Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are accepting submissions on good practices from Europe and Central Asia in digital agriculture. 

This call is the first phase of the regional contest entitled “Digital Excellence in Agriculture in Europe and Central Asia”, aiming at collecting good practices in the field of digital agriculture and providing a mechanism for identifying outstanding initiatives, projects, and programmes across the regions to be awarded with a special recognition of Digital Excellence in Agriculture.  

It will enable individuals and organizations using digital agricultural practices to share knowledge, solutions, and suggestions that highlight the potential of stepping up good practices in the region of Europe and Central Asia.

The regional contest will have six phases:

• Submission of good practices open from 4 November until 11 December 2020;
• Nomination of outstanding practices in January 2021;
• Production of a stocktaking report including all good practices collected;
• Selection of the finalists and award recipients;
• Production of a special promotional video focusing on outstanding good practices, as well as production of the Digital Excellence in Agriculture report;
• Award ceremony where the finalists will receive an opportunity to present their good practices and outstanding achievements during the “Digital Excellence in Agriculture in Europe and Central Asia” event (February-March 2021), and the winners will be awarded with a special recognition and a trophy.

Submissions are accepted in the following categories: 

• Regulatory frameworks/Enhanced market access/Financial services and insurance;
• Capacity development and empowerment;
• Agriculture innovations systems and sustainable farming;
• Disaster risk management and early warning systems;
• Food safety and traceability.

This regional contest follows a joint ITU-FAO Study on the Status of Digital Agriculture in 18 Countries of Europe and Central Asia, that clearly demonstrated how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are playing an emerging role in the agriculture of Europe and Central Asia.

This call will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, in particular, SDG2 on “Zero Hunger”, by contributing to close the digital, rural, and gender disparaties, known as the triple divide, and ensure an inclusive digital transition. The contest is also an important milestone in the implementation of the Regional Initiatives of both, the ITU and FAO. 

For more information, please visit http://www.fao.org/europe/resources/call-on-digital-excellence/en/

The need for concerted action to prevent the COVID-19 international health emergency from triggering a catastrophic world food crisis received a welcome new tool today as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations formally launched the Food Coalition.

A "network of networks", the Food Coalition is a voluntary multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral alliance set up to support innovative initiatives to ensure global food access, increase the resilience of agri-food systems and put them on a more sustainable course.

First suggested by the Government of Italy and with more than 30 countries having already expressed interest in joining, it will support existing and future efforts to overcome the pandemic's disruptive impacts and help countries get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, particularly those of ending hunger and poverty.

FAO and partners have co-organized a series of Innovation Zoominars addressing the role of innovation and digital technologies in increasing resilience of smallholders to emerging disruptive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural livelihoods.

This Zoominar session will be part of ITU-UNESCO Regional Digital Inclusion Week for the Arab States, focusing on challenges facing the innovation processes in the agriculture sector with regards to governance and public policy aspects. The session will involve all partners and government representatives from the NENA Region and will emphasize on accelerating the development of innovation and digital agriculture in agri-food systems in the countries.

The discussion will examine the role that FAO and partners could play in facilitating the implementation and scalability of such innovations in the NENA region and guiding governments towards a robust policy plan of action to avoid the worst consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agriculture sector and food security.

Join the Zoominar on Thursday, 12 November 2020 at 13:00 – 15:00 (UTC+2).

You can access the full agenda and further details of the Zoominar here.

Please find the registration link here.

Wednesday 6 May 2020, 11:00 to 12:00 CEST / 9:00 to 10:00 GMT.



Please register here:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GN8h2jmvTNKYKrMrxnjVrg

The panel is jointly hosted and organized by AVANTI and EvalForward.

AVANTI is an IFAD funded initiative supporting national governments to assess and build RBM capacities in order to better measure SDGs in up to 20 countries globally. It is implemented by Helvetas and Itad.

EvalForward is a community of practice on evaluation for Food Security, Agriculture and Rural Development, supported by the evaluation offices of FAO, IFAD and WFP.



Panellists

AVANTI & EvalForward are collaborating to share their joint experience and specific learning by an pool of expert panellists consisting of:

• Angela Dannson (Director, Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Department, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana)
• Elias A.K. Segla (Evaluation Specialist, Presidency, Republic of Benin, Bureau of Public Policy Evaluation and Government Action Analysis)
• Ian Goldman (Advisor on Evaluation and Evidence Systems, CLEAR Anglophone Africa) 

 

Hosting team

• Riff Fullan: e-Panel Facilitator and Knowledge Component Lead for AVANTI
• Ethel Sibanda: Chat Moderator and AG-Scan methodology Lead, AVANTI
• Cesar Robles: e-Panel Technical Coordinator and Communications Lead, AVANTI
• Renata Mirulla: Facilitator, EvalForward

 

Questions to be addressed in the e-Panel

Some of the questions under discussion include:

• What is the importance of leadership in mainstreaming RBM in agriculture-related ministries and other institutions?
• What factors are most influential in enabling or hindering leadership’s contribution to improved RBM in the agriculture sector?
• What concrete actions can key stakeholders take to create an enabling environment for effective leadership in the pursuit of SDGs?

