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MARKET BARRIERS: How might technology enable women in agriculture to break down market barriers (like market access and financial advisory) thus encouraging local food systems? Addressing proper education is the key enabler element for the empowerment of women to enter the markets. First of all, proper education is needed from the side of people who actually want to help solve the problem at any level. In order to provide concrete help and impact in a specific context, it is necessary to have extensive knowledge of such context and the mechanisms that govern it. In this sense, starting off fro... Read morem our local ecosystem or basing solutions on the consultancy of a local partner is fundamental to make sure no issue or obstacle is left behind, and no energy or resources are wasted on addressing issues that do not represent a priority. Moving on, education strategies need to be boosted also in the local context where we want to unlock market access for women. This will pass to different dimensions of intervention. The first important element is related to using education to break down the cultural stereotypes that are related to the agricultural sector, and it being envisioned mainly as a “men thing”. In this dialogue, it’s fundamental to stop positioning women in a comparison with men, and start thinking about the unique skills and perspectives that they can bring to the table, therefore improving the whole performance and efficiency of the sector. This is a key ingredient to unlock real innovation. Then, of course, education efforts need to be addressed directly to the women we want to help. It’s important for them to know how to differentiate their product in the market so as for it to be impossible to be ignored, to know how to access credit, and to know where to find concise and down-to-earth information about the context they’re operating in. Two elements are perceived as critical in order to attain this goal. The first is an intervention at the policy level, able to generate a wide impact and take full-on responsibility for the education of women. Each country needs to step in, but many companies can also help by starting from their own best practices and striving to disseminate them into the market. The second important aspect necessary to achieve these educational goals is leveraging technological solutions to create a connection network between women from the same area and different parts of the world. This is critical to allow for knowledge flows, making sure women learn from one another and join forces to create a change in their contexts. The impact of the pandemic on remote learning modalities could definitely be a blessing in this sense if channeled properly towards positive solutions. Read less

DIGITAL LITERACY: How might we enable women in agriculture to achieve digital literacy to help them utilize technology to its maximum potential thus making them independent? There is a need to visualize in detail the digital ecosystem regionally, and women as its key users to build our own and others’ understanding of it. People designing the digital platform should take into consideration the transparent evidence-based research approach. Digitalization can help shape a more sustainable future with evidence-based solutions, contributing at the same time to a more tangible transformation. But... Read more to reach the full potential of digital solutions, it must be user-centric. Technology can answer most difficulties farmers face. It can assist them with predicting climate all the more precisely, decrease the uncertainty, increase yield, and their net profit margins. In dairy farming, community-oriented connections need to be developed to do that to exponentially engage more purpose-oriented users. Bringing women into the design process is crucial to increase productivity, profitability, and adaptability to specific contexts: to empower women to stand for themselves, female farmers should be able to decide which technologies they want to use according to their interests and concrete role, before making sure they could benefit from such tools. Read less

PRODUCTIVITY: How might technology enable women to own farm resources thus boosting their agricultural productivity and profitability? Inequality in women’s yields has a lot to do with social norms, less quality of inputs and less ability to access and get resources, inevitably bringing to lower yields for women. In most cases land owned by men is over-fertilized, whilst land that is owned by women receives fewer resources. This gender inequality has seeped so strongly into people's mindset that the agricultural sector itself is mainly conceived as a man’s sector and society does not embra... Read morece the vision of women owning resources. The fact that most women are not educated adds on to the problems. In many dairy programs all over the world, aimed at pushing towards higher yields or higher productivity, more inputs are required and more loans have to be taken. However, women's lack of financial literacy brings the system in favor of men. Indeed, many existing solutions, like mechanization programs, tend to indirectly push women out because they usually do not meet the collateral requirements of such programs: land ownership, financial resources, and investment knowledge and capacity. Hence, even if the programs are meant to be inclusive, the design of such programs tends to make them unequal: women’s output is equal to women’s input. The participants agreed that before we address the issue of providing women with technology and mechanization, we first need to bridge that gap of literacy. Added to this, women need to be involved right from the design and investment phase of the programs they should benefit from. To make sure that women can actually have a voice in what technology they want to actually get benefits from it is important to understand the subtleness of gender relations. If not, even a women-oriented solution could eventually benefit men and feed the vicious loop, leaving women out of it. One more piece of evidence that needs to be taken into account is that not all women want to own a farm. An ever-increasing number of women prefer working on value addition tasks rather than working on the field, due to the heavy physical labor required in the tasks they are assigned to. Giving women a bigger voice to express what they want, what their aspirations are, and where they see empowerment coming from is therefore crucial. In many cases, female farmers lack recognition from local communities and the government for their accomplishments and farm work. A solution could be a database of female farmers who are at different stages of their farming activities, to better map the diverse needs. This would help in giving the right inputs to the right people through the activatable programs. Read less

