Beijing - The crucial role of innovation, partnership and communication in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically in areas related to FAO’s mandate, as well as for the implementation of the FAO China Country Programming Framework (CPF) 2016 – 2020, was at the center of the discussion during the recently organized retreat by FAO China.

Bringing together close to 30 participants from FAO China office, as well as colleagues from Headquarters and DPR Korea office, the team identified challenges and opportunities for using innovative approaches in implementing the new CPF which reflects the uniqueness of China and its ever increasing role on the international geo-political scene.  “The retreat served as a platform to identify gaps in pushing forward the implementation of CFP in innovative ways. The in-depth discussion on resource mobilization, partnership and communication helped participants understand the challenges and opportunities we are facing,” says Vincent
Martin, FAO Representative in China. “All the colleagues were able to grasp four priority areas of CFP and the significence of innovation. Mutual understanding and effective communication is essential for FAO China to realize the ultimate development goals in 2020. ”

 “The retreat served as a platform to identify gaps and generate innovative and creative thinking as well as foster a new spirit within the team. In-depth discussions took place on the role FAO can play in this challenging and constantly evolving environment. Innovation is indeed spreading in all spheres of the society including in the agriculture and rural sectors where new ways of connecting smallholder farmers to markets are becoming possible thanks to the availability of new technologies and smart devices,” says Vincent Martin, FAO Representative in China. “together, we were able  to better understand the necessity of embracing innovation in our daily activities and everybody showed great enthusiasm.  

Partnership and Innovation, FAO China’s future focus   

The Chinese President Xi Jinping called for making innovation the pivot of development in the country. In that regard, FAO China has identified innovation as a key pillar of its CPF 2016-2020, to meet the expectations of the government and various partners of China, as well as to grasp the opportunities in this fast developing middle income country.

FAO China has set up up an innovation lab, named AgLab Cx, which brings together a variety of eclectic partners and expertise, including the Ministry of Agriculture of China, Social innovators, University, consumers, etc  to foster innovation in  all areas of work. The lab provides a space for engaging the government, young people, technologists, private sector and city society in problem solving, and it is dedicated to experimentation, prototyping, and development of innovative projects in the field of sustainable agricultural development and food security. The lab brings together actors involved in food and agricultural systems who want to solve a problem and those who have the capacity to solve it technically and financially, for interdisciplinary collaboration and co-creation, with a people-centred approach.

 In May 2017, FAO China successfully held a public event on food loss and waste in Shanghai, which started FAO’s journey for innovation by promoting inclusive and sustainable food system in China.   

One month later, an Innovation Lab (AgLab CX) Session on Reducing Food Loss and Waste in China was also held in Beijing, co-organized with Tsinghua University. This session has been another important experiment where participants from international organizations, government, academia, media and private sector had a lively and open discussion and draw on collective wisdom under the guidance of experts and mentors, explore prototypes and develop innovative tools, to identify solutions for reducing food loss and waste along the entire food supply and consumption value chain.  

During the 2017 China Poverty Reduction International Forum on 26 May co-hosted by FAO, the International Poverty Reduction Centre in China, the China Internet Information Centre (CIIC), ADB and World Bank, FAO China released a video named Think Innovatively For Poverty Reduction together with CIIC, which urges to reduce poverty through innovative ways such as e-commerce, story-telling sessions, online live broadcasts and celebrity support, in the Internet Plus era. The event attracted broad media coverage and over 100 million viewed the China Central TV (CCTV) video news report. The video has been played over 420 thousand times, and the message on the video has been read 1.693 million times.

As a next step, the innovation lab on poverty reduction knowledge sharing will be held in September, featuring a story-telling session of six poverty reduction best practices and an innovation lab to prototype knowledge sharing with new media tools such as cartoons, micro videos and mobile games for replication.