For more information please contact: [email protected] 

Evaluation criteria: what's new and what changes for agriculture and food security?



12 February 2020

15:00 - 16:00 Central Europe Time



Speaker: Megan G. Kennedy-Chouane, Senior Policy Analyst, OECD

Facilitator: Rachel Sauvinet Bedouin, Senior Evaluation Officer, FAO

The evaluation criteria first set out by the OECD Development Assistance Committee in 1991 have recently been revised. In this webinar, you will learn about the new definitions, the significance of the changes and the new coherence criteria. Examples from evaluations of projects and programmes in agriculture, food security and nutrition will be discussed. There will be time to have your questions answered and share ideas on how the revised criteria can improve the practice of evaluation.

This webinar is organised by the EvalForward Community of Practice www.evalforward.org 

If interested in participating please contact [email protected] 

The fifteenth joint edition of the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook provides market projections for major agricultural commodities, biofuels and fish. The 2019 report contains a special feature on the prospects and challenges of the agricultural sector in Latin America and the Caribbean.  

Download the full report (projections by commodity listed separately)

Executive Summary

Press release

Introduction

The Eurasian Center for Food Security (ECFS) in collaboration with the World Bank is pleased to announce a new round of competitive selection of small research/case study projects on food and nutrition security policy. The objective of this project is to foster collaboration between researchers in the Eurasia region to generate analytical evidence for policy makers, and produce a set of short analytical and educational case studies on a relevant food and nutrition policy topic. The call is open to researchers, lecturers and professors with an active research agenda on a broad range of topics relevant to food and nutrition security. Applications are accepted until April 30, 2019.

 

2019 Research Topic

Proposals are invited to explore policy options regarding the use of the following sustainable agriculture practices:

• Organic agriculture (limitations on agrochemicals, veterinary medicines, high animal welfare standards etc. – may require certification by an approved authority);
• Climate-smart agriculture (productivity increasing, resilience enhancing, greenhouse gases (GHGs) reducing for meeting food security and development goals);
• Biological agriculture (chemical free, focus on improving the microbiology as a way of increasing plant growth and yield);
• Ecosystem-based agriculture (conservation, restoration or management of biodiversity, local ecosystem services).

Eligibility

The selected case study authors should be current full-time or part-time researchers, lecturers or professors working on topics relevant to food security, nutrition, agricultural development or related field from the Eurasia region, and affiliated with ECFS partner institutions in these countries. Collaboration between researchers representing two different institutions and two countries in the region is highly encouraged.

 

Selection Criteria

• Relevance of the topic (ability to justify the relevance of selected topic)
• Relevance of education and professional experience of the authors
• Quality of the proposal

 

How to Apply

1. Review the Call of Proposals which includes details on the case study methodology, project timeline, and deliverables.
2. The proposals should be no longer than one page (A4), and they should be submitted in English. If English language is a constraint, the proposals may be submitted in Russian.
3. The proposals should consist of (i) Case study title and the country of the case; (ii) Authors’ name(s) and affiliation(s); (iii) Problem statement based on the selected theme; (iv) Background information, including why this theme has been selected; (v) Description of stakeholders affected by the policy; (vi) Key policy issues identified.
4. E-mail your Case Study Proposal and CV to Yulia Mitusova [email protected] and Anna Kontoboytseva [email protected] Subject: Case Study 2019.

Funding

Travel assistance will be provided to participate in the presentation of the Global Food Policy Report 2019 and a training session on the Case Study Methodology (Moscow, Russia), and to present case study at the Annual Eurasian Food Security Conference (Armenia, Yerevan). In addition, project related travel assistance will be provided on a case-by-case basis, and when it is strongly justified that travel is required to collect data or interview stakeholders.

The “1st All Africa Synthetic Pesticide Congress” organized by the World Food Preservation CenterÒLLC merges with the Eastern Africa conference on “Scaling up Agroecology and Ecological Organic Trade” organized by Biovision Africa Trust, IFOAM Organics International and their Partners to become the “1st International Conference on Agroecology Transforming Agriculture & Food Systems in Africa”.

The “1st All Africa Congress on Synthetic Pesticides, Environment, Human and Animal Health” has expanded its goals by the recognition of Agroecology as a means of combatting synthetic pesticide and fertilizers contamination in the African continent and ensuring actions towards true sustainable agriculture and food systems. The “Agroecology and Ecological Organic Trade” equally see the need to address threats to sustainable agriculture and food systems.

