ECDPM Newsletter Food Systems and Food Security Programme
June 2019
Francesco Rampa
Head of Sustainable
Food Systems fr@ecdpm.org
Dear <<First name>>,
It has been a busy time at ECDPM since our previous newsletter. We have been travelling in Africa and Europe, including to Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ghana and to Wageningen and Bellagio. I’m now happy to update you on the most important activities from our three main focus areas: contributing towards more sustainable food systems in Africa and globally; promoting inclusive agro-food value chains in West Africa; and regional value chain development in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Let me also take this chance to introduce to you our new team member, Koen, a 29 year old Belgian national with a PhD in Food Systems Governance. Until recently, Koen has been working as a post-doc at the NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security, University of the Western Cape. He will be a great asset to our work and can be reached at kde@ecdpm.org.
All the best,
Francesco Rampa
Sustainable Food Systems
A more effective food & agriculture global governance system
I co-facilitated a two and a half day meeting in Bellagio, Italy, organised by ECDPM and Chatham House at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center to bring together leading experts and stakeholders to discuss how the system of global institutions that provide food and agricultural aid and finance, global public goods, and technical assistance to low-income countries can become more outcome-oriented, in supporting the realization of SDG2 in the context of these countries’ own efforts. This is only the first step of a future research and policy dialogue process to help ongoing SDG2 efforts and the global food and agriculture institutions. Given SDG2 is more seriously behind in Africa and global institutions and donors concentrate their efforts in Africa, we hope this project will have a strong impact also on the effectiveness of EU-Africa cooperation for food security and more sustainable food systems.
BOZAR offered more than 120 students the opportunity to speed date with representatives of several Think Tanks active in Brussels and working on European Affairs on Europe Day. Hanne Knaepen participated in the event to highlight the relevance of our work on climate change and the prospects for the development of sustainable food systems.
As part of our work for the German Corporation for International Cooperation, Fabien Tondel and Cecilia D'Alessandro travelled to Burkina Daso and Ghana to meet with government officials as well as farmers, food processors & distributors. Simultaneously, our project partner, Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale (IPAR) completed missions in Mali and Nigeria. The aim of the project, which will be completed in October 2019, is to develop better policies for competitive, inclusive and resilient rice value chains in West Africa.
Regional value chains in Eastern and Southern Africa
To continue ECDPM's work on the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Strategies project, Cecilia D'Alessandro and Paulina Bizzotto Molina travelled to Tanzania to engage with local stakeholders and policymakers in Arusha, Iringa, Dodoma and Dar. The aim of the mission was to complete and validate the mapping of the local food systems and dig deeper into a number of governance issues. Together with development economists from the University of Pavia, we looked into the potential of indigenous vegetables' contribution to more sustainable food systems, e.g. by organising focus group discussions with producers to map the value chain. Useful meetings during the trip included the government (local and national, agriculture, but also nutrition), CSOs like Slow Food Tanzania and development partners, e.g. different organisations working on the USAID funded programme strengthening fruit and vegetable value chains. On 9 May, we also contributed to the Wageningen multistakeholder workshop in Iringa, where stakeholders and researchers explored the maize-soybean-chicken value chain and their contribution to food system sustainability.
Our Great Insights magazine explores how civil society organisations and businesses can work together for more socially and environmentally sustainable value chains. Read the issue >>
Last March, the EU Task Force Rural Africa – a group of 11 experts, including ECDPM’s Francesco Rampa – delivered its final report on an Africa-Europe agenda for rural transformation. The report will be discussed during the 3rd AU-EU Agriculture Ministerial Conference on 21 June in Rome. In this video, Francesco Rampa explains what the Task Force set out to do and what it recommends to the EU and AU. Watch the video >>
Livestock production and trade play a crucial role in West African economies, but growing demand for meat in the emerging urban centres, the lack of sufficient investment and increasingly erratic weather patterns pose enormous challenges for the sector. Read the blog >>
Hanne Knaepen argues that if African and European governments fail to include the voice of young people, it will be a missed chance for global climate action. Read the blog >>
Access to clean and sustainable water sources is under extreme pressure worldwide. To reduce the impact of pollution, overexploitation and climate change, ECDPM’s Hanne Knaepen suggests cultivation of indigenous vegetables, which require less water, or the use of rainwater for irrigation as potential solutions. Watch the video >>
