Knowledge activity

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as heat stress, droughts and floods. This could cause crop and livestock losses and increase food insecurity and vulnerability. East Africa is categorized as the most vulnerable global region to climate variability and change. Climate smart agricultural (CSA) is an integrative approach for transforming agriculture that offers unique opportunities to meet the multiple objectives of improving food and nutrition security, enhancing adaptation to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions at a local scale. »

Urban food systems are becoming increasingly important as a way of feeding the world’s growing urban population. In the session on urban food systems, Nicky Pouw from the University of Amsterdam urged participants to build in circular economy objectives and become more socio-economically viable and sustainable in order to grow urban food systems. She pointed out that the contribution by urban agriculture is vital to poor urban dwellers, but limited in scale due to the limited space in cities and the inefficiency of urban agriculture. She added that Dutch policies should focus more on regional rural-urban interfaces to support urban food systems. »

Despite its nutritious value and capacity to provide a livelihood for many in the developing world, fish are surprisingly missing from strategies for food security. The afternoon discussion session, “Capture fisheries, aquaculture and food security”, sought to address the “orphan status” of fish and explore ways in which this nutritious protein can be moved up the food agenda. »

Carrying out research through multi-stakeholder partnerships, such as in the Global Challenges Programme (GCP) and Applied Research Fund (ARF) research projects, is relatively new, both in the Netherlands and its partner countries in the Global South. Knowledge co-creation is defined as joint learning and knowledge exchange processes through which actors create and negotiate new knowledge. It corresponds with the idea that not only scientific knowledge is relevant to finding solutions to persistent and ‘wicked’ problems such as food security, but that knowledge from other actors, such as farmers, the private sector and policymakers, is also important. Furthermore, bringing together different perspectives allows for knowledge that is not only scientifically reliable, but is also accepted and applicable in different social contexts. »

Now that development policy is increasingly looking to the private sector for solutions, the question of how to achieve inclusiveness in business development to enhance the food security of smallholder producers and poor consumers is becoming more important. Inclusive business models are presented as a solution, a way in which companies can include societal objectives in their way of working. However, these models have yet to succeed. This was the central dilemma posed in the session on “Inclusive business development for food security”. »

With malnutrition rampant in many parts of the world, specific interventions are needed to promote healthy diets. This session on “Nutrition and consumption” focused on the preferences of local consumers and made the case for promoting “local foods”, which can be added to diets to diversify consumption patterns. However, promoting local foods to people at risk and the general population comes with both nutritional benefits and risks, which need to be explored. In parallel, the implications of various interventions for local and national value chain development also need to be explored. »