The conference has attracted world leading scientists on both the impact of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers on the African people, their animals, and environment and advocates for Agroecology as a means of producing food without the need for synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. This rare consortium of leading world scientists, practitioners and other players will chart a course to substantially and sustainably reduce synthetic pesticide and fertilizer contamination in Africa. We invite you to participate in and contribute to this seminal event. https://www.worldfoodpreservationcenterpesticidecongress.com/

Among the keynote speakers at the conference are Professor Hans Herren, the first Swiss to receive the 1995 World Food Prize and the 2013 Right Livelihood Award (alternate Nobel Prize) for leading a major biological control effort. Also, Professor Tyrone Hayes, UC Berkley, who has pioneered in establishing that the herbicide atrazine is an endocrine disruptor that demasculinizes and feminizes male frogs. Other keynote speakers at the congress are on the forefront of research on the impact of synthetic pesticides and GMOs on the health of humans, animals, and the environment. Also, world leading scientists will be speaking on regenerative agriculture and food sovereignty.

The “1st International Conference on Agroecology Transforming Agriculture & Food Systems in Africa: Reducing Synthetic Pesticides and Fertilizers by Scaling Up Agroecology and Promoting Ecological Organic Trade ” will be held at the Safari Park Hotel & Casino, Nairobi, Kenya on June 18-21, 2019.

You can register here.

CONTACTS:

Charles L. Wilson, Ph.D., Founder World Food Preservation CenterÒLLC, Charles Town, WV, USA

[email protected]

David Amudavi, Ph.D., Director, Bivision Trust, Nairobi, Kenya

[email protected]

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About World Food Preservation Center:

To feed the world's exploding population, we MUST save substantially more of the food that we already produce. Up until now we have invested a disproportionate amount of our resources in the production of food (95%) while only (5%) in the postharvest preservation of food. This has left us with tremendous postharvest "Skill Gaps" and "Technology Gaps" in developing countries. ​The World Food Preservation Center® LLC is filling these gaps by: (1) promoting the education (M.S. and Ph.D.) of young student/scientists from developing countries; (2) having young student/scientists from developing countries conduct research on much needed new postharvest technologies adaptable to their native countries; (3) organize continent-wide postharvest congresses and exhibitions for developing countries; (4) publish much needed new texts/reference books on postharvest technologies/methods for developing countries; and (5) develop a comprehensive database on all postharvest knowledge relative to developing countries with access portals for researchers, students, administrators, industry, businesses, and farmers.

About Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT):

Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) is a not-for-profit organization established in Kenya in 2009 by the Biovision Foundation for ecological development in Switzerland and supported by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi. The Trust’s goal is to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Kenya and other African countries through supporting dissemination of information and knowledge on appropriate technology to improve human, animal, plant, and environmental health. Agricultural output and food supply are however hindered by various environmental factors and lack of information and relevant training for the African smallholder farmers. Plant pests, for instance, are responsible for up to 80% of crop losses. Ecologically sustainable solutions are a practical alternative for African farmers to achieve good crop yields without relying on expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides. What is lacking, however, are effective dissemination pathways to deliver relevant information to the farmers.                                                              

Theme: “Engagement for impact in agricultural development; Stories from the African youth”

As 2018 draws to a close and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) is developing its strategic plan covering the next ten years, the organization seeks to gain insights into the engagement of youth in agriculture on the continent by various agricultural institutions, members of the Forum. In this vein, the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) - Africa in collaboration with FARA is launching an essay competition to have youth articulate their experiences in youth engagement initiatives across the region, especially in the context of agri-preneurship. This is aimed at informing FARA and its constituents better on how to effectively engage with and feature youth and women in agriculture in the context of implementing FARA’s new strategy.

The essay should reflect the experience you went through as a beneficiary of an initiative involving an agricultural institution in your country or region. However, in case you were directly involved in the implementation of such an initiative, directed towards youth, and you are able to share the experience of engaging other youth, YPARD Africa may also consider your perspective as an ‘engaging youth’.

A selection of the authors of the essays of the competition will be contacted by a team of consultants to obtain further details of their documented experiences. A further selection will have a fully sponsored opportunity to participate in a three-day youth workshop/writeshop at the FARA Secretariat in Accra to share their experiences with FARA, its constituents and other youth participants. The workshop/writeshop will be scheduled in the first quarter of 2019. The dates will duly be announced.

Essay Guide

Your entry must address the following:

• Your contact details: Full name; email; WhatsApp number; Skype ID
• In what way has the initiative changed your outlook as a professional in agriculture?
  • insight
  • opportunities
  • income levels
  • networking
• •What kind of support did this intervention offer? (Describe the initiative clearly so we can attribute credit to the programme/institution)
• • What features of the initiative inspired/ empowered you most?
• • What are the challenges that this initiative helped you overcome?
• • Are there any challenges you still encounter?

- In what ways do you envision these challenges could be dealt with?

- In what way can sharing your experience be useful to other youth?

Your essay can range between 500-1000 words long and could be written in either French or English.

To ensure that your entry can be shared within the YPARD network, please first register as a member at YPARD’s website. Send your entry to [email protected] and [email protected] by Sunday, 16th December 2018