Transforming food systems: Multi-stakeholder platforms driven by consumer concerns and public demands

Herens, M.C.; Pittore, Katherine; Oosterveer, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.gfs.2021.100592

Cited by 26 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…With technical support, cities will build participatory mechanisms in the form of functional, multisectoral food systems platforms for improved coordination among several food systems stakeholders. These functional multisectoral food systems platforms including not only governmental organizations but also the private sector and civil society then aim to contribute to data-driven strategic planning and resourcing and make city food systems more responsive to local ecological conditions and nutritional needs of its population in an inclusive manner ( 43 , 44 ). The example of Brazil, which used to be an exemplary case of governmental support for agroecology but then was completely wiped out by a change in political leadership ( 45 ), illustrates the importance of strong and resilient/robust multisectoral, local level food systems ownership.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE): Protocol of a multi-sectoral development project to improve food and nutrition security of secondary city populations in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda

Speich

Barth‐Jaeggi

Musard

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundSecondary cities tend to be better linked with local food systems than primate cities, acting as important platforms to trade agricultural produce with rural surrounding. COVID-19, conflicts and climate change continue to expose inefficiencies in food systems and have further exacerbated malnutrition, calling for substantial food systems transformations. However, tackling current food systems' challenges requires new approaches to ensure food and nutrition security. Nutritious and agroecologically produced food offer the potential to transform food systems by improving diets and alleviating pressure on the environment, as well as by creating jobs and reducing poverty. This paper describes the design of a project by a Swiss public-private consortium to improve food and nutrition security and to reduce poverty in city ecosystems in six secondary cities in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda through governance/policy and supply and demand side interventions.MethodsThe Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE) project promotes well-balanced nutrition for city populations through interdisciplinary agricultural, food, and health sector collaborations along city-specific value chains. Adopting a transdiciplinary systems approach, the main interventions of NICE are (i) advocacy and policy dialogue, (ii) building of decentralized institutional capacity in multi-sectoral collaborations, (iii) support of data-driven planning, coordination and resource mobilization, (iv) anchoring of innovations and new approaches in city-level partnerships, (v) capacity building in the agricultural, retail, health and education sectors, as well as (vi) evidence generation from putting policies into practice at the local level. NICE is coordinated by in-country partners and local offices of the Swiss public-private consortium partners.DiscussionThe NICE project seeks to contribute to urban food system resilience and enhanced sustainable nutrition for city populations by (A) strengthening urban governance structures involving key stakeholders including women and youth, (B) generating income for producers along the supply chain, (C) triggering change in producers' and consumers' behavior such that nutritious and agroecologically produced foods are both in demand as well as available and affordable in urban markets, and (D) allowing a scale up of successful approaches to other national and international cities and city networks.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE): Protocol of a multi-sectoral development project to improve food and nutrition security of secondary city populations in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda

Speich

Barth‐Jaeggi

Musard

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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“…While the quantity and complexity of stakeholders participating in the transformation of sustainable food system varies, the involvement of both public and private sector actors, such as civil society organizations, food producers, processors, retailers, and consumer organizations is critical . 64 …”

Section: Enhanced Stakeholder Awareness As a Key Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agroecology, technology, and stakeholder awareness: Implementing the UN Food Systems Summit call for action

Zeng¹,

Li²,

Wanger³

2023

iScience

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“…There is a need to create the conditions and build the necessary capacities for this. Collective examples from local multi-stakeholder processes (Herens et al, 2022) or living labs (Gamache et al, 2020) are promising. However, while they can span boundaries and enhance learning and adaptability, they may be less effective for larger food systems change.…”

Section: Significance For Food System Transformationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Multistakeholder platforms can have transformational potential by raising awareness, aiding to shift narratives and problem framings, and generally supporting processes that may impact policy-making and overall food system governance change (Leeuwis et al, 2021). However, their impact is limited (Herens et al, 2022) if mentioned lock-ins are not subverted and without powerful actors aligning toward significant paradigm changes (Bui, 2021;Ruben et al, 2021).…”

Section: Challenges Limitations and Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food systems transformations in South America: Insights from a transdisciplinary process rooted in Uruguay

Juri

Norberg²,

Clark³

et al. 2022

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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The wicked nature of sustainability challenges facing food systems demands intentional and synergistic actions at multiple scales and sectors. The Southern Cone of Latin America, with its historical legacy of “feeding the world,” presents interesting opportunities for generating insights into potential trajectories and processes for food system transformation. To foster such changes would require the development of collective understanding and agency to effectively realize purposeful and well-informed action toward desirable and sustainable food futures. This in turn demands the transdisciplinary engagement of academia, the private sector, government/policy-makers, community groups, and other institutions, as well as the broader society as food consumers. While the need for contextualized knowledge, priorities and definitions of what sustainable food systems change means is recognized, there is limited literature reporting these differences and critically reflecting on the role of knowledge brokers in knowledge co-production processes. The political nature of these issues requires arenas for dialogue and learning that are cross-sectoral and transcend knowledge generation. This paper presents a case study developed by SARAS Institute, a bridging organization based in Uruguay. This international community of practice co-designed a 3-year multi-stakeholder transdisciplinary process entitled “Knowledges on the Table.” We describe how the process was designed, structured, and facilitated around three phases, two analytical levels and through principles of knowledge co-production. The case study and its insights offer a model that could be useful to inform similar processes led by transdisciplinary communities of practice or bridging institutions in the early stages of transformative work. In itself, it also represents a unique approach to generate a language of collaboration, dialogue, and imagination informed by design skills and methods. While this is part of a longer-term process toward capitalizing on still-unfolding insights and coalitions, we hope that this example helps inspire similar initiatives to imagine, support, and realize contextualized sustainable food system transformations.

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Transforming food systems: Multi-stakeholder platforms driven by consumer concerns and public demands

Cited by 26 publications

References 41 publications

Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE): Protocol of a multi-sectoral development project to improve food and nutrition security of secondary city populations in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda

Nutrition in City Ecosystems (NICE): Protocol of a multi-sectoral development project to improve food and nutrition security of secondary city populations in Bangladesh, Kenya and Rwanda

Agroecology, technology, and stakeholder awareness: Implementing the UN Food Systems Summit call for action

Food systems transformations in South America: Insights from a transdisciplinary process rooted in Uruguay

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