Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Re: What are the barriers and opportunities for scientists and other knowledge holders to contribute to informing policy for more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems?

First of all, it is a crucial issue that needs a contribution from all concerned parties. It is therefore, I need to highlight the following points:

In general, particularly from the developing countries like East Africa, the policy making processes are driven or twisted to the interests of the political parties on the power. Therefore, it could say that others have limited policy influencing power.

There are also specific challenges that face scientists and other knowledge holders to effectively participate in agri-food system policy making processes.

Challenge 1: Lack of sufficient funding for conducting studies to generate relevant quality and reliable data for policy making

Challenge 2: Lack of consistent data from different institutions on the same issues-agri-food systems. There is a common challenge that great variation among the institutions on the quantitative results related to agri-food systems particularly the government structures seemingly come up with the biased results which distort the realities on the ground. Therefore, this might be a difficult task for scientists to prove or disprove as it would be time taking and costlier

Challenge 3:Data Analysis and synthesis problem: In most cases, based on my observation, scientists and other knowledge holders , the practice of data analysis style is mainly focused on simple variables for academic exercises which left off complex variables which have significant role on the policy designing

Challenge 4: Lack of producing tailored policy recommendation: It is usually observed that scientists and other knowledge holders provide blanket recommendations either taken form literature review or coping from other similar countries policies without digesting or distilling relevant to their countries.

Challenge 5: Disagreement among scientists on some issues: For instance, the practice of GMO foods is not favored by many scientists; in this case, it creates confusion for policy makers as it might be difficult to get into which one is right or wrong  

Related to opportunities,  the existing digitalization and global system need to flourish the knowledge economy which gives a wide opportunity for scientists to exercise their practical experience or knowledge.

Best Regards,

Shirega Minuye, Senior Researcher