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FOOD ENVIRONMENT: MAINSTREAMING HEALTH AND FOOD IN ALL POLICY WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. How will policy make a difference to people’s food choices? What policy? The discussion context: Policies can make a difference in establishing food environments supportive of sustainable healthy diets, but they need to be well designed, holistic, combining mandatory and voluntary measures. Various critical points emerged, as summarised below: Mindset change is key for changing the food system, acknowledging its complexity. There is no simple solution: a well aligned set of solutions is required, allowing f... Lire la suiteor diverse positions, opening up, and finding a common ground. Education and environment: education and food environment should be considered together and not as ‘false dichotomy’. Education is important to give people the skills to navigate the food environment, and food environment needs to make the healthy and sustainable choices the easy ones. One-health policy: putting health at the centre, underpinning all policies, and educating people on the link between sustainability and health is important. Holistic approach: the environment and people’s behaviour should be targeted simultaneously, through a mix of complementary mandatory and voluntary interventions, while considering socioeconomic and health aspects, and having in mind the ‘triple wins’ of sustainability - health, planet and economy. Lived experience: exploring how policies affect people’s lives, in the ‘lived experience’ of food environments, provides key information on why people behave the way they do. Pricing: - the environmental costs are insufficiently reflected in food prices; - food price should ensure that the producer gets a fair value; - poverty is not to be not overlooked, however, as higher prices might increase inequity, as people of a low socioeconomic status cannot necessarily afford choices better for health and planet. Demand vs. supply: to achieve change, comprehensive and integrated strategy is needed including the supply side. Expecting change through consumer demand, having consumer ‘pay the price’ is both difficult and unfair. Labelling: although a much-researched topic, combining nutrition labelling with other types of labelling (e.g. on sustainability) remains complex. Labelling policies are key to support influencing people in making healthy choices, but there is a need for EU-wide legislation and harmonisation of national labelling systems Changing behaviour: More research is needed to understand the choices people make, and how their behaviour can be influenced. A prerequisite to stimulate any change is to make alternative choices accessible and palatable. Targeting young people and children will be inductive of changes in the next generation. Healthiness of alternative foods: plant-based alternatives can contain a lot of salt, fats and refined carbohydrates, which is to be kept in mind. Digital food environment: the digital food environment is largely hidden, and includes marketing of unhealthy foods (to children), but also unhealthy meals that get ordered online. More data: absence of data is key hurdle, and the integration of key performance indicators for policies is key. Currently there is insufficient to assess the effect of interventions and to ensure they are on the right track. Gap between research outputs and desired outcomes: the impact of interventions on health and sustainability happens in long-term and impact indicators are often proxys. Also, it is difficult to link outcomes to specific interventions. Lire moins

There were no major divergences among participants. However, points critical for food systems transformation came to the surface, including: - the need for comprehensive definition of sustainability; - acknowledgement of complexity & interdependency of food systems; - the need for holistic, cross-sectoral, multi-level approaches to multifaceted complex issues; - the lack of education on healthy lifestyles, and especially on healthy sustainable food systems; - the need for comprehensive, interconnected, evidence-based policy; - the lack of data as key hurdle, and integration of key performa... Lire la suitence indicators; - the need to improve representation of businesses/industry, as well as of farmers & citizens in the FSSD, who all must be part of the solution; - existence of vested interests, and the polarisation that they can lead to; - the need to recognize the true cost of food; - the need for tradeoffs between local and global food systems; - the need to recognize differences in production, consumption, and the different needs of the food systems transformation between Global North & South. Lire moins

