FAO and WFP Joint Consultation on Strategic Planning and prioritization for achieving Agenda 2030

Dear All! I am Tomo from FAO. I am working on strategic planning at FAO, and very pleased to be the backup moderator for the week. 

A quick clarification on the climate and environment- would be good to hear about how to adapt and improve smallholder production sustainably, build climate resilience of rural communities’ livelihoods and ensure environmental sustainability of agriculture and food systems. Any other areas are of course welcome! 

Hi I am Takeshi, CEO of su-re.co based in Bali, Indonesia. I will be working on blockchain technology connecting our biogas digesters, which produce clean energy and organic fertilizers, to remove the cost of certification of transaction. 

So, regarding "4. Strengthening Data and Innovation", blockchain can remove similar certification cost such as fairtrade, organic, etc.  The cutting middleman's cost will be beneficial to society and the trend will be unstoppable.  One think FAO/WFP may work is the allocation of the benefit from the costcut.   I hope farmers will also receive some benefit from this system rather than just making the product price down.  

Takeshi Takama 

Thanks for your comment and for highlighting the role that blockchain technology plays and may play in agriculture.

FAO supports the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable, agri-food systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind, and the implementation of international standards for food safety and quality and for plant health that are science-based and developed within the remits of instruments such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures.

Pilot initiatives of blockchain technology include those in agricultural value chains to track products based on geographic indictors (GI) and other markers to empower consumers and to provide a way to encourage and reward good practices, and penalize illegal and unsustainable businesses.

The increased transparency and traceability that blockchain technologies can potentially bring about could benefit several agricultural sectors, including reducing transaction costs, and may be applied in conjunction with current electronic certification systems like the IPPC ePhyto Solution.

In particular, it is observed that blockchain has the potential to improve financial management, provenance, traceability and transparency in food chains and to enable the creation of new markets and products, particularly for smallholder farmers in developing countries.

Blockchain-based solutions also find use in providing traceability in bringing more transparency and efficiency to agriculture value chains.

Blockchain and other Distributed ledger technology (DLT) have the potential to bring about a change in traditional processes if key building blocks needed to sustain the solutions are implemented. One of the key issues observed in a wider application of blockchain technology in agriculture is the lack of regulatory environment, which builds transparency and trust in the solution, as well as lack of infrastructure, digital literacy and connectivity.

Regulators around the world are actively trying to define guidelines for a possible wider blockchain application, recognizing that the process of designing, verifying, implementing and enforcing smart contracts in traditional agricultural value chains is still a work in progress.

According to FAO, all Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems must be conceived, designed and implemented to serve and protect human beings and the environment in which they live. In relation to these principles, and in the context of the use of AI in agriculture, FAO recognizes the need to protect the rights of farmers and the knowledge that they possess, particularly those in developing countries.

In conclusion, FAO welcomes exploring the use of DLT including blockchain technology in agriculture within enabling ecosystems, as well as the role of relevant stakeholders including the public and private sector to further expand the transparent use of blockchain technology in agriculture, and seek innovative solutions to increase the efficiency and quality of food production, certification and distribution, while reducing transaction costs.

A calm start and a wide range of topics for this first few days. Interesting points around food production, access and availability - in a crisis context  - but also a discussion on the role of blockchain technology can play and may play in agriculture.

Important topics that show the breadth of issues we have to look into and the need to balance perspectives. 

Hi

I am Bigambia Bitimi Charles Lebon, from Cameroon, junior projet manager consultant. 

I am happy to be part of this group, and contribute to strategic planning.

COVID 19, has created both a positive and negative impacts to the world population. But mostly negative impacts. 

COVID 19, negative impacts created were: a reduction in the supply of food,

-Reduction of food production,

-Reduction in the accessibility of fertilizer's and etc.

-Reduction in the development exchange rate of goods

-etc.

Good morning,

I am Justin Chisenga, Capacity Development Officer and team leader for the Partnerships with Academia and Research Institutions team in the Partnerships and UN Collaboration Division at FAO. I will be your moderator during this week, and I am looking forward to your contributions to the questions guiding the consultation. 
 
Kindly, when you make your contribution(s) remember to let us know the question(s) you are responding to.  

Best regards,

Justin
 

Challenges faced in rural development, food system are manyr and the varied and this may take long way in developping countries to bring up solutions to these challenges and the attainment of SDG in 2030.

Rural development are places where education is not pushed forward and they are very reluctant to use modern technology for either the development of their food system or development.

These rural areas population in their development firstly faces problem of energy acces. I actually in a rural area of Cameroon, it's almost 3 days we have done without electricity.

Secondly road accessibility, I have noticed that hight quantity of food, especially plantain are being produced in the locality, but the means by these products are being transported doesn't facilitate the arrival of these products in the market in good conditions.

Thirdly, acces to education, it's equally important for the development of the population, this education facilitate the rapid adaptation and growth in the use of modern technology.

Gender equality is also another problem. Where ladies are not following up studies up to a certain level they wish.

Hi all.

My comment is related to the point 5. Equity and inclusion, leaving no one behind.

While I believe a short window was available to the development practitioners to achieve SDGs, COVID not only set us back, but also shortened the window. So all decks on hand are required to address the issue of food, nutrition. livelihood and environment security, and digital agriculture along with social agripreneurship are two potent ways to go. I have the following concerns to flag to be addressed along the way:

 1. While use of digital tools in agriculture, be it simple data sharing to bid data to drone to sensors to AI and block chain, is great and needs to be pursued, how to ensure we do not exacerbate the digital-agriculture divide in rural areas? A lot of people may get left behind if we do not address this issue proactively as the well heeled and the aware will corner the cream. The ballooning of wealth of the IT czars during the pandemic while hordes of people thrown back into poverty is an ongoing example. 

