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Annual General Assembly 2012

Food, farmers and markets
The Hague, 30-31 January 2013

Report from Proceedings

Wednesday, 30 January 2013 Introduction and Welcome At the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands, Platform members and friends convened for two days in The Hague for the Platforms Annual General Assembly. Around 100 participants from 26 member and several partner organisations discussed ways to find options for linking smallholders to markets, identify the role of the international community in supporting this process, better understand Platform members different initiatives and work programmes and how to decide on key work themes for the Platform to continue supporting agriculture, rural development, food security and nutrition. Welcome__Monique Calon, Senior Policy Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands and Platform Chair In her capacity as chair of the Global Donor Platform and host of the AGA, Monique Calon welcomed Platform members and guests from partner organisations Today, food for all is by no means a given. Platform members should continue to strive to better coordinate keeping agriculture and food security high on the agenda, to understand constraints and identify best practices, and to protect the interests of the poorest while contributing towards economic growth at the same time Private sector investments, investments by emerging economies, remittances and south-south cooperation exceed ODA by far Members should redefine their role, expand their horizons to embrace new actors, develop new instruments and use government resources to leverage private sector investment in favour of small scale farmers and business people. Create an enabling environment for businesses to flourish, for citizens to speak out freely and reap the benefits of economic growth AGA 2012 provides a great opportunity to share knowledge and experience, to learn from others and to create connection between the donor community and other equally important networks

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Highlights from last year: Platform Review 2012__Nikita EriksenHamel, Senior Agricultural Policy Advisor, CIDA and Platform Focal Point

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Overall, the Platform is a useful mechanism which is attractive to members and partners In 2012, a wide range of activities and achievements characterised the 9 Platform thematic streams with major successes in knowledge sharing, active membership, and engagement in different fora The different dynamics within the 9 thematic streams show that there is no single recipe how the Platform advances in response to member interest

The Platform secretariat is owed much credit in providing networking opportunities for Platform members and pushing the limits The Platform is in an excellent shape to address priority issues and to identify members need to continue discussing innovation, new development finance and engagement with new actors, especially with the private sector and to scale-up cooperation Opening by the host__Christiaan Rebergen, Deputy Director General, International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands Alarming statistics on global hunger, malnutrition and food waste force development partners to aim for smarter, partnershiporiented development cooperation, focusing more on economic cooperation than on traditional aid By 2050, food production should be increased by 60%. We need more investments, improved market access and new innovative solutions to expand income opportunities of small farmers Private sector is the key for the worlds food problems. Public sector must create an enabling environment through reforms in trade regimes, sharing knowledge and technology and by partnering with companies that are willing to reach out to small scale farmers and entrepreneurs in developing countries Donors need to continue advocating for inclusion and create opportunities for the poor The Dutch government has a broad approach to food security, looking at the entire food chain, global issues, international public goods and public private partnerships The AGA is a prime example of how stakeholders come together to develop practical suggestions to improve effectiveness

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Keynote__ Food farmers and markets A broad overview Objectives: 1. What are the (international, regional, national) policy goals that countries and the global community should adopt to strike a balance between food security and equitable economic growth? 2. What are the long term (sustainable) policy parameters and how can both donors and recipient governments respond? Keynote__Prof. Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, Centre for Food Policy, City University London Tim Lang fundamentally questioned what he views as the prevailing productionist paradigm and called for a complete revision of today's global food system: Today's food system is not underproducing but overproducing, leading to problems such as maldistribution and social inequality - food democracy is important Agriculture and food systems need a more holistic approach, to integrate health and social issues into agriculture policies and to pave the way for a new agenda for good food systems - ecological public health is needed Such systems should include horticulture aiming at healthy diets, sustainable ecosystems, employment and reduce food waste - re-think the paradigm to decide whether more food or sustainable diets are needed Calling for a Hot Springs 2, Prof. Lang laid out international, regional and national policy goals that the global community should adopt to strike a balance between food security and equitable economic growth. He asked for long term sustainable policy parameters within donor interventions to solve the problems of the global food system Q&A session how the complexity of reaching a sustainable food system can be incorporated into the post-2015 development agenda and Rio+20 discussions, both processes offering an opportunity to create a new agenda for good food systems if the post-MDG agenda can make the transition to the developed countries the definition of sustainable diet and ecological nutrition based on Prof. Langs 6 indicators for a good food system (quality, social values, environment, health, economy and governance) the possibility to find a common language for economic footprints in the over- and under-consuming world need to cooperate with the private sector, but from a critical stance the unsustainability of fish consumption patterns and ways to take in essential minerals without eating fish but by eating plants need to think about those in hunger first in order to reach food security and secondly think about the development of a sustainable food system