GENDER EQUALITY: How might technology enable women in agriculture to be included in the decision-making process for their family thus ensuring equal representation and overall progress for the family? Equal inclusion of women in agriculture requires broader and better representation of women in the whole society. Besides being at the kitchen table, women are needed in leading positions: communication, decision-making, agricultural meetings, farmers gathering, traditionally represented by men. Men could play a crucial role, especially if they are more sensitized and aware that these kinds of ac... Read moretions may have positive impacts on the whole family and children. But also programs and national policy can be central in making agribusiness more attractive and better designed for women. Social platforms and social marketing too can play a central role, bringing women and female farmers together, letting them exchange knowledge, and learn from each other. Success is the best tool to assess progress, not income itself, because when female farmers are successful, other women are keen on learning from their example. Increasing productivity and, most of all, tracking the percentage of women leading farms on regenerative agriculture is therefore a must. However, traditional rule division and deep patriarchal society still represent a concrete challenge as these actions are implemented. Women are traditionally seen as weak individuals, while female empowerment can be regarded as a threat. Inclusion and better representation of women in society cannot be reached without female access to schools, this is the reason why training is conceived and provided amongst the most urgent actions. It is widely known that in many developing countries education is male-centered, even though women are taking care of everything else in real life. National policies and programs should accelerate female access to education, which is strictly related to women's respect from the whole society. The urgency to reverse the current mindset characterized by male superiority over women and lack of consideration of female knowledge starts with access to education. Also how training is conceived can ease women equality: to be targeted on women, education shall focus more on the ecosystem around them. This approach can be further strengthened by increasing the number of gatherings and events on education, shaped to make women feel safe. Access to land and technologies are additional urgent actions when dealing with women’s equal entitlement. If for the land the issue starts with ownership, for technologies the challenge concerns both access and ability to use. This explains why participants stressed, among the most needed activities, the promotion of a systematic use of technologies through specific programs, in support of farming activities and to increase income, from housing improvement to better mobility. Given the severe and widespread gender digital divide, also for technologies, just as education, their design should not forget to embrace the whole environment characterizing women's daily activities. Both the housing dimension and their farming role should be therefore equally considered to reach outstanding benefits for women and the community as a whole. Read less