The following two points refer to section B as well

2. While finding scalable, sustainable and inclusive ways to deliver the discoveries in agriculture for development us key, one aspect of small farmer capacitating which I feel is most important and is not getting enough attention is building their financial literacy. Once this is done, their adoption of improved technologies will improve and small farming as a business will materialize, thus even bringing down agricultural carbon footprint while ensuring development.

3. This one is a complicated human issue - how to collaborate, co-create, supplement and complement the efforts? Development of leadership skills of leaders of various organisations, public, private and civil society is a dire need, as there are very few around who can be called leaders. Many leaders only know the way to grow is to concentrate power and stepping on others in a mad zero sum game instead of co-expanding the pie. This wastes donor and public money, wastes time, and makes the world miss an opportunity to serve the poor nd marginalised in whose name the money is raised in the first place. May be the incentive structure needs to change - for example, if number of publications gets rewarded, there is tendency in scientific managers to corner all credit and a blind race to publish without application for real impact. What if leaders are measured and assessed in terms of how many leaders they produced? I have met NGOs and development leaders who proudly say they have been serving a community for nearly 20 or 30 years. My first question to them is why? and what happened? If they are trained to be real leaders, they will aim to make their beneficiaries self-sufficient, self-reliant and resilient, and not dependent on them just to secure more and continued funding for their own organization. We need to identify and support such local champions across Africa, Asia and other places for inclusive development. 

Hermant great insight.  Do you mean we have see over our management system of our leaders?!

Thanks Bigambia. Leaders of various projects, programs, initiatives have the power to make or mar things. With enormous powers comes enormous responsibility. 

The system gives them the power. But the system often lets the same leaders down by not supporting them, training them, equipping them with real leadership skills. Leadership is a lonely journey, and so the leaders bumble along, by the very nature of their job, protecting their chair, but harming the cause along the way. 

In the business world they have realized this issue and there are platforms like the CEOs clubs where the leaders feel safe, they share their vulnerabilities without being judged, without the usual fear of consequences, and they are better off for it. There is a dire need for something on those lines in the agriculture for development world. Otherwise the projects will continue to lose due to such effectiveness- and efficiency-leakages due to leadership failures. FAO-WFP are global thought leaders, and can do a lot in this space. I would even go as far as to say they have an obligation to do something in this space. A significant relook at the parameters of judging leadership performance may be a good area to look at. 

Regards,

Hemant

A thought - WFP has a pioneering accelerator for agribusinesses. May be a WFP-FAO A4D Leadership Academy that caters to all layers of leaders and champions in the governments, organisations, projects, businesses may help in hastening the global recovery and move towards achieving SDGs, especially in view of pandemic-led setback.    

I am sure many peers would have thoughts and contributions to make, I will be happy to contribute if such an initiative is planned. 

A very quiet second week of the consultations. However, good points raised on the challenges faced in rural development; and the issues around equity and inclusion and leaving no one behind, especially in the face of digital technologies that could potentially exacerbate the digital agriculture divide in rural areas. Also pointed out is the need to develop capacities of small-scale farmers in financial literacy, and strengthening leadership skills of leaders of various organisations, public, private, and civil society, to ensure inclusive development process.

Hello everyone! It's nice to meet you.  My name is Marisa Muraskiewicz and I work with the Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) Division at WFP Headquarters in Rome, Italy.  I'm currently collaborating with a team to develop WFP's new Strategic Plan (2022-2026). 

I'll be moderating this week's discussions and look forward to hearing your experiences and ideas around the consultation topics. Please don't forget to indicate which question you are responding to when you leave a comment. 

Thank you for your engagement and valuable insights - speak to you soon!

Best regards, 

Marisa 

Strengthening data and innovation is where research and development department of most rural areas in collaboration with organizations and enterprises must focus. 

But how farmers and rural areas are able to affought agricultural machinery mostly in developping countries?! We can count them. This is there is not an effective technology transfert. This causes leveraging homegrown agriculture problems and mostly production.

Thanks Marisa for the insights concerning the WFP's  innovation program. It is really interesting. We came up with a small prototype call AGMS have the function of measuring and controlling the growth of plants by farmers. This is a means for us to help our local farmers to have a good monitoring, control and evaluation of plants being closer or far.

For the hydroponics, I have not yet seen this technic in my country. Hoping this technic or technology is going to be part in Cameroon. 

Dear All,

Digital agriculture, be it simple use of internet, telephony or the use of drones, sensors, big data, AI and IoT,  is going to play a big part in future. But a challenge I see, in response to the questions C7 and C8 above, is to see how such interventions can be made successful and sustainable. Enormous amounts of money, effort and time gets wasted if they did not succeed. I have done extensive research in this field and developed a "A practical tool to enhance the chances of success of digital agriculture interventions for sustainable development in Africa and India". Please see my paper below. May be someone can further develop the idea and the tool so greater success can be achieved in digital agriculture efforts 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15427528.2021.1879335?journ…

Regards,

Hemant

This is my proposal for wholesome agricultural development in any prospective society. 

Dear All, 

My comment is related to question B with a focus on equity, inclusion, and leaving no one left behind. 

