, thereby degrading the river ecosystems … Fiji doesn't have things like perlite readily available! Availability and accessibility of arable land and basic agricultural inputs for communities in rural areas and informal settlement that plays a major role in ensuring food security for women and households in the communities. Read less

Women transformation Fiji has a delicate food system where women come last. Women should not only be treated as beneficiaries but be given equal opportunities and awareness should be done to men on the critical role women play in society especially when they make up majority of workforce in Agriculture (farm level). Traditional structure is a barrier where there is a lack of participation from women in important decision-making issues such as land, property rights, finance, education, farming, family, food, culture and other social norms. Land tenure decision making is dominated by men. Women ... Read moreare natural food gatherers but we never value as important because it is part of women's role in Fiji. Digital inclusion of rural communities add value to the food supply chain. It will open avenues for entrepreneurship and promotion of products that different villages specialize in. Being digitally inclusive helps women use digital platforms for health, education, entrepreneurship and vital information for productive farming for planning, financial management and marketing skills. Financial management should be designed according to the need of farmers. Women drive a critical role in accessing finance. Rural women lack the capacity and knowledge of value adding to transform the food system effectively using fresh foods around them. Creating short videos is recommended to assist these women. Government to take the leading role to ensure less advertisement of unhealthy foods and more on healthy foods. More participation of women in food safety, training and implementation in the community settings, food wastes from schools, households and markets to be put to good use such as animal feeds. In coastal areas, most coastal fisheries are operated by women and there is a need for financial assistance, training, market opportunities and promote value adding, more collaboration with researchers, government and NGO and financial institutions. Enhance participation by targeting whole rural communities especially women and youths to ensure they understand what we want to do. Youth Transformation A key barrier for youth participation particularly in the pacific is social and cultural dimensions. Need to better understand the aspirations of the youths, differentiated by gender, class, ethnicity and other forms of differences, to enable sustainable food systems - through regular engagements as dialogues or think tanks and incorporate these into institutional planning for government agencies and organizations. Encourage and develop leaders in the community that actively include youths in the food systems such as Nayarabale Youths are encouraged to plant village land and were able to sell crops worth $66,000.00. Raising awareness amongst youth on the importance of growing your own foods and empowering them to take up ideas that are practical to them. Education programs through technical institutions on food systems curriculum specifically developed to address the challenge of increased literacy and capacity in the food systems and get champions to show Youths how we can promote Youth involvement. Food Science and Technology has been marketed, thoughts have been placed on how we can entice Youths to join Food Science and Technology. Rural Communities and Informal Settlements Communities need to take ownership of initiatives in the food systems and to ensure that roles and responsibilities can be clearly understood by all to allow sustainability. Recognize community local/traditional knowledge and include new approaches to complement this knowledge. Human resource is an ongoing issue while capacity and interest is a huge challenge. Sustainability of programs is a challenge due to limited resources - more complex food and value adding systems, lack of funding support and lack of community collaboration in policy formulation. Gap assessment in rural and informal settlement participation in food system is to enable us to look at vulnerability through an intersectional lens (e.g. gender, ethnicity, economic status, (dis)ability). Adhere to what already works well in communities, promote a participatory approach e.g. Read less