Online resource__ Read summary and watch video recording, including presentation

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need to take cultural issues and environmental limits of different places into account because same diets do not fit everywhere

Panel session__ Changing role of international community in supporting food, farmers and markets 4 panelists representing the views of donors, academia, smallholder farmers and the private sector discussed the session objectives: 1. What are the key challenges to supporting food, farmers and markets from the perspective of the different stakeholders? 2. What are the practical recommendations for linking up farmers to markets? 3. How are panellists organisations (with partners) supporting food, farmers and markets? 4. What else needs to happen by the different stakeholder groups? Panellist__Prof. Eric Smaling, Senator, and Professor for Sustainable Agriculture, University of Twente Read and download presentation Looking at reasons for recurring food security crises Smaling indicated 5 avenues to reach global food security by 2050: 1. more food hectares, 2. more food per hectare, 3. less waste, 4. better distribution, and 5. better diets Continuous population growth demands an overall food increase by 70% through crop intensification, better storage and better distribution Legislation and institutions need to support the process towards global food security Food security needs to be included in school curricula and national and global (i.e. Food Security Council) alliances need to be built Chibonga highlighted challenges for smallholders and recommended solutions, for instance, linking farmers better to functioning markets. They must adopt farming as a business. Quality and standards of smallholder production must be enhanced through: Panellist__Dr Werner Buck, Corporate Director Public & Quality Affairs FrieslandCampina Read/download presentation Build farmers capacity to use latest technology Increase government and donor support to empower farmers Rethink donors approaches, if they do not contribute to longterm sustainability Strengthen legal frameworks to secure land rights and the role of cooperatives Center PPPs around smallholders

Panellist__Dyborn Chibonga, Chief Executive Officer of the National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM) Read /download presentation Read/watch interview with Dyborn Chibonga at AGA

Buck presented FrieslandCampinas livelihood support programme for small scale farmers in the dairy farming sector and stressed 3 important roles of the food producing private sector when investing in developing countries: 1. provide nutritious food products that are not produced in suffi-

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cient quantity/quality by developing countries 2. produce in developing countries, via mergers/acquisitions or start up new production sites 3. offer knowledge about sustainable safe and efficient primary production in countries Buck highlighted necessary conditions and outlined major challenges business is facing when producing in developing countries as well as the mutual benefits for FrieslandCampina and the partner countries through increasing the quality of milk regarding the nutritional needs of populations that are 25% self-sufficient Panellist__ Marylaure Crettaz, Marylaure Crettaz presented 4 key messages of the Platform Policy Advisor, SDC and PlatCommon Ground document which reflects the ambition of the form focal point Platform to improve development effectiveness through a common understanding of challenges and opportunities: 1. Support the design and implementation of regulatory Read/download presentation frameworks for responsible investment in agriculture 2. Mobilise the private sector and encourage private partnerships to achieve food security and reduce food losses and waste 3. Strengthen womens economic empowerment and their central role in the food supply chain and in nutrition 4. Address youth interest through market-oriented and ICT supported rural opportunities Marylaure Crettaz also brought in the donor perspective from SDC on food, farmers and markets, recommending: to strengthen farmers links with markets and farmer organisations to take into account consumption patterns in developed and developing countries to adopt services to the needs of smallholders (i.e. SDC advisory services e.g. concerning ICT-technologies; support through international partnerships; e.g. GFRAS) to support conducive environments at national and regional levels to go with the trend for Making Markets Work for the Poor Q&A session Debate on raised challenges and solutions towards improving development effectiveness, especially focusing on: The role of the Nigerian government, which expected Friesland Campina to run an extra development project when the company invested in Nigeria Tight limits to expand production in times of population growth and the importance of land rights The Voluntary Guidelines as a starting point for a more regulatory movement that now needs to be effectively implemented Ways of improved private sector collaboration and market link-

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age of small scale farmers with less than 1ha Widen the classic donor paradigm, i.e. reducing hunger and poverty, and focus on smallholder farmers with MDG1 as rational of donor response. Also, look for new cross-sectorial partnerships and alliances to link farmers better, address the power systems within the global food chain and focus more on nutrition and food waste World Cafes

Session Objectives: How Platform members and institutions address the issue of food, farmers and markets? Which knowledge needs to be shared? Which initiatives do members put in place?

