Impact Workshop on building resilience and enhancing nutrition in Africa’s food systems
The Lead Expert Group (LEG) for the Panel’s Resilience project participated in an online workshop on 19th March to discuss the implementation of recommendations made in the report Building resilience and enhancing nutrition in Africa’s food systems and to identify strategic priorities, opportunities and challenges for countries to focus on in the short-, medium-, and longer term.
Chair Prof Evan Fraser welcomed participants and invited Dr Patrick Kormawa (Sierra Leone), Adinew Abate (Ethiopia), Dr Andrew Jamali, and Mirriam Matita (Malawi) to present their plans for securing impact by setting out emerging strategies, opportunities and challenges in their respective contexts along with plans for national launches of the report.
Discussion focussed on project implementation and future scaling opportunities, with particular emphasis on coordination among different initiatives and funders and the need for capacity building to develop programmes at scale in line with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and the Kampala Declaration.
The need for the integration of food systems agendas into climate adaptation plans, with emphasis on the need for cross-ministerial coordination was highlighted. Better alignment with trade and development policies was also needed along with recognition of the importance of the role of climate finance in supporting food system resilience.
It was noted that the report had already led to action from the three Governments and had attracted strong support from Ministers of Agriculture in the three countries and the Irish Ambassadors in Sierra Leone and Malawi.
The workshop was attended by members of the Lead Expert Group (LEG) and Global Panel Members:
- Prof Evan Fraser, Chair of Lead Expert Group, and Director of Arrell Food Institute, University of Guelph
- Dr Andrew Jamali, National Planning Commission, Malawi
- Dr Mirriam Matita, University of Lilongwe, Malawi
- Dr Patrick Kormawa, Director of Food Security and Climate-Smart Agricultural Transformation, Sierra Leone
- Dr Adinew Abate, Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture Programme Manager, Seqota Declaration, Ministry of Health, Ethiopia
- Prof Andy Dougill, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, University of York
- Tom Arnold, Global Panel member and Chair, Africa Rural Development Committee, Ireland 2024
- Emmy Simmons, Global Panel member and Senior Adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies Global Food Security Project
- Prof Patrick Webb, Chief Nutritionist, USAID