“Pathways for local food system transformation: How to make them more inclusive.” a) Food systems transformation, that boost opportunities for women and youth participation across different elements The Basa exchange concept is based on Fiji can Feed Fiji. This is a return to the traditional trading systems where the concept of “solesolevaki” is employed by rural and remote communities in the Western part of Fiji by coming together to supply fresh root crops, fruits and vegetables to boost nutritional needs for those in lockdown and containment zones and support each other during these... Read more difficult times. This Basa exchange also promote circular economy where funding comes from the aid sector, crops are purchased from the community at village gate and shared to those who are in containment and lockdown areas. At the end of the day, this community goes to small shops in town or in their communities to buy things that they need, supporting of social circular economy during this pandemic. Through the growth of e-commerce and wholesale export opportunities, critical progress is made in establishing new markets to maintain market access during this pandemic. b) The role of food environments on healthy diets In a recent research carried out by USC and FAO FIRST Programme, they found that there has been changes to diets, in both rural and urban populations in Fiji. This research also found that there was a high availability of ‘unhealthy’, or highly processed/nutrient poor foods around schools e.g 80% of outlets sold sugar sweetened beverages, 60% sold lollies and very few outlets sold fruits and vegetables. Vulnerable groups esp children need attention and there is a need for multisectoral engagement and collaboration of all the school stakeholders. Some school interventions have worked in other countries such as; use of clear and accurate dietary guidelines/school meal standards, monitoring and sustainability of guideline implementation + sustainability of the program, better outcomes when interventions are based on scientific evidence and facilitate access to healthy + appealing meals and snacks, replacement of highly processed foods with healthier alternatives, focus on fruit has better outcomes, social inequalities must be addressed, environment surrounding schools is important. A few entry points for intervention may include a comprehensive school feeding program, establish nutrition standards for boarding school meals, establish adequately resourced support, monitoring, enforcement and reporting mechanisms to promote their implementation. Consider opportunities for school food and nutrition initiatives to promote nutrition, economic and environmental outcomes. Increase awareness of the Fiji food and health guidelines for healthy living (in schools and communities) and develop simple messages for children and parents. Progress draft regulations to control the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic drinks to children. c) Young people is our future- key to transforming Fiji’s food systems In transforming Fiji’s food system, we need to start now if we want to get it right with the future. In the past few months during the UN Food System Summit, we heard the important role of stakeholders including the private sector in transforming our food systems. We need all the voices to be heard - the most affected farmers, fishers, women and girls, youths and indigenous people, to be at the centre of the discussion. Education and awareness is critical for our young people from young age, efforts to strengthen training of our traditional leaders for land owing unit for the protection of our biodiversity, change the mindset of our youths that push to white/bluecollar jobs and relegate farmers and fishers jobs. National efforts to transform our food systems must include voices of young people and genuine efforts to meaningfully engage them, who brings with them innovative ideas and solutions. Together with digital technologies and community best practices for our young generation we can catalyse efforts to improve some of the challenges around data collection, monitoring and enhancing multi-sectoral coordination. Private sector support for our young entrepreneurs is also important in the area of food security and food systems. d) Transformation Pathway of Local Blue Food System Diversity of blue food resources - finfish, shellfish and seaweeds. Value addition and preservation of functional blue foods are some of the pathways to transform blue foods. In Fiji, research into seaweeds (nama) for beauty products and shellfish-sea urchins for processing and scoping for market access has been carried out. Other student research has been done on Sea weeds (Climate Change, Carrageenan & Agar) and Ciguatera Fish Poisoning. Some of the suggested transformative approaches to blue food is the determination and extraction of bioactive compounds e.g. Omega 3 – from seafoods and applications in food processing and value-adding and anti-oxidant compounds – e.g. anti-cancer. Determination and extraction of other functional compounds – carrageenan, gelatin, pectin and agar. Determination of blue functional foods with identified markets, where participation of women and youth could be enhanced e.g. sea urchin and sea grapes processing. Functional Blue Foods could be the game changer in this Food System Transformation Approach for the Pacific Ocean Island Communities. Read less

The Fiji National Food Systems Dialogue on Day 2 –“Pathways for local food system transformation: How to make them more inclusive” was held virtually on July 22nd, 2021 at a crucial time as the country battled its second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with restrictive measures and lockdowns. This makes this Food Systems Summit even more crucial to Fiji as it enables the country to study the challenges exposed or exacerbated by the COVID crisis and to find transformative solutions to emerge and build back. Curation and Methodology ─ In compliance with the country’s COVID-19 restriction... Read mores, Day 2 of the Fiji National Food Systems Dialogue was virtually curated on the Zoom platform and created a lot of participatory method of wide, multi-sectoral stakeholder engagement. In addition, interaction and platforms such as Zoom chat box were busily engaged to crowdsource questions from participants throughout the duration of the four-hour dialogue. One hundred and seventy-nine participants took part in the dialogue that was officially opened by the Minister of Fisheries, Mr Semi Koroilavesau. Participants represented government ministries, development agencies, UN agencies, civil society, international institutions, Pacific regional agencies, farmers, women’s groups, youth groups, international NGOs and academia. Prior to the dialogue, participants received the following from the Secretariat: (i) Invitation to participate in the dialogue (ii) Dialogue Agenda (iii) Reporting template identifying questions and topics for discussion groups Dialogue Format for Day 2 - Registration of participants (online in advance and on the day itself) - Welcome address - Official opening address by the Minister of Fisheries - Introduction to the dialogue(Video on the Summit by Dr Agnes Kalibata) Presentations on Day 2 - “Pathways for local food system transformation: How to make them more inclusive.” - Food systems transformation, that boost opportunities for women and youth participation across different elements - The role of food environments on healthy diets - Women Inclusiveness- Inequity in food systems - Young people our future - key to transforming Fiji’s food systems - Blue Food Questions to speakers Discussion groups focussed on different themes where discussions were reported and recorded by rapporteurs; Breakout Session 1- Women’s Inclusiveness in the Food System - Question 1: What are the desirable transformations across the food system for women in 10 year’s time? - Question 2: Main entry points and opportunities to enhance women’s participation in food system? - Question 3: Main barriers/challenges limiting women’s participation in food system? - Question 4: What are other vulnerabilities relevant for food system transformation that have not been considered - Breakout Session 2 - Youth Transformation - Question 1: What are the desirable transformations across the food system for youth in 10 years’ time? - Question 2: Main entry points and opportunities to enhance youth participation in the food system? - Question 3: Main barriers/challenges limiting youth participation in the food system? - Question 4: What are other vulnerabilities relevant for food system transformation that have not been considered? - Breakout Session 3 - Rural Communities and Informal Settlements - Question 1: What are the desirable transformations across the food system for rural communities and informal settlements in 10 years’ time? - Question 2: Main entry points and opportunities to enhance rural communities and informal settlements participation in the food system? - Question 3: What barriers/challenges do we foresee in the implementation of these measures? - Question 4: What are other vulnerabilities relevant for food system transformation (availability/access to land, COVID-19) that have not been considered? Participation and Engagement – Through crowdsourcing, zoom chat, zoom breakout discussion groups, plenary reports/discussions and presentations. Group reporting templates were also shared with participants to review following the dialogue to allow them the opportunity to include any information that may have been missed out by rapporteurs Read less