Read/download the worldcafe overview with one-page descriptions of each of the 22 cafes Key messages of World Caf category 1: Scaling Up for Food Security and Rural Employment (1) GAFSP: ONE program with TWO windows to promote competitive and inclusive food systems__ Yurie Tanimichi Hoberg, World Bank Synergy among public and private investment will only take place if there are very specific efforts to assure its realisation. This will not happen naturally Link the public and private window to better coordinate more integrated projects and share results Identify common incentives for effective collaboration and specify what kind of private sectors GAFSP should be targeting

(6) Scaling-up sustainable trade through global private-public collaboration__ Ewald Wermuth, Sustainable Trade Initiative

Enable smallholders to meet product standards, because sustainable trade between global private actors and local producers means supply security for one side and demand security for the other side Bring big investors willing to invest sustainably together in a pre-competitive cooperation with local smallholders Use public money to leverage relatively high risk investments in rural areas and build investment-friendly environments (bring this into CAADP discussion)

(9) Seas of Change: Innovation and exchange for scaling inclusive agri-food markets__ Joost Guijt, Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen

Scaling inclusiveness needs to be explicitly targeted and requires flexible support to allow for failure and to respond to changing circumstances Provide more flexibility in donor programmes to ensure transfer from ideas to practice and inherent learning mechanisms Find innovative ways to better involve small and medium enter-

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University (14) The New Alliance and GrowAfrica__ David Hegwood, USAID

prises (SMEs) and share lessons learned in this regard Recognise the need to involve the private sector more in development efforts and learn more about how to do that effectively Focus more on what the private sector is doing and increase visibility of private sector engagement Identify private sector demands regarding cooperation and bring more resources into the sector

(20) Leaping & learning: Linking African smallholders to markets for better food security. What development partners need to know__ Iris Krebber, DFID and Steve Wiggins, ODI (21) Scaling up access to credit for rural development in Haiti__Matthew Straub, CIDA

Enough is known to change the livelihoods of African smallholders as well as African and global food security Donors need to analyse poor performance and value failure to improve impacts Build up what already works to scale-up success and to shift bad business environments to functioning business

For Haiti, some drastic measures are needed to rescue the country: Improve donor coordination in the country and look beyond agriculture at natural resource management, especially soil and water Three years after the earthquake, there is a need for more strategic options Haitian agriculture is based on rice which cannot compete with the American imports after trade liberalisations

Key messages of World Caf category 2: Effective Value Chains (2) Findings from the conference on value chains for transforming smallholder agriculture held 6-9 November 2012 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia __Lamon Rutten, CTA Donors part in value chains: Work with the private sector makes it possible to extend the reach of efficient value chains. De-risk the sector by working on trust and perception Donors need to know when to intervene and when to step out Donors need focus on linking the African hinterland to the African cities by financing value chain development

(4) Mobilising Aid for Trade to Enhance CAADP implementation and private sector initiatives - How to strengthen bridging between agriculture, trade and environment?__ Sven Walter, Global

Private sector and value chain development can serve as joint objectives to strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation, since it will benefit all areas of intervention, i.e. trade, agriculture and environment Donors need to bridge sectoral gaps and institutional barriers Make different processes (CAADP, ECF, etc.) more coherent

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Mechanism and Francesco Rampa, ECPDM (5) Womens collective action in agricultural markets: The missing link for empowerment?__ Sally Baden, Oxfam

and improve implementation

Inclusive women farmers engagement in markets requires engagement with social context, presentation of economic arguments and reform of regulatory environment Raise mens awareness to make space for womens empowerment and make use of government (extension) systems to increase sustainability Donors and NGOs need to work better together to link farmers cooperatives with private sector

(11) Value chains - Generating local value added: Linking farmers through innovative approaches__ Waltraud Rabitsch, Austrian Development Agency

We need to pay more attention to the crises that smallholder farmers face when integrating into value chains Strengthening organisational development and enhancing negotiation capabilities of smallholder farmers is crucial Provide support to risk-averse smallholders, for instance through weather indexed insurances and linkage to small scale finance

Key messages of World Caf category 3: Adaptations to Business Models (3) Inclusive business models for food and nutrition security at the Base of the Pyramid__ Myrtille Danse and Nicolas Chevrollier, Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) Innovation Center Use available information and keep on showing impact Set up value chains and involve BoP in the system through employment by identifying local organisations and linking them with businesses that have managerial capacities (lead partners) and can facilitate the change Stimulate the private sector to work together with small- and medium enterprises

