TRANSFORMATION TALKS

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What is food systems governance, why is it an opportunity and how do you invest in it?

From insights to action session - 28 March 2024

Transformation Talks

• Transformation talks is a series of three sessions
• Discovery & Opportunity
• Deep Dive
• Insights to Action

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• The purpose of these talks is to learn about topics that are key to transforming food systems, and how food systems thinking can be put into practical use

Insights to Action session

Purpose of this final session: Learning and working together as a group to make governance of food systems transitions in South Sudan actionable for everyone

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• Learn about food systems transformation & governance
• Learn about practical cases and how they relate to transformations
• Define how we can contribute to the governance of food systems transitions ourselves

Recap: what is food systems transformation?

• Food systems can be visualized in different ways
• Examples, from presentation by Prof. Cees Leeuwis, Wageningen University

Recap: what is food systems transformation?

• Food systems are complex
• Composed of different things: farmers, companies, technology, infrastructure, environment, policies, behaviour of people, value chains, etc

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• System thinking can help make understanding the interaction between all of this more concrete

Recap: what is food systems transformation?

• Systems thinking: interactions between parts of the food system result in ‘emergent properties’ (the whole is more than the sum of the parts)

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• Emergent properties can be desirable or undesirable (food security, job creation, pollution, poverty)

Recap: what is food systems transformation?

• So the question is: how do systems develop ‘emergent properties’ that are more desirable?
• Change the ‘rules of the game’ that determine how these different parts of the food system interact with each other
• Rules of the game: policies & investment to produce for subsistence or market?
• Rules of the game: aid is financed in siloes (humanitarian, development)
• Rules of the game: incentives to prioritize service delivery through agriculture ministry
• Change coordination and alignment between actors in the system

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Recap: what is food systems transformation?

• Rules of the game, also called ‘food system regime’ (meso)
• Niches: experimentation, pilots, lobby (micro)
• Trends: Support or hinder change (macro)

Recap: what is food systems transformation?

• So very simply: food systems governance = working with actors in the system to change the rules of the game to create a desired outcome (governing the transition)

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• Who governs the food system?
• In South Sudan, this includes food producers, processors, traders, companies, government, civil society, aid organizations, international donors, the UN system and more..

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Recap: governance of transformation

Seven ways to support food systems transformation processes

• Creating and supporting variation (pilots, innovation and experiments)
• Capturing and supporting existing diversity (find, support what works)
• Temporary protection of niche initiatives (create safe spaces)
• Analysis of landscape trends & visioning (create understanding)
• Creating landscape level pressures (lobby & advocacy, new policies)
• Identifying plausible leverage points (find small opportunities for change with big impacts)
• Building discourse coalitions (agenda setting & coalition building)

Desired situation: three transitions

Three transitions that create a desired food systems situation

• From food aid & subsistence based production to (local) market oriented production
• Seed system development allows local markets to create self sufficiency in food production, enhancing farmer incomes, while decreasing or eliminating the reliance on imports and seed aid
• Bringing development actors into fragile spaces
• Resilient food systems deliver food security to communities despite occasional shocks, decreasing or eliminating the reliance on humanitarian aid while bringing in development actors
• Moving from service delivery by partners to service delivery by government - by prioritizing service delivery spending sectors (food security & WASH)
• The agriculture ministry has the means to deliver services based on community needs, supporting self sufficiency in production and decreasing reliance on humanitarian aid

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• Food systems are complex, no one actor is in control
• Food systems transformation tries to change ‘the rules of the game’
• Food systems governance: trying to transform food systems behaviour into a desirable direction, together with other stakeholders
• Transformation emerges from:
• Initiatives for change that start small and need to mature (niches)
• .. before they can compete with and replace existing dominant system (regime)
• .. with wider trends serving as pressures and opportunities (landscape)
• In any systems transformation powerful public and private actors will resist the change

Recap: governance of transformation