The first conclusion that emerged from the Dialogue is that the current old mindset based on a rigid patriarchal approach is neither working nor beneficial to the whole community. Women, and especially women farmers, are proven to be keener on learning from each other, exchanging knowledge, and being more trusted by institutions. Overcoming this anachronistic attitude characterized by supposed weakness and exclusion from the decision-making process is more urgent than ever. A community-based approach might be more realistic and sustainable. Scaling through educational institutions and private ... Read morecorporations to invest in women who want to pursue and grow in agri-entrepreneurship or digital literacy could bring tangible transformations. With an increased focus on mentoring and training, women could get the training and tools they need to help other women in the fields. The second conclusion touches on the urgency of ensuring female access to basic education as the main step to promote gender equality in society. Education not just on the aspect of cultural awareness, but also on skill-building and machine handling knowledge from a practical perspective. Programs should accelerate the pathway, shaped by the surrounding ecosystem, towards both access and new structures on which education is conceived, considering their physical inclusion. Although moving in different directions, it is important to consider education and technology as intertwined, as technology could dramatically increase women’s access to knowledge and education, and at the same time, education is fundamental to completely understand the potential of technological solutions, as well as their functioning. The main solutions that came up at the intersection between these two elements were related to a peer-to-peer connection allowing women to share knowledge and experiences despite being far away from each other, therefore kick-starting a dialogue that empowers local women to be at the forefront of initiatives and solutions designed to help them. The third main conclusion deals with the relevance of providing gender-based solutions. To work in the long run, actions, programs, and technologies should be designed on women’s real needs, by women. This means creating a new interface design conceived to facilitate the use of technologies for women and new tools shaped on their position and daily activities. But it also means introducing programs and solutions tailor-made to the specific role that women have within the family. In developing countries like India, agriculture continues to absorb and employ the female workforce but fails to give them recognition of employed or hired labor. In these contexts, women mostly perform manual tasks like weeding. Advancements for reducing the heaviness of this type of work can be life-changing and increase productivity, starting a virtuous loop where productivity advancements, in turn, improve day-to-day life for female agricultural workers and also benefit their families and communities over the long term: female farmers who increase their income reinvest that money into the family’s health and education. The fourth conclusion is that the overall value of women increases on the supply chain level and when we move towards technology as an enabler for the 'Marketing linkages'. Women are adapting to the technology - faster - if given a chance! The only efficient way ahead is to optimize the channels of knowledge acquisition: access to the right information and providing them marketing linkages. Finally, we need to look beyond IT-enabled technology to envision women as Policy Decision Makers, providing practical insights, ownership, and the representation of the very gender for whom all the policies are being made. Read less

The Dialogue “DAWN of women in agriculture: technology as an enabler”, coordinated under the Project DAWN (Dairy, Agriculture, Women, Nutrition), a flagship initiative of MoooFarm, aimed at understanding how to empower small-scale women farmers starting from the reach that local projects such as DAWN can have in terms of real-life experience and effects. Women are undisputed actors in the global food system, both in developed and developing countries. However, despite formal data confirming the high rate of the female agricultural labor force, most of them still remain invisible workers in... Read more the eye of UN Agencies and the broader society. The reference is to female farmers, breeders, and fisherwomen who work informally, without being contractually employed, without receiving adequate compensation, or with extremely limited access to agricultural resources, improved seed varieties, equipment, information, education, credit, insurance, technologies compared to men. Gender inequality in agriculture remains one of the more significant areas of gender disparity worldwide and this phenomenon hits the North and the South of the globe, making it an urgent challenge to face. For this reason, the dialogue spotlighted the role of technologies as an enabling tool to ensure food security and food justice, through more effective forms of inclusion, equal productive employment, and decent work for all actors along the food value chain. The Dialogue started from on-ground assumptions of the Indian context but looked at global solutions. Through this two-way approach, it is possible to make the global food system more resilient and adaptive, starting from the urgency of leaving no one behind, for the sake of female farm returns and the broader agricultural production that, especially in developing countries, massively rely on the female role. From the observation of the current system failures and evidence we identified six sub-topics to be addressed during the Discussion Groups: 1. Women often remain excluded from information access, decision-making processes, and governance structures of dairy value chains. - How might technology enable women in agriculture to be included in the decision-making process for their family thus ensuring equal representation and overall progress for the family? 2. Women’s agricultural productivity and yields are 20 percent to 30 percent lower than men’s because of well-documented constraints such as restricted access to quality seeds, equipment, hired labor, technology, training, and markets. In addition, less than 5% of women own a cow in India. - How might technology enable women to own farm resources, thus boosting their agricultural productivity and profitability? 3. In low and middle-income countries, over 1.7 billion women do not own mobile phones. In cases where they do, they are less likely to make full use of their full suite of services. Although the use of mobile internet is increasing throughout India, only 28% of the rural internet users are women. - How might we enable women in agriculture to achieve digital literacy to help them utilize technology to its maximum potential thus making them independent? 4. Digitalization helps to connect women with advisory services, potentially removing middlemen or reducing labor burdens, providing market or legal information, and enabling financial transactions. - How might technology enable women in agriculture to break down market barriers(like access and financial advisory) thus encouraging local food systems? 5. In India 75 million women are engaged in the dairy sector, compared to 15 million men. Giving them access to technology has been proved to bring financial benefits in terms of income. - What would 2030 look like if ALL women small-scale dairy farmers have access to technology? 6. Gender inequality undermines progress toward sustainable agricultural development across multiple dimensions. - How might we enable women to be catalyzers of sustainable practices in agriculture and achieve increased carbon sequestration and neutrality? Read less