ATTITUDES & ADVOCACY: CITIZENS AS CHANGE AGENTS WILL BUILD A BRIDGE TO SUSTAINABLE BEHAVIOUR AROUND FOOD. What will secure construction of solid, sustainable cultural bridges? The discussion context: Instead of the Bing Bang, the next big thing is a lot of small things that work in a complementary fashion and are focused on education; food availability, pricing and convenience; economic and financial levers and incentives; rebuilding trust in the food system; and policy. Actions in the following focus areas were identified as crucial: Education • Start early with food, nutrition, sustain... Lire la suiteability and food system education • Make it practical and consider cultural context; • Walk the talk: match the classroom ‘talk’ with food served in school canteens. • Be mindful of transition into adulthood, when teenagers develop their own agency and execute choice • Change the narratives on food choices to support the adoption, focus on practical and easy things to engage and empower. Availability, pricing and convenience • Impact the choices o Consumers’ choices are influenced by marketing, pricing and accessibility; both policy and industry practices must strive to influence them towards healthier and more sustainable; o Nudges should be used in creating healthier food choices o the economic means should be ensured to help consumers break through their choice patterns and make them more sustainable. • Encourage behaviour change o by making it feasible and practical • Use pricing is a driver of food choices o particularly for people from challenging socio-economic backgrounds: strike the balance right to interest them in healthier diets, without neglecting the economic hurdles they face. • Ride on the pandemic wave o Seize the momentum and build on the fact that during COVID-19 pandemic people started cooking again; encourage more of the same o others have reconnected to local food supply chains - make sure to keep them connected. Economic and financial levers and incentives • to consumers: make the VAT lower for fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains; • to farmers: o incentivize small-holder farmers to food system transformation by ensuring that they have a sufficient maneuvering space to take risk and change the way they operate (currently, they have a small profit margin (1-2%), so making changes requires taking relatively large risks compared to other food system players); • EU CAP: financial incentives should be available to drive radical change, e.g. to mitigate risks for stakeholders and enable risk interventions; there is plenty of money available, but not distributed such to support production focused on sustainability and healthfulness; • Spark interest in alternative proteins, incl. legumes, as they can contribute to resilience and EU self-sufficiency; legumes grown in the EU are not price competitive and would lead to an ultimate loss for the farmer; in a fair food system, growing food should allow one to be self-sufficient and should not require subsidies. Rebuilding trust in food systems • Involve citizens in innovation processes from early on, to secure a buy-in and get ownership of the process; • Communicate better by informing consumers but also food handlers with clear guidelines (e.g. Nutri-Score) • Make use of professionals in the food systems, incl. nutritionists, to get information across clearly, and explain why differing opinions on certain points may exist. Policy • Support the development and adoption of strong, integrated and ambitious policies: urban food policy councils, or actions at regional and territorial Lire moins

The Dialogue “Walking the talk: healthy and sustainable food systems through aligned communication and policy” acknowledged the complexity of challenges on our way to healthy and sustainable food systems, with their numerous distinct causes that need to be tackled differently, triggering actions that may result in trade-offs, or even in creation of new issues. Starting from a premise that a shift towards sustainable food systems can only be achieved by enabling and empowering citizens to make healthier and more sustainable food and lifestyle choices, the dialogue was set to bring EU stakeh... Lire la suiteolders around the table, to ensure a paradigm shift and break the silos in addressing the urgent need to combat all forms of malnutrition and environmental degradation. The focus of the dialogue was to find solutions for empowering citizens to adopt healthier and more sustainable behaviours - by increasing trust in science and the use thereof, and by securing aligned, evidence-based communication & policy. With that backdrop, this dialogue has directly contributed to the work of the Action Track 2: Shift to sustainable consumption patterns, but also to the work of Action Tracks 1 and 3. The format, details of the programme, and key messages of the keynote speakers are offered in the Annex to this Report. Lire moins