Many of the concerns and interests of the civil society representatives are represented in the national roadmap. There was agreement that indigenous interest could be represented specifically amongst the priorities for the roadmap. The main concern was to ensure that their voices were taken into account at the summit and whether those interests were subsumed to those of big business. Government representatives were of the opinion that there is a need for investment funding from the private sector and that this is not necessarily a threat to smallholder interests. Government strategies place mu... Read morech emphasis on the improvement of the productivity and profitability of smallholders and SMEs and for the creation of market linkages for smallholders and their associations and cooperatives. Read less

The dialogue was conducted in a manner which reflected the guiding principles for the conduct of food systems dialogue with respect on all sides for the effort to meet and listen to each other’s views. The civil society representatives expressed some concerns about the Global Summit relating to limited opportunities to participate. They wished to have the opportunities for their voices to be heard and for their suggestions to be incorporated in the National Roadmap. The representatives recognized the achievement in drafting the roadmap and wished for successful implementation. They expressed... Read more the hope that their views would be taken into account and appreciated the opportunity to meet together with RGC and UN representatives. The National Convenor explained that the dialogue process had been limited in terms of community meetings and in reaching to all levels because COVID restrictions on meetings and travel had greatly impacted on the plans for the National Dialogues. A special effort was made to act quickly to arrange this event and to ask for an opportunity for the feedback to be included in the Global Synthesis Report. Since the food system includes all sectors and value chain actors, the food environment and the decisions of consumers there are many voices and interests to be taken into account. Cambodia has now conducted 30 dialogue events involving almost 200 participants. A lot of effort has gone into promoting inclusivity, with civil society well represented amongst stakeholder groups. The vision and key themes for the National Roadmap were summarized and the focusing questions presented. Participants were invited to look into the Roadmap and make suggestions. The feedback from civil society indicated that although there was agreement on many points, as representatives of farmers, fishers and forest communities, they had some points to add. 1. There is a need for more access to irrigation for smallholder farmers 2. Even for farmers, there is limited access to safe and healthy diets and a lack of understanding about what is safe and healthy. 3. Imports should be restricted to give more opportunities for local producers and more value for local products 4. Request for technical support from experts and extension services 5. Request for services to reduce risk, reduce chemical use and to increase yields, Civil society representatives stated that sometimes families lack food even though they are producers themselves because they spend their money to purchase inputs and machinery. They have growing indebtedness and face difficulties in repayments. In addition their success is rain dependent. Indigenous peoples find it very difficult to deal with climate stresses and low prices for their produce. They feel that small scale producers are not prioritized by government and too much emphasis is given to agro-industry and large scale production. Farmers experience food shortages and resort to immigration to find paid employment and earn income. They are sometimes at risk of losing their land for development activities. They request that the UN and Government uphold the rights of all citizens and provide help especially during COVID -19. Their suggestion was to prioritize domestic food production and provide opportunities for smallholders and the informally employed instead of to larger scale producers. The representatives for civil society stated that it is their wish to preserve their traditions, their seeds and varieties and to protect their forests. They would like to promote and encourage local markets and they asked that Government consider provision of seed funds for enterprise development for women and youth, especially for fisheries communities and indigenous people. It was also stated that the process of communal land titling is important for indigenous peoples and that this process could be expedited. Cash transfers for women and young children are much needed and help to overcome lack of food and poor nutrition. At the global level, and concerning the UN, the representatives asked that there be greater transparency in food systems. They suggested that the influence of large corporations at the Global Summit should be rejected and that there be an end of control of food systems by large corporations and an end to cooperation with the World Economic Forum. They requested that their voices be included in the Summit and that they be allowed to live on their ancestral lands and not be driven by economic circumstances to sell their labour to live. Responses from the Government affirmed that there were many common interests listed in these requests and that much of the detail relating to this is reflected by the sectoral plans such as for the agricultural sector. There are some important points raised and particularly relating to inclusion of indigenous issues and interests. These are points for incorporation in the roadmap. Civil society representatives asked for a record of minutes and an indication of what changes will be made in the roadmap to reflect their statements. They asked that the Roadmap should ensure that the healthy diets for all objective must include not only women and children, but the poor and vulnerable and the rural unemployed. They asked that food safety systems be established and that the Roadmap should reflect the UN Declaration of the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP). The meeting concluded with an assurance that minutes would be shared and that a reformulated roadmap would be available shortly, reflecting national consensus and points raised. Read less