(10) Leveraging production through financial services__ Bruce Dick, Rabobank

Financing is a key for development and real gains can be achieved, especially supporting medium-term finance Involve local retail banks with clients in the SME sector Help local farmers to overcome difficulties in finding funds

(12) Agricultural cooperatives as a business model for development__Maria Larrea Loriente, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Spain

Farmer cooperatives are a participatory and inclusive business model that empower the most vulnerable Link farmers in developing countries with peers from developed countries Support cooperative development on the ground and try to decrease the risk of politicisation

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(13) Nutrition-sensitive agriculture__Yurie Tanimichi Hoberg, World Bank

For donors, take advantage of the heightened interest on nutrition to really push to make progress on nutrition, e.g. in the G8 A change of mindset is needed to link agriculture and nutrition in the food security context Have a strong focus on women when aiming at including nutrition in programmes

(16) Results measurement in the development of agricultural value chains__Jim Tanburn, Enterprise Development

Clarifying project logic from the start is key for greater effectiveness and adhering to this needs to be an incentive for all stakeholders Donors need to promote a culture of decent and honest monitoring Allow for adjustments of projects to reduce failure and hence less shame at evaluation stage

(17) Promoting farmer entrepreneurship through partnering__Hedwig Bruggeman, Agri-ProFocus

Donors should actively seek to join hands with local knowledge management initiatives to spread the best practice in agriculture further Bring learning and knowledge sharing institutions down to the local level and involve local farmers, local government and local NGOs Build local knowledge management capacities

Key messages of World Caf category 4: The Changing operative environment for ARD (7) How infrastructure development contributes to food security__Josephine Mwangi-Mutuura, AfDB While infrastructure is not the only driver for economic development in Africa, it is very essential and we cannot have an agricultural transformation without it Bilateral donors should focus more efforts on capacity building of farmers; farmers demand for better infrastructure can by targeted by the multilaterals Bilateral and multilateral donors need to collaborate more effectively regarding cheaper and sustainable infrastructure development (e.g. through linking infrastructure to trade corridors) and they should use the Platform to advocate the importance of the topic

(8) Putting the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security

Donors should strengthen their efforts to support countries in the implementation of the Voluntary guidelines on land tenure and harmonise their efforts on country level Donors should support political momentum and engage in policy dialogue with governments always using the VGs as instrument in negotiations

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into practice at country level: Challenges for continuing international cooperation__Marylaure Crettaz, SDC & Jorge Muoz, World Bank (15) Resilience to external and internal shocks while seizing economic opportunities in the emerging and changing circumstances__Parvindar Singh, Common Fund for Commodities (16) Green growth, SouthSouth and policy progress: State of play for recommendations from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change__Christine Negra, for CCAFS

Donors should involve relevant stakeholders in the debate and make them aware of the VGs, especially the private sector

Work with all sectors precise targeting of intervention against constraints. Dont ignore any part of the chain! Donors need to mitigate the impact of volatility Focus more on branding of products and regional value chain approaches

To take the Commissions framework into practice, the global donor community can support research to understand geographically specific strategies, especially with regard to food loss and waste and sustainable diets Bridge policy and practice and translate CCAFS Report recommendations into donor interventions Put more emphasis on sustainability, especially on scenarios of sustainable intensification

(17) On common ground: Platform priority areas and emerging messages Building on the Joint Donor Concept__Karim Hussein, consultant

Platform members identified common ground in thematic areas which will be refined further to enable the Platform to feed into processes like the post-2015 development agenda Identify key messages from Common ground and find a vehicle to transmit them to the political agenda Donors must be clear on the level of agreement regarding common denominators

(22) New world food system__ Prof. Eric Smaling, Senator and University of Twente

We need a designated platform to tackle the issue of the new world food system. One suggestion would be UN + WEF Local and national initiatives are not sufficient to compensate for advancement of consumerist lifestyle in emerging economies High-level institution including the private sector are necessary to tackle food security