The following FIVE OVERARCHING CONCLUSIONS could be identified: The complexity of the food systems must be acknowledged: o by taking a stepwise, cross-sectoral approach, to:  avoid resistance that a “big bang” approach could trigger;  allow working in a complementary fashion  facilitate (re)building trust in the food systems; o by aligning on a definition of sustainability, as:  we must be clear on where we are heading, if we are to develop successful solutions;  the existing divisions could lead to further confusion & loss of trust among food systems actors. Citizens ar... Lire la suitee recognised as central to the success of food systems transformation. To secure their buy in into healthy sustainable behaviour: o tailored education & communication must be ensured; o optimal food environment should be secured, making healthy & sustainable food choices easy also for underprivileged; o citizens should be involved in the co-design of research and policy. Education is key in achieving mindset transformation. It should be: o relying on solid science, with health at its centre; o interdisciplinary and holistic in its nature, recognising complexity of the food systems; o ensuring a knowledge build-up across educational levels; o tailored to different target groups:  to general public, on healthy and sustainable food choices;  to farmers & food producers, on efficient management of natural resources/production systems;  to businesses, on their impacts and dependencies on natural capital; o blended with policy & food environment. Policy frameworks are critical for ensuring sustainable food systems. To secure success, their features should include: o strength, ambition, transparency, science at their core; o robustness against vested interests; o comprehensiveness, convergence and coherence:  across agri, trade, health, environment, education, aid, development, and other frameworks  at different levels, from municipal to global; o the One Health approach, critical for both people’s and planet’s health Trust is paramount to ensure success of most of the recommendations proposed. This Dialogue resulted in both INDIVIDUAL JOINT COMMITMENTS, across different fields. The participants have committed to: In the field of research, education & communication o Conduct research to understand consumer behaviour, taking into account the relation between food, culture and identity; o Shape programmes within their specific roles, e.g. the curricula of MSc programmes and research editorials; o Support national consumer organisations in educating citizens; o Carry out awareness campaigns on food storage and the use of date-labelling; o Raise awareness among policy makers and health professionals; o Educate businesses  to understand their impacts and dependencies on natural capital, to better manage risks and dependencies, to take better informed decisions.  to help them take specific food waste actions and teach their employees about food waste; In the field of best practice sharing & capacity building: o Learn from successful initiatives in food sourcing, processing and reformulation; o Bring cities together  to learn from each other’s successes & failures,  to improve capacity building & good practice sharing. o Bring policymakers together to  learn from each other  harmonize policies  reduce frictions; o Expand the dialog to non-usual actors. In the field of policy: o Tackle inequality through the Childhood Obesity Taskforce in London o Influence legislation on food waste, e.g. by addressing taxation to make food donation easier; o Push for adoption of ambitious & stringent policy tools in support of initiatives like the Nutri-Score or introduction of reformulation targets; o Support adopting national science-based policy recommendations; o Advocate for food system policies & policy convergence; o Bridge data gaps in to provide basis for smart & effective food systems policies. In the fields of food safety, food packaging, food waste: o Collect more data on food waste; o Improve packaging and commit to circular economy o Make surplus food available and donation easier through digital platforms & tools; o Continue to act on solutions easy to implement and proven to work (e.g. doggy-bags). Across environmental, social and ethical dimensions: o Develop tools to measure environmental impact that are easy to understand, and that include externalities into food prices o Support projects that build consumer trust, re-connect people with food and with innovations in the food system; o Work with local actors on social dimension to buying food, at first in local markets; o Commit to sustainable sourcing (of ingredients), processing & reformulation, to the farm to fork code of conducts within industrial agreemen Lire moins

PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION AND IN BETWEEN: THE INCREASING DEMAND FOR HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE FOODS WILL SECURE THE INCREASINGLY SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION. How to exploit the demand? Can we transition from short(er) chains to tight(er) interactions? The state of affairs: • With the topic being debated among scientists, and the overwhelming and often contradicting information in the digital sphere, it is of no surprise that citizens can hardly grasp the concept of healthy and sustainable foods. Even if well understood, healthy and sustainable choices are not necessarily the easiest ones. • Equally... Lire la suite unsurprisingly, citizens have little trust in novel production methods, even when they are sustainable and safe. • People’s decision-making around foof does not happen in a vacuum, it is influenced and shaped by the social and cultural norms and policy environment. The below calls for actions were made, aimed at: o helping people navigate the food environment, o rebuilding trust in the food systems, o increasing demand for sustainably produced food products. To governments / policy makers: o to create enabling environments for sustainable production; o to regulate other aspects of the food system, incl. the labelling and marketing of food products; o to harmonise food labelling at international level; o to ensure policy coherence: producers should be able to rely on a solid and coherent framework, resilient to e.g. loose trade rules that challenge the level playing field; o to allow adequate time to adjust to new rules, as well as support access to modern technologies; o to secure that the rules of public food procurements follow the rules of both healthy and sustainable nutrition. To food producers (acknowledging that proposed actions are not equally accessible nor meaningful to producers in the Global North and South): o to react to the consumers’ and public health demand for more sustainable and healthy food; o to responsibly consider marketing and labelling as elements that influence consumer choices; o to work together with policy makers to create stimulating food environment, which will make healthy and sustainable choices easy choices; o wherever possible, to use sensible production methods and to (keep) implementing innovative technologies that allow more sustainable production. Lire moins

EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE - FROM SCIENCE, OVER CULTURAL AND SOCIAL NORMS, TO PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE - WILL UNDERPIN HEALTHY SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES. (incl. healthy diets, physical activity, food waste prevention, intra-household food distribution, food safety, optimal breastfeeding & complementary feeding). How will connecting the knowledge dots get us there? The state of affairs: • With malnutrition in all its forms now recognised as the key factor behind global public health challenges, people are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of nutrition for their health, but also of the im... Lire la suitepact that our food production, consumption and disposal make on the health of the planet. • Any change in nutrition habits and pattern is difficult, but it can start from education, and get supported by social, cultural, economic, policy and other aspects of the environment. This all, acknowledging that there is a need for more evidence on sustainable diets. • Knowledge about food systems must come from many different fields to enable us to resolve the issues. In order to act across different sectors of the society, we need to start acting early, learning how to collaborate, and how to think out of the box. • Education is a field of huge possibility and flexibility, crucial for the food systems transformation, but in order to demonstrate its full potential it must be made more resilient, fit for both challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. To make a difference, the following actions were suggested: • Switch to sustainable education systems, which includes moving away from subject-oriented learning to inquiry-based learning (problem- & project-oriented studying), to interdisciplinary, interactive, blended learning. • Focus on interdisciplinary education across educational levels, including that on healthy sustainable lifestyles at primary & secondary schools, and on food systems at secondary schools and higher level education. • Ensure holistic, aligned communication on sustainable food systems, by: o educating the public about the versatile aspects of the food systems, o breaking the communication silos, o avoiding generalisation and tailoring the messages and formats to specific audiences, o framing healthy sustainable diets around culture, social norms, and values, o integrating practical aspects that people can relate to and directly benefit from (e.g. cooking classes, weekly menu planning, sustainable grocery lists, food waste reducing practices). • Hold multi-stakeholder dialogues to facilitate the exchange between science, policy and “real-life”, by: o carefully putting the science at the heart; o translating, but not banalizing, scientific messages into policy and broader communication; o addressing systemic barriers to translation and implementation of science. • Use the momentum, employ innovation & creativity, reconnect people with their food! o let the kids know how we grow food, what happens in the field, what is healthy, fresh, local, seasonal; what foods we import; how do we ensure versatile, balanced diets; organise school gardens and cooking classes; o encourage talking about food, promote bidirectional intergenerational learning; encourage people to cook for each other, to shop for food together, to share excess food within community, to jointly prevent food waste; organise communal gardens and cooking classes; o visually capture the sustainability concept– how is that for a food labelling challenge? Lire moins

SECURITY AMIDST ABUNDANCE: SPILLING OVER WILL SPILL OVER FROM AFFLUENT TO LESS FORTUNATE. What are the missing links in food security? How to ensure decent livelihoods for all? Context of the discussion: • Participants agreed on the high complexity of the topic. Root causes are many, and all need to be addressed in a (semi)coordinated way, recognising that different parts of the system need to be addressed differently, and that actions may result in trade-offs. • The discussion touched upon both local and global aspects, as well as the internal and external impact of EU policies and action... Lire la suites. • The One Health approach was assessed as critical, as food system transformation is about both people’s and planet’s health. Recommendations for action: • Reduce food waste: o Obtain sufficient data on where food is wasted along the supply chain, to develop tailored system solutions for reducing it at the source; o Develop approaches to collect and redistribute excess food in a fair way to vulnerable groups (“revalue” the waste); o Educate people on how to use and cook with fresh foods and reduce waste at home. • Empower farmers and food producers: o Invest in farmers and local food supply systems (e.g. in providing farming communities with the necessary infrastructure, such as good quality broadband in rural areas, or use public procurement to support farmers transitioning to more sustainable practices); o Educate farmers and food producers on efficient management of natural resources/production systems and on setting prices to improve their negotiating power in the food chain; o Consider the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and others working in rural areas. • Utilise technology: o Maximise the use of available solutions and be on the forefront of implementation of new technologies (e.g use block chain technologies for ensuring food chain transparency and reducing waste). • Ensure coherent EU policies (internal and external): o Conduct a transparent review of agriculture-based EU policies that could undermine food security and healthy nutrition, and identify opportunities to encourage sustainable agriculture in the EU; o Ensure coherence between EU aid policies and national policies developed by the aid-receiving nation; o Consider sustainability in the context of trade agreements. • Create a better definition/vision of the sustainable food system that we aspire to achieve o knowing where we are going will help develop solutions for transforming the food system. • Foster dialogue and exchange, improve representation of the key food chain actors o Due to the complexity of the challenge, and to address the needs of different people and environments, we need to ensure all stakeholders are represented in defining solutions. Civil society groups and farmers are often left underrepresented. • Propose mandatory EU food labelling that quickly communicates to consumers accurate information on nutrition and sustainability indicators. Lire moins