While both of FAO and WFP have a certain institutional memories and experiences to provide workable policy advice to governments and to implement project to pilot the approach in LDCs or lower middle income countries, both agencies have less experiences to deal with these challenges in middle income countries and mobilizing fund to pilot approaches in middle income countries is also a challenge.  Inclusion and equity remains as serious problem in middle income countries and left behind population falls far behind unless access to these populations are not prioritized.

In many development projects in LDCs, support to the most vulnerable, in particular youth, woman, and person with disability operationalize under " inclusion" policy however in middle income countries, prioritization of these vulnerable is one of the most important factors for hunger alleviation. On the other hand, most likely case host governments would prefer to focus on " poor" farmers despite of social vulnerabilities which might be more familiar way for both of FAO and WFP since both organizations have similar experiences in lower income countries.

Having said this, the challenge remains within organizations on how organizations can change our operations or shift way to move forward despite of relying on successful experience in other countries or existing institutional memories.    

Dear All! I am Sally from FAO, working on partnerships with UN agencies. I am excited to join as moderator for this week.  

Tomomi has added a very relevant entry on the challenges of including vulnerable people in middle income countries. Can anyone add their thoughts on how best to ensure equity, inclusion and LNOB in middle income countries?

Thanks, Sally

Question A:

• Impact of covid-19

The covid-19 impact seeks to transform the socio - economic models to the format of the digital technologies and information and communication technologies based product solutions. Thus the product solutions based on the conceptual frameworks of the blockchain and the digital financial services could feature as the necessary requirements of the public markets.

• Climate and environment

The effects of the climate change could be interlinked to the emerging technologies and the latest frontier markets of the regenerative agriculture. The study of the environment and the sector of agriculture could utilise new innovative ideologies product solutions based on the subject areas of the digital technologies and the artificial intelligence. Thus creating new versions of the business models and markets.

• Gender equality

Achieved

• Strengthening data and Innovation

New Innovative ideologies product solutions based on the subject areas of artificial intelligence and it's interlinkages to the science of the climate change and the technological tools and techniques of the regenerative agriculture, could be created. This would lead to the creation of new job opportunities and employment generation.

• Equity and inclusion: leaving noone behind

Creation of new innovations built in the subject areas and conceptual frameworks of accessibility and inclusive development and it's interlinkages to the agricultural sector.

Question B:

• No challenges being faced.

Question C:

• FAO and WFP would aim to contribute innovative ideologies research articles and product solutions based on the subject areas and conceptual frameworks of the regenerative agricultural sector.

• Creation of new Innovative ideologies product solutions based on the subject areas and conceptual frameworks of the regenerative agriculture would lead to a positive outcome.

• There would be no obstacles.

An example Innovative ideology product solution titled "Artificial intelligence and the food value chains" is created by myself, Ashwini Sathnur, which illustrates the objective of integrating the subject areas of the climate change and the food systems and food value chains. This innovative ideology product solution's definition documentation material is attached here, along with this post.

Artificial intelligence and the food value chains (1).pdf1.01 MB

A.  Impact of COVID 19.  

The impact of Covid 19 will also impact the climate and environment, gender equality and equity and inclusion.  Access to nutritious, sustainable food systems are key.

B. 

Now more than ever people need access to safe, nutritious, sustainable food and because of the impact of Covid, this is harder to achieve.  Additionally, funds available to support existing projects and implement new ones are at increased demand.  We must do more with less and because of this have to re-think what the MOST sustainable solutions are.

C6, 7 & 8.

There are over 32,000 edible plants in the world, with every country having hundreds (at least) of edible plants known to grow in them.  Yet, on a country level and world-wide, we only regularly consume a fraction of these.  Nutrition, particularly of young women and children must be a priority because if we reduce malnutrition and stunting, and all the disadvantages that these bring, then every intervention after that point will have far greater impact and require less resources.

Food Plant Solutions uses the worlds largest database of edible plants to identify the most nutritious food plants to grow in a country or region.  Many of these are Neglected and Underutilised Species (NUS) and most of them will have far superior nutritional profiles than commercially grown crops.

WFP and FAO should together recognise this resource and investigate how it can be used to strengthen and improve their existing programs and future nutrition based programs. 

Hand-outs, supplements etc. must only be a short-term answer for immediately dire situations.  The risk with these is that they can create dependency. Self-help projects that focus on empowering people with information about their local food plant resources need to be prioritised and driven by local communities.

Given the fraction of edible plants that every country regularly consumes and the potential in the thousands of food plants that we know so little about (for some it's as little as what country they grow in and their botanical name), WFP and FAO should implement programs that help to start to identify the nutritional profiles on these many thousands of plants.  Who knows how many 'superfoods' are yet to be discovered?

This is a far more cost effective approach than current methods of breeding new plants to fill dietary / nutritional imbalances.  First look at ALL the plants known to grow in a country to determine if there are already suitable plants.  Given the thousands that we know little about, it is highly likely that a suitable local plant can be identified.

This type of information must be in plain English for all (in the appropriate language), as per Food Plant Solutions work.

What can prevent such things from occurring are ideological opposing views that usually have vested interests, specifically a career based on plant breeding, etc. 

Dear group members,

Very pleased to be part of this group and to read all the interesting contributions made thus far. I'm particularly interested in the ways in which FAO and WFP seek to strengthen their partnership, given their complementary mandates, roles and actions. Establishing this SparkBlue joint consultation platform is an excellent way to identify synergies and build that partnership from the ground up - after all, sharing insights and knowledge is a very effective part of networking and partnering. The 2030 Agenda can only be achieved when people and agencies join hands, virtually and literally, so not just in boardroom meetings to discuss MoUs, but especially through intercollegiate dialogue and exchange.  