From a public engagement perspective 1. It is essential to be active, respectful, understanding, and cooperative. 2. The need to find specific communication narratives for different target groups. 3. Public communication should return to the animals themselves. Rebuilding the humananimal relationship among youths, leveraging science to boost animal welfare, and bringing humanistic care and concern to science. 4. Animal welfare education boils down to food system education. so long as young people learn more about sustainable food systems, healthy diets, and holistic health, the concept of anim... Read moreal welfare would naturally arise within them. Read less

From a business practices perspective 1. China seemed to have produced more animal products than needed. Improving farming to meet export standards is an opportunity for Chinese farming enterprises in the years to come. 2. So long as companies transform themselves in a timely manner, the EU’s resolution can be a great opportunity for Chinese companies rather than a threat. 3. Transformation took time and those quick to take action could get better market returns.

From a policy making perspective: 1. To promote animal welfare, it is important to take into account the interests of all stakeholders and achieve win-win results. 2. China should take incremental and phased steps to keep up with the international trend. 3. China and Europe would acknowledge each other’s animal welfare standards and expand areas for cooperation. 4. China's western region is more suitable for grazing than for growing crops. The Animal Freedom Indexes (AFI) of cattle, sheep and chicken raised by herders are very high, so these are all highwelfare farming products. 5. The impor... Read moretance of animal welfare labeling. Read less

The new EU regulation is a great opportunity for policy making and business practices to improve animal welfare in China. Industry-standards, labelling, education all play an important role in the transition.

This dialogue focused on opportunities for China and the EU to collaborate on animal welfare and food system transformation from the perspectives of policy making, business practices, and public engagement.

• The global pandemic has shown us that environmental health, animal health, and human health are closely intertwined, and this awareness must form the core of future plans and actions. • Improving animal welfare is not the only result that will be achieved--these measures will also reduce the probability of food crisis, improve public health and make the food system more resilient. • Consumption of meat alternatives will increase 35% by 2040. • The significance and value of the global Meatless Monday movement, and expressed her anticipation for China to promote this movement in the fu... Read moreture. Production: 1. Reducing the consumption of animal products can effectively reduce our carbon, water, and land footprints while adjusting the proportions of different meat sources we consume can also reduce the environmental footprint. The environmental footprint of plant-based diets is much smaller than that of omnivorous diets. 2. Chinese enterprises need to pay attention to the dynamics of carbon trading markets and carbon tax. The transformation of the industry towards low-carbon consumption and production will also reduce businesses’ carbon tax burden. 3. Improving the management of aquaculture can significantly reduce the emissions of active nitrogen pollutants, benefiting individuals, society, the economy, and the environment. 4. If meat consumption can follow the example of grassland yaks and other local varieties, it will reduce the demand for industrialized animal agriculture systems and promote regional pastoral economies and independent herders. Consumption: 1. Dietary change starting with urban and high-income populations can bring more obvious environmental benefits. 2. Real “good meat” must be the product of high-welfare animal farming practices. 14 animal welfare products have been included on the list--an important step towards the marketization of high-welfare animal products in China. 3. New plant-based meat products are gradually emerging in catering and retail markets, and multinational corporations and food giants are also entering the Chinese plant-based meat market. By expanding production scale and increasing output, costs can be reduced, and more consumers can enjoy safe, delicious, affordable and healthy plant-based meat products. Read less

Animal welfare is not an isolated issue, but is closely related to climate change, environmental issues, and public health. Improving animal welfare will drive breakthroughs in a series of urgent social issues

This dialogue dove deep into the crucial role of animal welfare improvement in the transformation of the food system from both the production and consumption sides and explored how to guide people toward a healthier and sustainable diet.