FOOD WASTE: EDUCATING FOOD SYSTEM ACTORS WILL TURN WASTE REDUCING BEHAVIOUR INTO A SOCIAL NORM. How to leverage education, communication & policy to ensure this shift? The state of affairs: • Food waste and loss happen at all stages of the food value chain, from pre-harvest food loss, over the impact of packaging and transport, all the way to food waste in retail and in households. • To devise efficient interventions to reduce food waste at critical points in the cycle (which admittedly significantly differ between Global North & South), a data driven approach should be taken. • ... Lire la suiteAt the same time, a mindset shift is required from the one in which we must produce more food to feed the world, to the one in where we must produce foods that are more nutritious and more sustainable, waste much less, and shift towards a plant-rich diet. To make a difference, the following recommendations were proposed: - Ensure data driven approach: o conduct research into food waste and losses at different community levels to focus interventions on where the problem is most critical, and to tailor them to local specificities; o test the effectiveness of interventions, then promote and scale-up the most effective ones; o collect data for food aid necessity - at (inter)national, but also local and neighbourhood level - to understand where the excesses can spill over to where there is a need. - Adapt the regulation framework around food waste, to: o send the right incentives to all food chain actors, from farmers to consumers; o prioritize food donation for human consumption (over that for animal feed); o facilitate food donation through taxation (using e.g. tax breaks); o make the best use of expiration date; o adjust the price of food to the food systems reality (cheap food is expensive for public health, and easier to waste), while considering the needs of underprivileged. - Work on a local level o municipalities are the ones to deal with packaging and food waste disposal; o they can effectively promote local markets and protect smallholder farmers; o they can effectively exchange best practices and build on each other’s knowledge. - Make use of innovation & technology o develop the economic potential of food waste through innovation (e.g. restaurants making beer from old bread); o increase and facilitate access to refrigeration and freezing in developing countries; o spill over the knowledge and best practices. Lire moins

The Independent Dialogue “Good Food for All” focused on Ireland’s role in sustainable food systems. To do this the dialogue session looked at how to increase the availability of nutritious food, making food more affordable and reducing inequities in access to food; how to eliminate wasteful patterns of food consumption; and how diets can transition towards more nutritious foods that require fewer resources to produce and transport. Action Track 1 and Action Track 2 were the basis of this Independent Dialogue. Action Track 1 works to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition and reduce the... Lire la suite incidence of non-communicable disease, enabling all people to be nourished and healthy. This goal requires that all people always have access to sufficient affordable and safe food products. Achieving this goal means increasing the availability of nutritious food, making food more affordable and reducing inequities in access to food. Action Track 2 works to build consumer demand for sustainably produced food, strengthen local value chains, improve nutrition, and promote the reuse and recycling of food resources, especially among the most vulnerable. This Action Track recognizes that we need to eliminate wasteful patterns of food consumption; it also recognizes that we need to facilitate a transition in diets towards more nutritious foods that require fewer resources to produce and transport. “Good Food for All” examined what individuals can do to ensure more sustainable food systems. It addressed the need for the young generation to be involved in shaping the future food systems and addressed the link between climate justice and global sustainable food systems. The following topics were discussed in groups: Topic 1: A world where no one goes hungry: everyone has access to nutritious and affordable food. Topic 2: Children and youth are actively involved in shaping our food systems Topic 3: People make informed choices based on reliable information about how and where food is produced. Topic 4: Climate Justice is at the heart of the global response to more sustainable food systems. Lire moins

The Dialogue showed that a social justice approach is needed when talking about food systems. Access to education, information and participation, as well as basic human rights, such as the right to a healthy environment and the right to be involved in important discussions, were addressed as key elements in the transformation of food systems. Engagement in education on all levels has been identified as one of the main findings of the Dialogue. Education on food systems needs to be introduced much earlier in school curricula and it needs to continue far into adulthood, with a greater understand... Lire la suiteing of the true cost of food. Education about food systems needs to go beyond formal education and should reach into implementation. The Dialogue has also shown a desire of the public to be involved in the process of transformation and decision making. The voice of the consumer needs to be taken more seriously on both the industry and policy level. The diverse perspectives of all involved need to be taken into consideration when approaching the complexity of sustainable food systems. A need for cross-departmental cooperation has also been identified as important in creating holistic and meaningful policies. Lire moins

