Promoting sustainable food systems by improving multi-stakeholder collaboration
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
(
United Nations / Multilateral body
)
#SDGAction33471
Description
Under the aegis of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the development of the National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP), and over a three year period, supported by the Government of Ireland, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provided executive coaching to African stakeholders on multi-stakeholder collaboration for food system transformation, designed in collaboration with Harvard Agribusiness course former Director. The executive coaching experience has been recently conducted in the Republic of Uganda in the context of the preparation of the NAIP that will be imminently launched against the current COVID-19 crisis.
The initiative started in 2018, with a learning journey to Dublin by public sector officials and food industry representatives from 10 African countries to exchange experiences on agri-food sector strategy development and learn how, through multi-stakeholder engagement, it can contribute to sustainable food systems. To continue the knowledge exchange, and to support the development of the NAIPs, FAO and the African Union Commision, with the participation of Grow Africa, Government of Ireland representatives, and the Government of Rwanda as host, organized a 4-day Executive Coaching for African Leaders from the Public Sector and Food Industry on Engaging the Private Sector in Sustainable Food Systems Development held in Kigali 23rd-26th July, 2019. Participation was made up of representatives from public and public-private institutions from Angola, Ireland, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. In 2019, based on the request of the Uganda Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF), the Executive coaching framework was customized to the Ugandan context in support of the country forthcoming NAIP. The event was held in Entebbe in December on 10th-13th December. The execution of the activity involved the technical and logistic organization of the events and travels, and the work of: • five human resources, including an Agribusiness Officer, an Agribusiness Consultant, the Harvard Agribusiness course former Director, and two administrative staff; • a local service provider.
The process contributed to a reassessment of how Uganda has developed its agriculture strategy, which has taken it from a sectoral initiative focused on investment led by the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries, to a national integrated agrifood initiative aimed at sustainable food system transformation which will engage and be owned by a range of ministries in its implementation. The initiative has marked a paradigm shift for Uganda and represents for the country a step further towards achieving SDG17 – Partnerships for the goals. In addition, it is expected that the forthcoming strategy and its implementation plan will boost food system transformation in relation particularly to the creation of supply and demand for sustainably produced healthy food, especially for most vulnerable consumers and that this will contribute to the achievement of SDG 2 – Zero hunger and SDG 12 – Responsible production and consumption.
The different partnerships, including that with the African Union Commission and the Government of Ireland, and the support of the Government of Uganda, have contributed to the success of the initiative.
Funding has been secured (in collaboration with UNEP and UNDP) to continue the support to the roll-out of the strategy. Such further support will also aim at providing concrete ways to embed the collaborative process in the decision-making modalities used by the Government ministries and institutions responsible for the design and implementation of successive agro-food strategies. In particular, a tool for effective multi-stakeholder collaboration will be developed and tested in the Ugandan context. This will contribute to ensuring sustainability to the initiative. In terms of replicability, the tool developed for Uganda is expected to be applicable to other contexts/countries.
Forthcoming
Covid-19 outbreak has partially impacted on the implementation of the initiative activities reducing the opportunities of travels and of in-person meetings. Such problem has been overcome through the use of technology and the organization of virtual meetings. The initiative, on the other side, is expected to improve Government capacity to address and deal with disruptions such as Covid-19, through the formulation of sound and resilient food system strategies that take into consideration different scenarios and ways to deal with crises.
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Other beneficiaries
Direct beneficiaries include representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture, Trade, Planning and Finance, public and public-private institutions, and a range of domestic and international food industry professionals which have received the executive coaching. Indirect beneficiaries are Ugandans food producers and consumers.
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