COVID-19 Virtual round table – May 8, 2020

Following up on the first virtual round table a second meeting on the Covid-19 response was held to discuss the proposed four Communities of Practice that emerged as commonly identified focus areas in the first meeting. The goal of this meeting was to make these CoPs concrete, discuss how they are organized and the following steps to take. Since the last meeting, conveners and co-conveners from the participating organizations were identified. Instead of four areas of work, three CoPs were now proposed. The Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP), MinFA and GAIN will participate in all CoPs to coordinate, organize support and ensure coherence.

Community of Practice 1&2: Markets, supply chains & nutritious foods (convener: GAIN)

Because of lagging registrations for the CoP focusing on nutrition and the general interlinkages between CoPs a proposal was made to combine these first two areas of work. Convener for this CoP is GAIN, who also ensures coherence between the three CoPs with activities in CoP 1&2 functioning as a central axis. The suggestion for this CoP was to start by investigation if any joint actions can be built. An inventory of country overlap and resources would be needed to start this off. Next steps for this CoP were to organize a meeting with organizations that have an on the ground presence that can develop joint actions. At this moment the CoP participants are: GAIN, WUR, ICCO, 2SCALE, SNV, RVO.

Community of Practice 3: Finance & outreach (convener: NpM)

NpM has taken up the role of convener fort his group. The CoP was in the starting phase and has a meeting planned in the following week to further determine the scope of work and action. Participants in the CoP are NpM, WUR, ICCO, 2SCALE, RVO, SNV, Agriterra.

Community of Practice 4: Digital solutions (convener: 2SCALE)

Similarly, this group was in its start-up phase with 2SCALE taking the lead as convener. A meeting is planned for the following week to determine what the targets of the group will be and how these digital activities of different participants can be combined. Participants in this group are: 2SCALE, WUR, SNV, GAIN, RVO.

Analysis group

Finally, the set-up of an analysis group was also discussed but the scope of such an exercise would have to be further discussed. A great need for information, analyzing impacts on food systems, was acknowledged by participants. Many organizations have already made a start. WUR for instance already produced a study of Covid-19 impacts on eighteen countries and was working on a series of rapid assessments on different sectors. GAIN produces bi-weekly analysis of Covid impacts, and 2SCALE has also published results from a survey among its partners.

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