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Thursday, 31 January 2013 Keynote Food farmers and markets What is key in moving forward as members of the international donor community? Objectives: 1. What works in linking smallholders to markets for food and nutrition security? 2. Challenges for the donor community and other stakeholders Keynote__Sir Gordon Conway, Chair International Development, Imperial College London and leader of the Agriculture for Impact programme Sir Gordon Conway opened Day 2 of the AGA by laying out the interconnected challenges towards feeding the world by 2050 in a sustainable manner: The probability of repeated food price spikes and a continuing upward trend in food prices The persistence of a billion or more people suffering from chronic hunger Feeding a growing population in the face of a wide range of adverse factors, including climate change Global food supply can only be secured if these challenges are met. Four routes could result in a transformative and achievable action plan aiming at ending world hunger, including innovation, fair and efficient markets, people and political leadership that supports and coordinates these routes. 1% gain in GDP originating from agriculture will generate a 6% increase in overall expenditure of the poorest 10% of the population. Therefore, agricultural development is the best route to achieving sustainable economic growth in developing countries. The aim should be to achieve an agriculture that is highly productive, stable, resilient and equitable. Secure land rights and access to markets are the two big incentives for farmers towards adoption of innovation and scaling-up Need to support cooperatives to bridge gender productivity gaps and social factors that hinder women in engaging with cooperatives Difficult to find entry points to reach out to the 80% of unorganised farmers in developing countries. Research has shown that linking marginal smallholders to markets in some cases is counterproductive It is better provide intermediate technologies to raise staple yields for off-farm opportunities to flourish Get local business to engage with farmers to reach a higher regional production and demand Shape the CGIAR to strengthen capacities of national research systems in developing countries to meet the challenges in the agricultural research for development structure

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Q&A session

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Breakout groups Moving forward in supporting food, farmers and markets Session objectives: 1. What are the implications for smallholder farmers in the short to medium term? 2. What can Platform members do in the next year to support food, farmers and markets? 3. How can Platform members improve their networking and knowledge-sharing to support this? Breakout group 1: Finance for food - new conditions, new options? Convenor: Jrgen Fechter, KfW and Platform focal point Chair: Hanns Martin Hagen, KfW Presenter: Stefan Schmitz, BMZ and Platform focal point; Roland Gross, GIZ and Christine Pirenne/Pierre Schonenberg, Rabo Development Rapporteur: Lamon Rutten, CTA Presentation 1 Presentation 2 Rapporteur slides The groups main findings and recommendations: 1. 500 million smallholder households and many commercial SME farmers are widely underserved by commercial banks 2. Like farming, building strong agricultural finance institutions requires commitment, investment and a long-term perspective 3. Each market, each sector, each farmer segment is different. Local knowledge and partnerships is crucial for success 4. Value chain approach should be central to finance 5. Governments/bank regulators, NGOs and donor agencies need to work together to create a supportive framework What initiatives could Platform members take together to support the groups findings? 1. Help governments implement consistent rural finance policies 2. Promote capacity building and knowledge management; e.g., map the public instruments that are available for financial institutions; document who does/offers what 3. Directly target the issue of risk (both real and perceived) in agricultural finance 4. Combine funding with smart subsidies (e.g. guarantee system) and risk sharing Key messages from the group that Platform members should communicate further: 1. Momentum to improve financial services now 2. There is no silver bullet but there are successful experiences on which one can build 3. Look at agricultural finance not as a stand-alone product, but in conjunction with risk and business development 4. Medium-to long-term finance is a major bottleneck for commercial banks: donors may help 5. We need strong partnerships Breakout group 2: Food staples as a target for The groups main findings and recommendations 1. Food security needs to become nutrition inclusive 2. The poor eat food staples in large quantities, making them a

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nutritional improvement: Can the hard-to-reach smallholder farmers benefit? Convenor: Howarth Bouis, HarvestPlus and Lynn Brown, WFP Chair: Howarth Bouis, HarvestPlus Presenter: Paulus M. Verschuren, MFA The Netherlands; Inge Brouwer and Mark Aarts, Wageningen University Rapporteur: Thom Sprenger, Harvest Plus Presentation 1 Presentation 2 Rapporteur slides