Thank you so much for this discourse. I appreciate your effort to curb the spiralling yet conquerable emerging threat in the contemporary world today.

I would like to challenge the idea of policy implementation/ formulation as our source of failure in the ldc,most of the policies have been tailored towards favouring a particular interests ... the elites ( these might be actors from inside or outsiders foreigner) while leaving the poor farmers on the ground.as a result of these structurally setup systems to make them poor despite their efforts. Why would one decide on what type of pesticides to provide for a particular xtry? Inorder to keep the selling,in most cases the pesticides could not work and leaves them in a deplorable codition,the farmers probably would not produce enough to carter for eveñ subsistence use. The idea here is to make them keep buying even food,and depend on these people,

Secondly we have a very rotten system of governance which play very dengerous games.they do not care about the civilians all they need is deals without thinking of the impact to the normal civilians on the ground. I don't know how you deal with such regimes and I'm afraid this might be a challenge to organization like wfp/ Fao who's interest n goals are based on holistic ground?

The last question ⁉️ how do you expect these farmers to grow in such environment like subsaharan region where alot of dangerous activities are taking place.Is it farming they will do or run away from bokoharam, Alshabab, we also have intertribal cyclic conflicts in Horn of Africa , a conflict which has been perpetuated by culture and deeply held up grievances that government seems to turn a blind eye onto.instead government elite have capitalized on the conflict while leaving the poor,hungry angry, and hopeless, poverty and climate not forgetting on this whole scenerio.

Dear Group, 

Many thanks for posting this fascinating topics for discussion. 

Please find below some considerations in response to some of the questions posed.

A. What do you think are critical long term, future shifts that are transforming how we think about rural development, food systems and hunger alleviation Especially in light of:

1. Impact of COVID 19

The implications of unprecedented crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated fragility of rural development and food systems in most of the developing countries. The fragility and high vulnerability of the systems were caused mainly by two factors:

- Limited or non-existent systems for social protection, insurance and other mitigation tools for addressing sudden disruption of incomes and food supplies;

and

- High vulnerability of supply and market networks, and transportation and logistics chains

Future forward-looking interventions should take into account the need to build sound social protection and insurance mechanisms, and sustainable locally-based networks that may offset, even if partially, the damages and impact of future shocks. To the extent possible the emphasis should be on reducing dependence on external factors, and building local networks and mechanisms. 

2. Climate and the Environment
 

In the absence of significant changes to current policies and practices, the climate change is going to pose new challenges of increasing frequencies of weather-induced disasters, and depletion of resources required for sustainable longer-term development. 

Each and every intervention should be designed in a manner that, at a minimum, is causing no further damage to the environment, and ideally, produce environmentally- friendly benefits.

3. Gender Equality and 5. Equity and inclusion, leaving no one behind.

The achievement of sustainable food systems and rural development is only possible through inclusive approaches ensuring that everyone's rights are exercized to the full extent. Gender equality is an essential element of these approaches, however, more needs to be done to ensure rights-based approaches benefiting all and addressing the needs of the most deprived.   

4. Strengthening Data and Innovation
 

Truly sustainable approaches need to take into account interconnections between development dimensions (environmental, economic, social, etc.), the need to ensure multi-sectoral approaches and achievement of policy coherence towards holistic and integrated development practices. The design, continuous monitoring and adaptive management of development interventions should be based on the analysis of evidence and data, piloting and testing the results of innovative approaches. The role of academia, research institutes is key to ensure comprehensive analysis of the development policies and approaches.

Kindest regards,

Serdar

يسعدصباحكم انا هنيدي حمشو من سوريا  محافظة السويداء.

انني سعيد جدا بهذه المشارة بين منظمة الاغذية والزراعة وأرى بانها خطوة ايجابية في النهوض في المجتمعات نعم هناك حاجة لمثل هذة المشورات لالتماس كافة العوائق التى تقف في طرق التنمية 

السؤال الأول جميع الفقارات مهمة والافظل رقم 4

سؤال رقم 6

 خلق مجتمع  متعافي الجميع يعمل في الاماكن التي تحقق التنمية المستدامةا  

Greetings community members,

Iam happy to be here again, Taking responsibility is everyone priorities.

2. Climate and the environment

Untill climate and the environment are normal then other things follow landscape deteriorated as drought persist temperature rise rain fall decreases trees cut down are gone without replacing desert fast expanding , Shortage of food on the rise etc All this attributes makes environment unfriendly hash, that's tent to make the vulnerable suffer the burden of this destruction.

In other to sustain the long term shift in the villages and remote and to alleviate poverty and  hunger WFP and FAO Most identify farmers and empowered them directly, provide storage facilities in the villages to store food items incase of natural disasters,war,etc to avoid famane 

Key challenges rural development are facing

1. Right to land ownership despite Aboundance of vargin farmland.

2. Access to modern farming technology.

3. Farming equipment.

4. Water for irrigation.

5. Inadequate power.

6.  Crops Processing machine.

7. Storage facilities.

8. Inadequate farming skills.

9 Insecurities,

10. Above all finance without it non of this will be achieved to impact. Etc.

As population increases in the rural areas hunger and poverty is the subject of everyone,How do I  put one square meal  a day on the table. The government of members nation expecially Africa region there are not doing enough,

6 WFP and FAO your impact to achieve outcome in future, 

You can create more than 100 millions jobs across members.

