Malawi Discussion of IFPRI’s 2021 Global Food Policy Report: Transforming Food Systems After COVID-19

In the 2021 Global Food Policy Report, IFPRI researchers and experts explore the impacts of the pandemic and government policy responses to date, particularly for the poor and disadvantaged, and consider what it all means for transforming our food systems to be healthy, resilient, efficient, sustainable, and inclusive.

The chapters in this flagship report explore key requisites for such a transformation in light of the current shock — balancing health and economic policies, promoting healthy diets and nutrition, strengthening social protection policies and inclusion, integrating natural resource protection into food sector policies, and enhancing the contribution of the private sector — and how best to achieve them. Regional sections examine the diverse experiences of the pandemic worldwide, and the impact of varied response measures.

Overview of the 2021 GFPR Report

Discussants

  • Pamela Kuwali, Chief Executive Officer, Civil Society Agriculture Network
  • Dr. Rodwell Mzonde, Director of Planning, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security
  • Dr. Joseph Nagoli, Director of Knowledge and Learning, National Planning Commission

Moderator

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IFPRI
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Online Event
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IFPRI
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Early Warning and Resilience Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

This webinar will share innovative advances in two projects focusing on early warning, climate change, resilience and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. The two projects, one in East Africa and the other in Southern Africa, are as follows:

  • The Joint Emergency Operation Plan (JEOP) Early Warning System in Ethiopia is primarily an emergency food relief mechanism, and includes weekly field-level data collection on parameters such as wages, food prices (retail and wholesale), livestock mortality, weather, livestock health, crop performance and fast onset hazards (such as desert locust or flooding). The system seeks to predict coming food shortages and other crises, enabling better planning and faster response among humanitarian actors and government partners. The presentation will focus on the crop pricing aspect of the JEOP EWS and demonstrate how information is critical in understanding and preparing for shocks.

Speakers: Bronwen Moore and Alemu Ashenafi - Joint Emergency Operation (JEOP) | Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

  • Mzansi Amanzi is a satellite-based national water resource status monitoring and reporting capability in South Africa, allowing surface water resources to be assessed remotely on a near real-time basis. This information makes resilience planning easier and more accurate, and allows early warning of coming water shortages and linked changes in crop and livestock conditions. This webinar will focus on the potential use of this technology in the wider SADC region, and its applications in supporting rural livelihoods.

Speakers: Mark Thompson - Professional GISc Practitioner, GeoTerraImage

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SCALE & PRO-WASH
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Online Event
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SCALE & PRO-WASH
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UNFSS INDEPENDENT DIALOGUE IN EGYPT: “THE ROLE OF WATER SECURITY FOR FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION”

Water scarcity remains a key challenge for agricultural development in the MENA region, including Egypt. Scarcity is rapidly growing as a result of climate change and rapid increases in water demand for other uses. Considering that Egypt’s agri-food system provided critical cushioning for economic growth, jobs, and household income negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is paramount that more consideration is given to the important role of water security for Egypt’s food systems. With agriculture utilizing over 80% of Egypt’s water resources, meeting these challenges will require bold actions and new mindsets directed at water and food systems transformations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

This Independent Dialogue convened in partnership between the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) will discuss the Role of Water Security for Food Systems Transformation in Egypt. Stakeholders will engage in interactive group discussions, collective brainstorming, and agenda-setting with a focus on equity, inclusion, capacity, innovation, and sustainability, including insights on how food systems need to change to improve water security (SDG 6), help eliminate hunger (SGD2), support energy security (SDG 7) and improve climate adaptation and mitigation action (SDG 13). Emerging messages from this multi-stakeholder dialogue will be presented at the United Nations Food System Summit (UNFSS) in September 2021. Transforming foodsystems is among the most powerful ways to make progress towards all 17 SDGS.

The event will take place in English. Arabic translation is available during plenary sessions.

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Co-Organized by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Area (ICARDA)
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Online Event
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Co-Organized by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Area (ICARDA)
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The Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor; What Next for the African Continent?

The Trade Dialogues on Food invite experts from governments, non-governmental organizations, businesses, academia, think tanks and foundations, to debate the most topical issues in food trade. Each year the international trading system moves enough wheat, maize, rice and soybean to feed approximately three billion people around the globe. Meanwhile, 190 million tons of fertilizer applied to farmland annually play a key role in helping us grow enough food to sustain our expanding population, with much of it traded on the international stage. Climate change will make international trade even more central to food security, acting as a vital conduit for food from food-surplus to food-deficit nations in the wake of natural calamities. The Trade Dialogues on Food are designed to shed greater light on the complexity of the food trade nexus, creating a safe space for public policy debate.

