Nominate the Agrofood Broker of the Year 2018!

It is that time of the year again! The nomination round for the Agrofood Broker of the Year Award 2018 is open. Since last year, the Food & Business Knowledge Platform annually awards a professional in the field of Food and Nutrition Security (FNS), who has undertaken significant brokering activities. Starting today, you can nominate someone who has been actively and enthusiastically connecting actors to align policy and/or practices with knowledge (development) in order to contribute to FNS in 2018.

The nomination round has been closed on November 19, 2018. Soon, the three final cadidates will be announced and an online voting poll will be opened.

In December 2017, the Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP) handed out the Agrofood Broker of the Year Award for the first time. The winner, Addis Teshome (IFDC) was merited for his work on the 2SCALE portfolio of public-private partnerships in Ethiopia, which was developed under his leadership. He was honoured for “bringing key actors together to discuss how to move the development of critical value chains forward”. This year, Addis Teshome will be joining the jury to elect his successor.

Again this year, the nominee should have contributed significantly to FNS through a leading role in processes of joint knowledge development exchange and/or use. For example by facilitating innovative knowledge development or ensuring demand articulation from policy and/or practice; or by composing synthesized knowledge overviews, practical recommendation or guides that were used, discussed and shared with (local) stakeholders. All in all, the nominee is someone who bridges different sectors in the field of FNS through connecting, improving, sharing and implementing knowledge and innovations. This professional can work in a private, knowledge, civil society or policy organization, business or institution.

Suggestions for a nominee can be submitted by completing this form until November 19, 2018. From the list of nominees, three finalists will be appointed by the jury, consisting of Addis Teshome and two members of the F&BKP network. Beginning December, the three final candidates will be announced. During the whole month of December, the public can vote for their winner via an online poll created by the F&BKP.

The winner will be awarded during a special event of the F&BKP in January, on which more information will follow. The jury will be there to announce the winner and award the price, which will consist of a small financial contribution to conduct a knowledge activity with the F&BKP.

For the selection of the Agrofood Broker of the Year, the jury will take several aspects into consideration. The nominee should:

• Link people and organizations with relevant knowledge to improve knowledge;
• Organize processes to co-create knowledge;
• Improve research uptake;
• Translate knowledge into practice and/or policy;
• Connect research and policy/practical actors to finetune and improve their activities;
• Stimulate the use of knowledge;
• Focus on the field of food and nutrition security and poverty reduction;
• Highlight relevant new knowledge developments, or deepens current knowledge;
• Support the articulation of future knowledge questions;
• Broker innovative, inspiring, cutting-edge and/or unusual knowledge.