1. Discovered farmers and empowered them directly inturn the will employed.

2. Identify  and manage fertile land to bust agriculture to produce food crops that will create jobs across members nation,

_Storage facilities to store large volume of food for humanitarians needs, Natural disasters, war, drought, to avoid world famane, 

As we live in an uncertain world,

Thank you for your insight Tomo  yes You need to ensure storage facilities to store large volume of food stuff, because the future is uncertain 

Thank you for raising these important questions and for inviting me into your discussion. As a clinical psychologist, mental health advisor and researcher my answer to all points would be to bring the mental health and behavioural health aspects more into the picture of these issues and solutions. No plans or solutions will be really successful unless people change their intrinsic thinking, daily habits and behaviors that is creating the issues related to climate and environment, hunger and unsustainable choices in the first place. 

We need to educate people, across age groups, socio-demograpic background, culture and geography about the interconnectedness of our choices, actions and daily habits and the health and wellbeing of our communities, our food systems, the environment and the overall planet. Governments, people, communities and organizations needs to be held accountable for selfish or unsustainable choices - but also acknowledged and rewarded for sustainable choices, for showing environmental responsibility, for sharing and caring. People's inner motivation for sustainable change needs to be strong, as external reward is not enough. I think knowledge sharing, renewable innovations, transparency, trust, empathy, equality and inclusion are important keys in this.

We still have enough resources for everyone on this planet, but we need a more fair and emphatic distribution of what we already have as well as a more sustainable production and consumption of future resources. The Covid-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated our interconnectedness, and also what is possible to overcome when our minds are directed in the same direction and by the same kind of motivation. We have seen the positive environmental impacts of different behavioural choices (or lack of choices) from this. A holistic approach, where inter-diciplinary and inter-organizational collaborations are the norm and where no-one is left behind, is the way forward to a more sustainable planet for all. 

يسعدني ان اكونامعكم مرة اخرى لما ارى لهذالعمل أهمية عظمة في تحقيق النموالاقتصادي والاجتماعي ورفع من مستوى المعيشة  لذا اقترح بي جمع المعلومات والانتقال إلى العمل الميداني  

Hi everyone,

I would like first to thank FAO and WFP in submitting this consultation of this highly important subject and would like to contribute the following:

1. Climate change, poverty, land degradation and efficient use of land will be a determinate factor in that regard. FAO and WFP should increase cooperation with other organizations working to tackle and alleviate the effects of those factors. Education and training for farmers and in cooperation with governments is highly essential.  Finding creative and practical ways for the supply chain in highly needed to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic or any future pandemics or disruption for the supply chain.

2. The supply chain must be evaluated during and after the pandemic to establish effective measures to strengthen it and find ways and other alternatives. There also have to be an important role for cooperatives. They must be introduced where they are not established and strengthened in other locations. Cooperative play an important role in effective supply chain and reduce costs dramatically for farmers and land owners and deliver quality items for the customers.

3. FAO and WFP cooperation will be a synergy in food security and rural development. Both organizations should increase and strengthen its regional offices in all continents. This is to reach out directly to rural areas, land owners and farmers and in coordination and cooperation with States. This direct contact is highly essential to introduce new technologies, raising awareness, education, monitoring land degradation and early warning for climate change affecting arable lands.  This will also be highly essential in drought, lack of food and the risk of famines.

Thank you

Ali

Hello everyone and welcome to week 6 of the consultation! My name is Divine Kalenda and I work with the Research, Assessment, and Monitoring (RAM) Division at WFP Headquarters.
I will be moderating this thread over the next few days and look forward to getting your views, experiences, and knowledge around the consultation topics. I will remind you to please indicate the question to which you are responding when you leave a comment.

Thank you for your active participation!

Hi the below is from Nutrition colleague, 

Here are some thoughts that seem important regarding “Meeting emergency food, nutrition and essential needs”. The focus is more on Nutrition foods and emergencies;

• There are needs to define which nutrition foods we want to distribute to beneficiaries in the coming 3-4 years. This includes product specifications, cost, production capacity and location, packaging and estimated quantity;
• What are WFP position and strategy on local production of nutritious foods (where, Q/C, cost, etc.) and how to move forward and impacts of our supply chain?
• What are the capacities of Governments to manage local production of nutritious foods and distribution and what could be WFP support for supply chain capacity strengthening (factory, Q/C, market shaping, etc.) activities;
• Which kind of private sector partnerships do we see? What could be the role of private sector regarding local production and distribution of products (markets, product advertising, cost and sustainability, etc.). How to shift from beneficiary to a customer mindset?
• What is the space for distributing fresh foods and what are the main supply chain challenges?
• How WFP could reinforce the value chain of nutritious foods?
• During the first weeks of an emergency how can we improve the supply chain of fresh foods markets in country to give access to affected people to a good nutritious foods (a change compare to BP5 ?).

In response to Serdar Bayryyev 's comment and others on climate change, please find below inputs from climate change colleagues in FAO. 

Climate change is considered as one of the main drivers affecting agri-food systems, as well as the state of natural resources by FAO. It is expected to accelerate hunger and poverty in rural areas. Adapting to the increasing number of weather-related natural disasters and longer-term impacts of climate change and reducing GHG emissions associated with global agri-food systems, makes these systems more resilient and is one of the overarching goals for the Organization (FAO Strategy on Climate Change, 2017).