Topic 1: A world where no one goes hungry: everyone has access to nutritious and affordable food. The right to food should be engrained in all policies. All governments (department of agriculture, trade, health, urban development, rural affairs, etc.) should ensure policy coherence, synergy and compatibility, and have common aims when it comes to food. Participation of those who are further down the food chain, such as farmers and consumers, must be ensured in decision making processes, and the general public needs to be included in this discourse. Education, therefore, is vital for a holistic... Lire la suite view of food systems and understanding the true cost of food. Climate action and change require us as individuals in Ireland to change our food choices and habits as it is developing countries who are feeling the worst impact. But also, at policy level, we need to have courageous conversations about some of our approaches which are centered on production and expansion. Lire moins

Topic 2: Children and youth are actively involved in shaping our food systems The concept of Food Systems needs to be made more accessible to young people and integrated at a sooner stage into the school curricula. Young people need to understand the complexities and trade-offs involved in shaping food systems. By making the language more accessible to young people, they can be included in this dialogue. They should be actively involved in discussions and decisions around shaping future sustainable food systems. More dialogues and forums for discussion are needed in general, with systems and p... Lire la suiterocesses put in place to ensure the voice of young people is heard at these. Consideration must also be taken of how young people tend to communicate, with a focus on digital communications. Young people should be encouraged to develop innovative approaches to shaping future food systems. Collaborative approaches such as social entrepreneurship initiatives have the potential to create a high level of engagement. Lire moins

Topic 3: People make informed choices based on reliable information about how and where food is produced. One problem with today’s food systems is that choice is not universal. In order to move food systems forward, good and nutritious food needs to be available to all. Choice affects the quality of food. Tackling food poverty is a priority in achieving sustainable food systems. The trade-offs between production and export need to be re-examined, as Irish agriculture is focused on dairy and meat exports, very little land is used for crops (human consumption) and most grain (60%) is grown to ... Lire la suitefeed animals. Education on nutritious and native food needs to start at a young age and beyond. Accurate information needs to penetrate. Reliable information - Farm to fork at EU level - giving more information to consumers through labelling. Countries need to work towards an EU standard. Lire moins

Topic 4: Climate Justice is at the heart of the global response to more sustainable food systems. Having different conversations with different views will work towards a more involved solution. Important to get a systems perspective in a multi-lateral dialogue, that is non-polar, but takes different niches into consideration. The SDGs with their indicators offer a blueprint to move forward and to measure what has already been achieved. Access to land right has also been identified as an issue that needs to be challenged in order to achieve more sustainable food systems.

The need for simplifying the language around food systems has been highlighted. However, at the same time it has been emphasized that there is a danger in not recognizing the complexity of the issue. The challenge remains in simplifying the language without simplifying the issue. The true cost of food has to be recognized and rewarded, while making food available and affordable to all.

Discussion topic 6: Financialservices and products for ag-tech innovators Key game-changer proposals a) The challenge to be addressed lies primarily in developing new fin-tech solutions that are suited to local needs and contexts (e.g. in different market conditions or degree of coverage of IT infrastructure). Game-changing solutions to this challenge need to rest on multi-stakeholder collaboration is critical and capacity to convene different stakeholders in the areas of technology, policy, finance, agriculture, and more. A specific game-changer may be a convening space for public and private... Lire la suite actors to discuss their respective roles in supporting young food entrepreneurs in fintech innovation, to be organized around the FSS. b) Scoring models that can guide the development of financial models for agri-SMEs and technology solutions providers. c) A global competition allowing small entrepreneurs to access large pools of capital based on random selection, to be used for innovation piloting. d) Local investor networks pooling resources to tap and finance local tech innovations e) A global townhall initiative for agtech innovations to showcase innovations and share experiences/support each other. f) A global blended facility or country-level blended facilities pooling capital for start-up ag-tech entrepreneurs to pilot their innovations. Measuring success: a) Success for a convening alongside the FSS would be measured by the range of actors involved, including FSPs and technology companies, farmer organizations, governments, inter-ministerial agencies, and private investors, as well as youth groups.Success would also be measured by the depth of knowledge and experience sharing across different regions. b to f) For the other game-changers, success would be measured by access of small entrepreneurs to new investor networks and improved product offering among FSPs. Who can make this happen, and what can each one of us contribute? a) AGRA and Nourishing Africa agreed to take this forward. b) For the other game changers, there is need for broad-based engagement of governments, local agtech entrepreneurs, and IOT stakeholders as well as commercial investors. Lire moins