 

Speakers:

  • Chahir Zaki, Associate Professor of Economics (and Co-Editor of the Trade Monitor), Cairo University
  • Halima Noor, Senior Trade Advisor at the African Union
  • Elizabeth Nsimadala, President of the Pan-African Farmers Organization and the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation
  • Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter, Ambassador of South Africa to the WTO
  • Edwini Kessie, Director, Agriculture and Commodities Division, WTO

 

Moderators:

  • Doaa Abdel-Motaal, Senior Counsellor, WTO Agriculture and Commodities Division and
  • Jonathan Hepburn, Senior Policy Advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development

 

Please email us your question in real-time at Dialogues@WTO.org

 

Organiser
WTO-IFPRI-IISD
Event Venue
Virtual seminar
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WTO-IFPRI-IISD
Youtube Livestream
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No
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Local vs Global? The role of trade in building food system resilience

This seminar will bring together food system experts from the research community, policymaking organizations, and the private sector to discuss whether localized food systems with shorter supply chains are more resilient and sustainable than those with longer supply chains and greater integration in global markets.

 

Speakers

Guido Landheer, Deputy Vice-Minister of Agriculture, The Netherlands

Jeroen Elfers, Corporate Director, Dairy Development & Milk Stream, FrieslandCampina

Marion Jansen, Director Trade and Agriculture Directorate, OECD

Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization

Robbert de Vreede, Executive Vice-President Global Foods, Unilever

 

 

Closing Remarks

 

Johan Swinnen, Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
 

Moderator

Rob Vos, Director, Markets, Trade and Institutions Division, IFPRI

 

Organiser
International Food Policy Research Institute
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Virtual seminar
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International Food Policy Research Institute
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COVID-19 Risk and Food Value Chains

The short- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems remain uncertain, raising concerns about food security. The pandemic’s public health impacts, as well as the economic and logistical impacts of pandemic response measures such as lockdowns and travel restrictions, have the potential to disrupt food value chains around the globe. Such disruptions could result in labor shortages, decreased production, volatile food prices, and reduced food availability and access. Understanding how COVID-19 is affecting local and global food value chains is key in establishing effective policy responses to mitigate the harmful impacts of the ongoing public health crisis. This webinar examined the results of several recent studies on how various food value chains are responding to COVID-19.

Kalle Hirvonen (IFPRI) presented findings from a study on food consumption and food security in Ethiopia, using a unique panel survey of a representative distribution of households in Addis Ababa.

Sudha Narayanan (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research) discussed bottlenecks in food and agriculture supply chains in India following closures of several Agricultural Produce Market Committee mandis and presents policy recommendations to ease the flow of goods.

Ben Belton (WorldFish / Michigan State University) presented findings on the impact of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s fish value chains, which are crucial to the country’s food security and employment opportunities.

Presenters:

Kalle Hirvonen, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute

Sudha Narayanan, Associate Professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

Ben Belton, Associate Professor of International Development in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, and Senior Scientist for Value Chains and Nutrition with WorldFish, Malaysia

Discussant:

Frank Place, Director, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Moderator:

Nicholas Minot, Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Division Director in the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division, IFPRI. Co-leader of the research on Inclusive and Efficient Value Chains within the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM).

 

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CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) and Food Security Portal.
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Strengthening Food Value Chains

These changes hold great potential for improving livelihoods and food security in developing countries, but they also carry social, economic, environmental, and health risks. A better understanding of how producers and consumers are interacting with modern food value chains can help researchers and policymakers pinpoint interventions to strengthen these chains and ensure that value chain transformation happens in inclusive, healthy, and environmentally sustainable ways. This webinar presented findings from the recent CGIAR research on food value chains in three regions.

Matty Demont (IRRI) spoke about the rice value chain upgrading in West Africa during 2009-2019, which resulted from policies implemented by African governments after the food price crisis in 2008 and aimed at crowding in investment in the value chain to help domestic rice compete with imports.

Trent Blare (CIMMYT / University of Florida) shared results of the study examining consumers’ purchasing habits and demand in peri-urban Mexico City for three types of tortillas: i) machine-made white, ii) handmade white, and iii) handmade blue.