In line with a recent evaluation of FAO’s support to climate action (SDG 13), FAO aims at mainstreaming climate change action in its policies, programs and operations at all levels. This includes, inter alia, the mainstreaming of climate risks into programming and the project cycle as a part of the FAO’s environmental and social safeguards system, the 45% reduction of GHG emissions by 2030 and other environmental benefits associated with FAO’s operations (FAO Corporate  Environmental  Responsibility Strategy 2020-2030), as well as other measures.

Mohamedweli

Thank you for inviting me this important consultation.  The following is at least my first contribution to add the consultation.

1. What do you think are critical long term, future shifts that are transforming how we think about rural development, food systems and hunger alleviation Especially in light of:

1. Impact of COVID 19

Covid 19 led to large economic losses due to lockdowns to prevent diseases transmission, closing down most of services and a lot of people lost their work. This affected household purchasing power.  The affected families often lack regular income and cannot afford to buy the minimum basket essential for family survival.

2. Climate and the Environment

Climate change is having serious impact more flooding and recurrent droughts. We have increasing frequency of extreme events of drought and floods, both of which are devastating in our food production systems as climate disaster occur and really influence our food production. There is a lot of other challenges when it comes proving food for ever growing population, specifically challenges of pollution of greenhouse gases, desertification, loss of biodiversity, food loss, food waste, pests and disease,. There is need to overcome these challenges   
 

1. Gender Equality 

Consequence of hunger that led to higher malnutrition rates among women and girls. Giving women better access to land, technology other agriculture resources could reduce the number of hungry people. Women earn less than men for doing the same job and women are more likely than men to spend additional income on their children’s health and Education. Women produce the majority of food, and they are the primary care givers for children and other family members.
 

2. Strengthening Data and Innovation

There is need for innovation to establish a framework of block chain to develop for agriculture opportunities and challenges using IOT sensors generating data or farmers storing data, distribution of grown crops to the food processing companies in an online system for creating a market place where suppliers can connect with the buyers and bid on certain projects based on quality. Building block chain that is benefitting all network participants with a safer, smarter more sustained food ecosystem. Using big data tools to predict future trends such as prices for specific crops in specific areas. Establishing appropriate types of ICT-enabled by connecting people and network as digital advisory technologies in rural.

3. Equity and inclusion, leaving no one behind.
    Those whose needs are reflected in the above Agenda include all children, youth, persons with disabilities (of whom more than 80% live in poverty), older persons, indigenous peoples, refugees and internally displaced persons and migrants. for having to create  a space where every human being  from all backgrounds could come together through program investment of food production  in partnership between farmers, rural poor youth who will be engaged as farm laborers while older persons, women, persons with disabilities will be engaged in  a network of  marketing of the harvested products for sustainable employment generation. There is need to enable investment platform where everybody can become partner or shareholder by contributing little money so that he can receive commission after every harvest or as yearly income  Providing them with appropriate skills and transitioning them into job and self-employment opportunities by bringing youth, farmers and local business men together in network marketing to discover financial freedom of life changing food production.

We need to think deeply not only how we produce but also the processing and the consumption of food so that we tackle waste materials coming from our food to be recycled and we create much more tailored precise solutions about improved genetics, soil, nutrition, water, pests and diseases in more sustainable livestock, crops systems with high functional diversity and enhancing local human resources, knowledge, skills that can be actors of change in a good rural economy of food systems that will achieve food an nutrition security for this growing world population in a significant contribution to rural economy and social development through affordable food prices in a system that ensures environmental sustainability for future generation. This will need a transformative change of the whole current food system.

2. What are the key challenges you are facing in rural development, food systems and alleviating hunger?

From malnutrition , chronic hunger and micronutrient deficiencies.

The key challenges we are facing are the world growing population that bring increase demand for food and increase of food prices.  Rural communities face challenges related to demographic changes, workforce development, capital access, infrastructure, health, land use and environment, food losses, food waste, lack of resource, lack of access to nutritious food at affordable prices and lack of motivation or knowledge. Rural urban migration due to food supply insufficiency because of low or high variable weather conditions.

3. In that future, what role should organizations like FAO and WFP play, together?

Organizing to establish a global farms bringing together Everybody farmers, corporates and other community members into one boat for coming up to solutions for creating food production opportunities combining Agricultural technologies and trading services for institutional –grade execution across global farms corporate solution that helps world’s existing farm land to increase food production and mitigate climate change risks to improve efficiency and optimize Agricultural working capital. 

My statement.It is great we could assign some figures  of Generation of Carbon,Nitrogen,Methane and related gases generation,for each of the product which we are using in nature utmost.

The rationale has to be put to communities of practice every where.

We would like to use less of fusel foil  oils,and Coal.May be reduce it by 50%.Country wise and region wise-use and reductions proposed have to reach the civil society.

Water is precious,during last 70-80 years water is stored and used for crops.Now that water has to be equally distributed -in all the areas- even in dry season[this is a theory ],disasters may occur .

Can we spread the awareness to keep water in storage during whole year all along the river flow area-in storage ponds.

A.2

Can we stop climate change? Are natural and artificial resources related to natural environment the same for all?Are cultural  /anthropological outlooks on welfare and environment generalizable? Who decides the what and why of elementary survival natural assets for humans?

No general concern with equal human dignity, environmental issues and food and health resources despite formal declarations.