Il n'existe pas réellement de points de divergence identifiés lors de la concertation. Toutefois, il est opportun de citer une remarque à titre de faiblesse : La Tunisie est un pays en voie de décentralisation depuis la promulgation de la nouvelle constitution en 2014. Les communes disposent progressivement d'un pouvoir local étendu. Ainsi, la Municipalité de Tunis, bien qu'ayant toutes les opportunités de promouvoir ses propres projets en matière de systèmes alimentaires durables, devra s'appuyer sur un cadre juridique national et dépend de l'engagement politiqueet financierd'autres... Read more acteurs clés comme les Ministères et organismes sous-tutelles (Ministères, organisations nationales comme l'UTICA, institutions de la société civile). Read less

Thème 5: Gaspillage alimentaire gestion des déchets alimentaires et économie circulaire Trois défis majeurs sont à relever pour réduire le gaspillage alimentaire et optimiser la gestion des déchets alimentaires : Un défi environnemental qui interpelle à lutter contre le niveau de gaspillage en augmentation. Un défi socio-économique pour instaurer une culture de lutte contre le gaspillage et de valorisation des déchets et un défi institutionnel qui nécessite l'engagement de plusieurs parties prenantes. A ce sujet, les expériences dans le mode ne manquent pas. La Tunisie, égaleme... Read morent, a mis en œuvre plusieurs expériences dans la lutte contre le gaspillage alimentaire et la gestion des déchets. A ce titre, la Municipalité de Tunis met en œuvre un programme de séances pratiques relatives à la valorisation des déchets ménagers dans le cadre d'une convention avec le Ministère de l’éducation et l'INC.Les expériences engagées par l’INC en collaboration avec la FAO en matière de campagne de sensibilisation, Caravane pour les écoles visant l’éducation au gaspillage alimentaire ou l’élaboration du guide de l’éducation à la consommation, sont toutes des initiatives intéressantes à retenir et dupliquer.A citer également l’expérience de"Foodealz" , plateforme de lutte contre le gaspillage, dont le principe est d'écouler les produits restants en fin de journée, issus des restaurants et pâtisseries à des prix attractifs et les produits des épiceries fines dont les délais d'expiration sont proches. Le groupe de travail a identifié une série d'actions recommandables, qui portent sur différents niveaux d'intervention. Sur le plan du cadre légal et réglementaire, le groupe recommande de : mettre en place un cadre réglementaire pour la lutte contre le gaspillage alimentaire, qui prévoit par exemple une sur taxation des déchets en fonction du poids pour tous les acteurs (ménages, détaillants, restaurateurs), un système de récompense/exemption de paiement de taxes pour les acteurs qui valorisent ou réduisent leurs déchets alimentaires (créer des incitations et des sanctions). Dans le domaine de l'IEC (Information, éducation, communication) visant un changement social, il a été proposé de : officialiser l’éducation environnementale et l’éducation à la consommation en tant que matières principales dans les programmes scolaire; élaborer des programmes de sensibilisation qui émanent directement des propositions et des réflexions des enfants et qui sont adaptés à leurs besoins réels ; lancer des actions de communicationpartenariales et multimédias destinées à tous les acteurs concernés sur les méthodes de conservation, d’emballage ou de recyclage des aliments ; renforcer les capacités des parties prenantes sur les techniques de gestion et traitement des déchets (formation des formateurs sur l’économie circulaire, le gaspillage, la valorisation des déchets). La formation des détaillants et des restaurateurs dans la bonne gestion des commandes et les facteurs essentiels du gaspillage alimentaire. Sur le plan plutôt opérationnel, le groupe propose de : généraliser l’expérience du compostage (comme celle de l’INAT) et sensibiliser les parties prenantes à l’utilité du compostage et dupliquer l’expérience de l’INC dans la réduction de gaspillage du pain en installant des "gâchimètres" au niveau des cantines scolaires et des restaurants universitaires ; mettre en place un système de tri des déchets où les déchets organiques doivent être envoyés à un site désigné pour être compostés dans chaque région. Read less