Knowledge activity

On February 1, 2018, The Broker, supported by the F&BKP, organized a workshop to conclude its project on conflict sensitive Food and Nutrition Security programming in fragile settings. Bringing together policymakers, researchers and practitioners working on food security in fragile settings, this workshop served to share the lessons learned, present the tool for conflict sensitivity, and discuss ways forward for integrating conflict sensitivity and stability into FNS programming. »

The Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) recently organized a knowledge sharing meeting on inclusive agri-business (IAB) strategies in Nairobi, Kenya. The theme of the afternoon session was Connecting research with policy and practice. Please find here the report and video impression of the meeting. »

Sufficient and healthy food for the booming African cities is a huge challenge. Dutch agri-food companies already play a significant role in the increasing worldwide demand for (fresh) food produce. On January 16, 2018, the F&BKP and MVO Nederland organized the second meeting of the “Innovation Network Feeding Cities” to facilitate sharing of experiences in practice, matchmaking of ideas and people, and looking for improvement of the enabling institutional environment. »

“Inclusive Business Models offer opportunities for economic and social development for certain groups, but they are not effective as means to poverty alleviation”. That finding was presented by Guus van Westen (Utrecht University), coordinator of the Follow the Food project. This entails one of the nine research consortia funded within GCP-2, that were all present during their midterm meeting in Kenya from January 15 till 19. »

On November 1, 2017, NWO-WOTRO together with the Food & Business Knowledge Platform offered a training to GCP consortia on how to write and tell stories of change. The training was set up to enhance the skills of GCP researchers to identify and present their research insights to various target audiences. Several stories of change were developed after the training and published on the project pages. »

What can food and nutrition security (FNS) interventions contribute to transforming conflict and promoting stability? Half of the world’s hungry live in contexts of fragility, where violent conflict has destroyed livelihoods, farms, and capital, driving up the price of food. Meanwhile, high food insecurity in these contexts greatly increases the chance of violence returning. Thus, food security programming has a unique role to play in the prevention of conflict. The afternoon session on “Food security, conflict and resilience” sought to draw on lessons from FNS interventions to highlight their interaction with the key drivers of conflict and stability. »