A global review of intervention economic policies by all decisors is needed.

Hello dear moderators and colleagues, I am Ibrahim Ahmed from SUDAN, and I am very happy to part of this group, I believe it very important for the future of sustainable development and food security.

Regarding Questions B:

The most critical challenges we are facing is the climate change impacts on farming systems and Agricultural production (the fluctuations of rain, deterioration of lands,  temperature rises), besid the different Development approach used in development interventions (in the same area) which leads  community passive participation and that affected the sustainability.

Lack of microfinance institutions and the barriers to access them.

High losses in harvest which affect the economy of rural household..

The shift of WFP programs from relief to development will complement and contribute significantly to the sustainable development goals. 

FAO and WFP can significantly contribute to achieving zero hunger and perfect social inclusion by focusing more on capacity building, awareness and supporting researchers in climate change adaptation and coping strategies. 

Hi colleagues,

Thank you for inviting us to think and brainstorm around these important issues. The topics surely deserve a more detailed analysis, so this is only a very tiny contribution:

A) I think it is critical to think about rural development, food systems and hunger alleviation in a system approach very much linked to other critical issues, especially -but not limited to- poverty eradication. This is always key, but especially now with COVID-19 pushing back 120 million people into extreme poverty according to the 2021 Financing for Sustainable Development Report (and 150 million at the end of 2021 according to other estimations). A big part of the 120 or 150 million poor people will also suffer/is already suffering hunger, making its alleviation even more complex, and as it is said in FAO, we should prevent the health crisis becoming a hunger crisis.

Other shifts that are already transforming the way we think about these matters, and in my view should prevail in the years to come, is the growing recognition to the number of actors involved on them, including cooperatives and civil society organizations, among others. They should definitely be involved in all the discussions around rural development, food systems and hunger alleviation, and not only to seek their views and hear their concerns, but also to consider them as key actors for development and decision makers. Considering their first-hand exposure to these challenges, it is not only strategic to give them spaces to raise their voices, but also to upscale their roles as agents of change, especially because they have a vast realm of good practices that others can learn from. Their good practices in the areas of rural development, food systems and hunger alleviation can be upscaled through mechanisms such as south-south cooperation, helping others to build capacities to overcome these challenges (this is not a shift, just a suggestion to be considered).

In the particular case of food systems linked to climate change and the environment, there has been a shy shift in the latest years related to the promotion of food systems that are environmentally sustainable, such as those from indigenous peoples. In many cases, they may not be sufficient to produce at massive scale, but that should not prevent policy makers and decision takers from recognizing the incredible value of these systems and of approaches such as agroecology, promote them and ensure these sustainable models are considered when talking about food systems that don’t create damage to the environment.

2) N/A

3) Overall, FAO and WFP should work more closely together, which at the end of the day makes more sense for member countries. I have heard many country representatives confused because, for example, one month they received a mission from FAO on X matter, and the following month, another mission from WFP on the same matter (of course, this was before COVID-19). It goes without saying that no one in FAO knew about the WFP mission and vice versa, meaning that the actions from both organizations where isolated and not related. Working more closely together will not only be easier for the countries (especially for their follow-up to the Organizations' actions), but also more effective: by working together and combining resources, results will have a greater impact. This becomes especially more important in the years to come due to the economic recession worldwide due to COVID-19, which will limit the availability of resources. 

Thank you.

I think sustainable development is the key in the long run ,In order to achieve the goal of sustainable development, we must take food as the focus of sustainable development ,Food is not only the guarantee of human security, but also the basis of human sustainable development ,All countries in the world must attach importance to food production, encourage young people and young women engaged in food cultivation and give them strong financial support.

Encourage the transformation from scientific and technological research to food research, strictly control the types of games, individuals and national departments engaged in data technology research for profit ,Some countries take data technology to make money as the purpose, take data technology to develop military as the purpose, and do not pay attention to grain planting ,I hope that all countries should attach importance to and develop food cultivation .

It is very important to establish a close partnership in the process of promoting the sustainable development goals,The establishment of long-term permanent partners is the guarantee to achieve the sustainable development goals, and ensuring the popularization of food planting is the basis to achieve the sustainable development goals.

It is the hope of the world for young people to grow food ,Supporting young people, giving more money to young people and young women to engage in food cultivation is the basis of ensuring food stability and food security, and promoting global food harvest security.

I support young people who are engaged in food cultivation as the most glorious and most accomplished cause in the world !

Let's unite closely and give priority to agricultural development and food planting under the banner of the United Nations !

Thank you !

On behalf of Islamic Relief Worldwide, please see the following input to the strategic planning.  

1. What do you think are critical long term, future shifts that are transforming how we think about rural development, food systems and hunger alleviation Especially in light of:

Review and refocus the work plan for the SG’s high level task force on famine prevention – focusing not only on famine, but on food and livelihoods insecurity more broadly, and crucially, focusing on the drivers of food insecurity and unlocking political will to address them. Unfortunately, this has been the case. The HLTF, for example, is focused mainly only on preventing IPC5 outbreaks in 2021.

2. What are the key challenges you are facing in rural development, food systems and alleviating hunger?

The main challenge is that there are huge needs on the ground compared to available resources.  

When we talk about hunger it is not just about rural development. Cities need an approach and focus too and this should be explored. This can for example take a livelihood or supply chain approach.