Tanguy Bernard (IFPRI / University of Bordeaux) presented on the experimental research in Senegal implementing a new contracting arrangement that bundles price premium certainty with training and credit for the purchase of a new quality-improving technology.

Presenters:
Matty Demont , Senior Scientist, Market Analysis Research Cluster Leader, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

Trent Blare, Markets and Value Chain Specialist, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Assistant Professor, University of Florida

Tanguy Bernard, Senior Research Fellow, Markets, Trade and Institutions Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Professor, University of Bordeaux.

Moderator:

Nicholas Minot, Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Division Director in the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division, IFPRI. Co-leader of the research on Inclusive and Efficient Value Chains within the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM).

Discussant:

Frank Place, Director, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

 

 

Organiser
CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), and Food Security Portal.
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Webinar
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The Food Security Portal
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Near-Real-Time Monitoring of Food Crisis Risk Factors - State of Knowledge and Future Prospects

This webinar focused on these important food crisis risk monitoring efforts. The event highlighted priority research and policy questions, identified gaps in existing monitoring efforts, and pinpointed opportunities for collaboration to inform policy. The event was organized to bring researchers, policy makers, and other stakeholders interested in this topic together in order to increase collaboration among research teams and expand the scope and reach of food crisis risk monitoring efforts.

Discussion questions:

  • What have been the most critical advances on the remote measurement of productivity and other food crisis risk factors, and what advances do you see moving forward?
  • What constraints exist and are likely to continue in the provision of near-real-time monitoring of food crises?
  • What opportunities exist for collaboration among institutions and research groups?

Webinar set-up:
Moderator: Rob Vos, Director, Markets, Trade and Institutions Division, IFPRI
Panelists:

  • Arif Husain (WFP VAM and linked to IPC)
  • Laura Glaeser (FEWS NET)
  • Mario Zappacosta (FAO Global Information and Early Warning System - GIEWS)
  • Daniel Maxwell (Tufts University)
  • Chris Barrett (Cornell University)
  • Kathy Baylis (University of Illinois)
  • David Laborde (IFPRI)

The Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) supported in the outreach of this webinar. The FSN Forum is an open online platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue on food security and nutrition facilitated by FAO’s Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA). By offering online discussions and building communities of experts for thematic and regional consultation processes, the FSN Forum plays an important role in creating synergies, ensuring greater transparency of policy processes, and encouraging broad participation in food security and nutrition work.

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The Food Security Portal and NASA Harvest
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Webinar
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Information Needs for Food Crisis Risk Early Warning: the Role of the Food Security Portal

Background

The 2020 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) found that more than 135 million people across 55 countries experienced crisis level acute hunger in 2019. The main drivers include conflict and insecurity, climate shocks, and economic shocks. While these drivers continue to persist in 2020, the health and socioeconomic upheaval created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the crop devastation stemming from severe desert locust outbreaks in East Africa are expected to exacerbate the already serious food security problems and food crisis conditions. The GRFC mid-year update (October 2020) echoed the findings of the 2020 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report which found that the COVID-19 pandemic can be expected to push up to another 132 million people into chronic hunger in the world, over the 690 million people that went hungry in 2019.

To navigate the increasingly complex, interlinked causes of food crises which is exacerbated by new drivers, it is important that governments and other stakeholders have timely, high-quality information to increase the resilience of food systems and cope with future crises. The EC-funded Food Security Portal (FSP), which was initiated in 2010 in response to the lessons that emerged from the 2007-2008 world food crisis, seeks to help improve the ability of governments to respond to and prevent food crises by bringing together policy-relevant tools and information in one place. It was designed to pool together timely, relevant, detailed and high-quality country-level information in a systematic and structured way.

The Excessive Food Price Variability Early Warning System, one of the FSP’s earliest and most innovative tools, was included as a tool by the Agricultural Market Information Systems (AMIS), the inter-agency platform for enhancing food market transparency and policy response for food security under the G20. During the current phase of the project, the FSP has expanded the set of information-and decision-support tools to strengthen the ability of policymakers, food policy experts, and researchers to respond quickly to dynamic developments in the world food system. Among them are the Early Warning Systems Hub and the Control Panel for Risk Monitoring. The recently launched COVID-19 Food Price Monitor is among the tools made available in a COVID-19 and Food Security page that is dedicated to tools and resources for tracking and analyzing the potential impacts of the pandemic. The new tools and features of the FSP and the Africa South of the Sahara sub-portal are now available on the updated website that will be launched in time for the policy seminar.