This event allowed representatives of some 67 Civil Society Organizations and community groups representing farming, fishing and forest dependent communities the opportunity to present their priority interests and suggestions for the pathway to sustainable food systems for 2030 and to express their commitments for actions to support sustainability. Given the restrictions for face-to face meetings due to COVID-19, a small group representing the many NGOs, associations and communities involved was invited to meet with the National Convenor for the Food Systems Dialogues. The focusing questions f... Read moreor the dialogue were: 1. What points do you agree with in the food systems roadmap? 2. What are your suggested areas for improvement? The Civil Society representatives present made a number of requests to the Royal Government Representatives present and to FAO. Mostly these points were directly concerned with the rural situation for the communities they represented and their production and marketing challenges, Some points were directed at the representativeness of the Global Summit for smallholders, indigenous communities and the poor and vulnerable. Read less

Désaccord sur le mode de gestion des boutiques d’intrants au niveau communal. Pour certains les mairies devraient s’y impliquer, pour d’autres un comité de membres des associations de toutes les sections communales ferait l’affaire. A la fin, ils se sont mis d’accord pour l’adoption d’ une structure mixte ( les mairies et les membres des associations ensemble). Sur la mise en œuvre du plan de reboisement et de la protection des ressources naturelles, comme planificateur et gestionnaire, ils avaient identifié les autorités locales (mairie, ASEC, CASEC) uniquement. Mais après... Read more discussion ils ont jugé bon d’intégrer aussi les associations d’agriculteurs et de pêcheurs.. Concernant le retour après les ateliers, certains pensent qu’on devrait les appeler nommément pour qu’ils participent à la mise en œuvre des projets, parce que ce sont eux qui avaient participé à l’atelier en l’occurrence á l’identification des projets. Read less

Gouvernance et Genre, rôle et participation des femmes Les points de vue des participants sur les actions urgentes, L’Etat est absent dans les sections communales, les services sociaux de base sont quasi inexistants, pas de travail autre que dans l’agriculture. Or le travail agricole est saisonnier, les jeunes ont tendance à migrer massivement dans les villes á la recherche de services, et envisager plus tard à s’orienter vers des cieux jugés plus cléments, des pays étrangers. D’où une rareté de main d’œuvre. A cela s’ajoutent les problèmes fonciers. Des recommandations ... Read more:  Voter des lois cadres facilitant la mobilité des femmes, leur participation à des espaces de pouvoir  Faciliter l’accès des femmes aux ressources productives  Réduire l’écart dans l’accès aux services de base entre les femmes résidant en milieu urbain et les femmes résidant en milieu rural. Il en est de même de l’écart entre les ménages ruraux et les ménages urbains dans l’accès de ces services.  Redéfinir le rôle de la famille qui est une institution de socialisation qui est là non seulement pour construire des hommes capables d’autonomie individuelle mais aussi de création collective.  Redéfinir de nouvelles politiques publiques sur les valeurs de la famille et les typologies de famille. Les acteurs qui influencent les actions Les ministères de MCFDF, MAST sont les premiers concernés. Mais les associations de producteurs, les associations de femmes pourront servir de catalyseur pour permettre au gouvernement de mieux assurer l’autonomisation des femmes. Les moyens d’évaluation des progrès  Représentation des femmes dans les espaces de pouvoir  Accès des femmes aux ressources productives (crédit, accès à la formation, aux marchés, etc)  Enquête avant, pendant et après la mise en ouvre des actions Read less