FAO and WFP need more coherence. The current initiative is great and recognises that communities, in terms of their lives, do not recognise the artificial divide that FAO and WFP present, notwithstanding the obvious value for money question. We would like to see more joint coherent strategy documents, funding approaches and sharing of staff and assets. This togetherness will help tackle the current challenges and debate around famine prevention but also the journey of communities towards resilience.

Invest in alleviating poverty and hunger, in giving people the tools they need to build more resilient futures for themselves, sustainably adapt to climate change and guard against the shocks of Covid-19.  Enable people produce own food as much as they can; need shift from general food distribution to agriculture production. Long-term investment is far more cost-effective in the long run. This will help to prevent future conflict and displacement, and prevent future hunger and famines.

It is, therefore, vital to develop more appropriate models in protracted context to increase livelihoods/development/ resilience. This may mean increasing the use of more cash transfers where appropriate; increase development space where appropriate for people and communities can come together.

3. In that future, what role should organizations like FAO and WFP play, together?

Leverage more multi-stakeholder coordination like support for ICVA open letter – via RG3 group

Build/further analyse expertise in using graduation model to apply this to conflict/fragile contexts – NGOs can help with this!

6. What outcome should WFP and FAO achieve together to make an impact in this future?

Reinforce asset creation between FAO and WFP. FAO can still support with production input and capacity building while WFP can support with conditional cash. In Yemen, for example, more cash vouchers. Rather than food vouchers, WFP can give cash vouchers and facilitate supplies from traders in areas where markets are working and food is available so that people can choose to buy their food; both cash transfers and vouchers can be an option.

Better coordination is also needed between UNHCR & WFP. The urgent needs of displaced population and host communities are not being met. There are no finance service providers in many of the places where people are displaced. They do not have the right paperwork in those cases we use third party / local traders to take cash to distribution sites

Based on improved analysis of role of graduation modelling in fragile/conflict affected settings, set out some models based on best practice – planning exit strategy!

7. What would contribute positively to achieving that outcome? What events and responses would stand in the way of such an outcome?”

Increase support for building triple nexus - particularly conflict sensitivity / peacebuilding needed. Most of the people facing starvation are in countries affected by large-scale, protracted conflict. FAO and WFP must advocate to governments to enhance efforts to work with all parties to end conflict and violence in all its forms. The UN Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire must be immediately heeded. Humanitarian assistance must be allowed to reach communities without barriers or impediments.

Following ‘do no harm’ principle, humanitarian assistance delivered to vulnerable people in highly contested areas must be seen as neutral assistance to ensure the safety of frontline staff of local implementing partners. Food aid packages that are, for instance, bearing logos of WFP or aid logo/flag of another party to the conflict in opposition-held areas that is possibly being targeted with the support of that specific party to the conflict would be deemed problematic, high-risk and not safe to the local implementing partners.  Repackaging the food aid bags without the sensitive logos or even without declaring them to be from WFP will help ensure the safety of the frontline staff.

Dear group, follow some ideas to contribute to the discussion:

>> A4 - A holistic Innovation Governance program is needed to avoid missing digital opportunities to unlock the power of existing data (the result of new digital technologies and the massive use of data), while mitigating digital waste with unaccounted data, redundant and unnecessary (acquired, stored, processed, analyzed, managed, manipulated, recovered, transmitted or destroyed), thus fostering comprehensively sustainable production, resilient to climate and political changes and, therefore, ultimately contributing to the survival of our specie.

>> C6/7 - Have an innovation and digital technology governance strategy, that is, use agile governance mechanisms to go beyond legal/regulatory issues or even the structuring of programs and projects, and truly encourage the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence as an instrument of course correction and a significant change in the protection of the environment and equity among human beings (especially in developing countries - in the case of my region: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, as well as, in my own country, Brazil). Being examples:

Conflict resolution to pave the minimum stable environment.

Establishment of clear goals for solving more recurrent, common and structuring problems so that the value employed can be effectively maximized. However, regional characteristics must be considered even within the same country, so targeted local solutions cannot be ruled out and must be the target of an evolution of the program's maturity in addition to the steps described above. Thus, a well-organized agenda with a continuous long and medium term plan must be instituted in collaboration between FAO/WFP, which must also have concrete measures that deliver short-term results.

Foster inversion in investments and financing for local farming sectors to the detriment of large conglomerates and rich countries. Well-managed and anticipated funds for assistance. Creation of a contingency reserve for cases of global crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Improvement in general monitoring systems using robust AI in real time, advancing in systems for the detection of disasters and resilient response plans aiming to minimize the impacts resulting from natural disasters and due to human neglect - protecting the vulnerable and assisting the entire system safeguarding everyone under conditions of food insecurity.

A precise management of data that allows accuracy, timing, quantity and correct recipient for decision making, whether they are people, machines or information systems. More harmful than the unused data, are those that give you wrong information or do not consider the knowledge of local producers. Positively being able to be avoided through correct data governance in an innovation program.

Thank you for the opportunity and congratulations to all engaged,

João Emmanuel Pessoa.

Good morning and thank you all for your thoughtful engagement in FAO-WFP consultation!

The consultation is now closed. We are looking and will revert soon on the last input received over the last few days. We are also preparing with our FAO friends the conclusions of this consultation. It will be shared with you all on the Sparkblue platform.   

We believe in the power of scanning the horizon and thinking out of the box and we are grateful for your time and ideas in doing so.

But the ball does not stop here. These findings will be shared and discussed further with our constituencies and then reflected into our planning processes. 

Thanks again for your contributions and helping us tackling hunger! 

Guillaume