The dialogue did not bring out areas of divergence per se but it did underline the challenges of connecting different actors and initiatives in the financial ecosystem around agri-SMEs and around young entrepreneurs in particular, including difficulties in aligning around shared approaches, standards, and metrics in assessing investment risks, limited availability or ineffective use of derisking capital in this space, and fragmentation of initiatives and of information systems and platforms.

Discussion topic 3: Financial de-risking of investment capital for young agripreneurs Key game-changer proposals: a) There is need for much greater focus on de-risking by reducing transaction costs associated with financing small scale enterprises and young entrepreneurs, strengthening due diligence to increase the chances of successful investments, educating investors, and improving value chain functioning and risk-sharing across value chain actors - rather than only on financial de-risking of specific transactions. b) Game-changing solutions require a combination of better financial tools an... Lire la suited products meeting the needs of young food entrepreneurs, incentive mechanisms for FSPs and investors, and common metrics and standards to reduce transaction costs and improve transparency and competitiveness in the financial ecosystem. Measuring success: • Farmer continuity and improvements: Measure the number of farmers that are able to continue operating, including those that are able to grow their operations. • Supply and demand for education: Compare a measurement of the amount and nature of information (i.e. training, knowledge sharing, etc.) that is being offered to FSPs and Producers, as compared to that of the demand for information. • Fund disbursement time: Track the variations in the time required for funds to be disbursed, especially to younger entrepreneurs, starting from the moment an application is made. Who can make this happen, and what can each one of us contribute? Large corporates can use their convening power to mobilize and align value chain actors, and participate in the development and circulation of knowledge around agriculture production and financing practices. TA providers can develop the knowledge base required to better inform FSPs and producers.Public sector actors at the local level can have a mandate and capacity to engage in de-risking activities (education and partnerships), particularly those that promote young entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector, given its importance for job creation and GDP. International public actors (e.g. World Bank and EU) can contribute through funding, influence over policies and knowledge sharing across regions. Lire moins

Discussion topics 4: Enhancing coordination among different types of capital and financial service providers Key game changer proposals: a) Increased coordination by regional bodies to develop road maps on priority sectors for development in the agriculture space that can guide entrepreneurs and investors. “One” voice/body would give the different stakeholders confidence but should also be resourced appropriately to support acceleration of investment activity and ultimately crowd in investors from across the capital structure (i.e., business development teams to work with entrepreneurs, st... Lire la suiteructuring of incentives/grants, etc.). b) Increased participation from strategic investors (broadening the investor landscape). Increased focus beyond the “usual” financiers i.e., commercial banks, impact investors, private equity, DFI’s. This would allow enterprises to benefit from more operational support (if the value proposition for both parties is clear). With the changing investor lens (increasing focus on impact and sustainability), enterprises can be a core part of the strategic players for value chain transformation. c) Reviewing the economics of funding vehicles(esp. private equity) to enhance their ability to provide operational support to enterprises versus solely a focus on financial competencies/returns. Entrepreneurs are asking:Are the vehicles being set up to support their businesses they invest in? Is there mentorship? Is this an equal partnership? In addition, development of investment vehicles that take a platform approach i.e., consolidate various businesses that feed into their eco-system e.g., feed-mill business, poultry business, retailer/off-taker which minimizes risk across each of the value chains but also increases collaboration/learnings between different parties. How would we measure success around such initiatives? • Vocal and effective regional bodies with actual participation from the private sector, able to signal to investors clear priorities and how they will be supported. • Investment vehicles effectively structured to enhance financial and operational performance over longer term investment horizons. • Increased participation from strategic investors and recognition that target enterprises can feed into their supply chains and enhance their financial, social and environmental impact. Who can make this happen, and what can each one of us contribute? There is need for actors involved in these types of strategic investment focusing and facilitation initiatives to share experiences across geographies and facilitate also dialogue and mentorship among entrepreneurs when possible. Lire moins