The need to monitor the various drivers of food crisis, improve data availability, and foster greater information sharing and coordination, including about policy responses, has become even more imperative in light of the current pandemic and the urgent stakes it raises for food security and nutrition.

The theme of this policy dialogue was data and information sharing and coordination, with a focus on the role of the Food Security Portal in monitoring the drivers of food insecurity and food crisis for policy information.

Moderator:
Teunis van Rheenen, Director of Business Development and External Relations, IFPRI

Speakers:
Conrad Rein, Policy Officer, European Commission, and Co-Chair, Global Donor Platform for Rural Development

Rob Vos, Division Director, Markets, Trade and Institutions, IFPRI

Arif Husein, Chief Economist, World Food Programme (WFP)

Jessica Fanzo, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food & Agricultural Policy and Ethics, Johns Hopkins University

Ousmane Badiane, Executive Chairperson, Akademiya2063

Maximo Torero, Chief Economist and Assistant Director General for Economic and Social Development, FAO

Closing Remarks:
Philippe Thomas, Head of Sector, Food and Agricultural Systems, Crisis and Resilience, European Commission

Objectives

The objective of the policy seminar was to bring together key stakeholders to share challenges, lessons learned, successes and failures, and opportunities for supporting data and information sharing regarding the various drivers of food crisis, including the ramifications of the pandemic on food security. A particular focus was given to the current and potential role of the Food Security Portal and, more in specific, its Africa South of the Sahara portal in contributing to better informed policy and decision-making to improve food security and nutrition and enhance resilience to shocks.

Some key questions addressed at the FSP policy seminar included:

  • How are early warning early action systems currently used in food crisis-affected countries especially in light of the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic? Are they serving to provide timely and adequate responses?
  • What are the additional challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems and how can they be addressed by national governments, regional organizations, and the global community?
  • What are examples of successful policy responses at the country and regional levels that have been guided by existing monitoring tools?
  • Is there a need to tailor the food policy analysis tools to regional and country needs? If so how and what should donors and international organizations do? How could the Food Security Portal support such efforts?
  • Local food prices are one way to get a temperature check of local market conditions, but high frequency local market price data is not widely available. Where similar gaps exist in real-time monitoring and how can they be addressed both in a research and policy context?
  • Over the years, a series of different tools have been developed by various organizations for monitoring drivers of food crisis. How could greater collaboration facilitate their effectiveness in driving policy responses?
  • What additional components, tools, and features should be considered to make the Food Security Portal and Africa south of the Sahara sub-portal more effective in achieving its goal of contributing to better informed policy and decision-making to improve food security and nutrition and enhance resilience to shocks

Format

The dialogue and launch of the renewed FSP website was held as an IFPRI policy seminar. The target audience included policy makers, experts of development and humanitarian aid agencies, researchers, and representatives from the private sector and civil society organizations, especially those in Africa.

The event included a short introduction to the new FSP website, followed by presentations by experts and practitioners on the key challenges they see to food crisis risks in the short and long run and needs to improve information systems for early warning and early action for the prevention of food crises. 

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Food Security Portal
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Transforming Food Systems for Affordable, Healthy and Sustainable Diets for All: A High-Level Discussion on the Key Findings of the 2020 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report

As the 2030 deadline looms, SOFI 2020 gauges whether #ZeroHunger remains achievable by tracking countries' performance and trajectory to offer a tiered assessment of the likelihood of success.

On July 14, FAO and IFPRI held a high-level discussion with distinguished speakers, including Members of the US Congress and the Directors-General of FAO and IFPRI, on the report’s key findings as well as the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global food and nutrition security.

High-Level Remarks

  • QU Dongyu, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
  • Johan Swinnen, Director General, IFPRI

Special Remarks

Keynote Speaker

  • Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and SDG Advocate for UN SG Antonio Guterres

Presentation of Report's Key Findings

  • Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Panel Discussion

  • Anna Herforth, Tufts Affiliate and Senior Research Associate, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
  • Anna Lartey, Director, Nutrition, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
  • Marie Ruel, Director, Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, IFPRI

Closing Remarks

Moderator

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FAO North America and IFPRI
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IFPRI
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