good vehicle for nutrient improvement. 3. The ultimate goal is diversified diets: this will take a long time to achieve What initiatives could Platform members take together to support the groups findings? 1. Define specific activities to realise nutrition-sensitive agriculture 2. Promote in-depth sharing of knowledge and programmes in this area. 3. Use the network to champion nutrition-sensitive agriculture Key messages from the group that Platform members should communicate further: 1. Fortification (urban) and biofortification (rural) are complementary strategies 2. With respect to biofortification, the final steps are demonstration. With respect to fortification existing programmes need to be fine-tuned 3. To reach common ground on specific strategies within nutrition specific agriculture (clarify each others roles and responsibilities) The groups main findings and recommendations 1. Old wine (sustainable agriculture) but with climate change new taste to sustainable intensification 2. Climate change is a game changer. It is here to stay. Temperature increase by +4 degrees rather than +2, maybe even +6 3. Need to improve donor coordination and communicationre-establish agriculture and climate working group What initiatives could Platform members take together to support the groups findings? 1. Coordinated and coherent mainstreaming push to integrate climate into agriculture and food systems (and vice versa) e.g. o Post 2015 MDG SDG agenda o Private Sector readiness on climate change o Dont forget agriculture in UNFCCC, but equally need greater efforts to put climate on agriculture agenda What are the key messages from the group that Platform members should further communicate:

Breakout group 3: Climate-smart agriculture Old wine in new bottles? Convenor: Elwyn GraingerJones, IFAD Chair: Sir Gordon Conway, Imperial College London and leader of the Agriculture for Impact programme Presenter: Elwyn GraingerJones Discussants: Sir Gordon Conway; Sonja Vermeulen, CCAFS and David Howlett, DFID Rapporteur: Kerstin Jonsson Ciss, Sida Presentation 1

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Rapporteur slides

Revitalise the Climate and Agriculture group with the objectives to 1. share knowledge and coordinate rapid increase in support to climate and agriculture, including advocacy coordination. 2. try to better understand institutional mainstreaming solutions 3. How can we attract and involve the private sector and possibly other voices e.g. BRICs? 4. How do we convey a politically attractive message on climate change and agriculture, not concentrating only on problems?

Breakout group 4: What role does regional trade play in getting food from the farm to the fork? Convenor: Monique Calon, MoFA The Netherlands and Platform Chair Chair: Francesco Rampa, ECDPM Presenter: Paul Brenton, World Bank and Marco Serena, DFID Rapporteur: Marco Serena, DFID Presentation 1 Rapporteur slides

The groups main findings and recommendations 1. Facilitating regional trade is crucial to moving food from surplus to deficit areas, increasing food availability, reducing price volatility, stimulating diversification 2. Most governments act out of fear that they will be left without enough food 3. Africa can feed Africa but supporting implementation of regional trade commitments is a key challenge What initiatives could Platform members take together to support the groups findings? 1. Invest financial and political capital into the development of regional markets and keep it high on the agenda 2. Share more of what works and what does not towards scaling up of best practice 3. Spread the message and explore the difficult questions: how do we align to support policy change, winners and losers in regional trade, links with international value chains? What are the key messages from the group that Platform members should further communicate: 1. Donors need to integrate regional issues more carefully into their programming (cross sector, from HQ to country offices, cross government) 2. CAADP provides emerging mechanisms for coordination at continental level (JAGS) and regional level compacts 3. Coordination and alignment is crucial to avoid increasing uncertainty for private sector and to contribute to institutional strengthening (RECs)

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Building on the Economist conference Feeding the world: Accelerating global collaboration on food security held in Amsterdam on 30 January 2013 A Readout Speakers__Marc van Ameringen, Executive Director, GAIN together with Iris Krebber, DFID and Platform Focal Point Marc van Ameringen gave a quick summary of the conference that he had attended together with about 250 people from government bodies, academia, international organisations and the private sector. He highlighted the 9 main outcomes: 1. Look at scale to address problems of the global food systems 2. Double productivity by reducing inputs by half through climatesmart agriculture and focusing on new financial products and technologies to reach medium- and small-scale farmers, especially women 3. See agriculture as a growth sector and engage the private sector (multinational and regional companies as well as small- and medium enterprises) more specifically in food and nutrition security 4. Leverage private sector more through better partnership models and analyse best practices 5. Integrate nutrition much more firmly into the agriculture and food security debate and add nutrition in the entire value chain process 6. Understand complexity of obesity and find new solutions how to respond to it through regulation, reformulation of products and diets and the creation of social norms 7. Use well-managed wild fisheries to address hunger in the future 8. Generate need models to integrate smallholder farmers more into the market and link them to urban areas 9. Use new technologies available to develop better indicators and measurement tools for interventions Iris Krebber stressed that for DFID national growth can only be seen as a tool to achieve food security and support people to have sustainable development. She saw most of the main themes reflected in the Common ground document, but reminded Platform members to listen more to the needs of their clients and to include smallholder farmers more in the discussions about impact and the path forward. She also encouraged participants to stop working in various silos, to find a common language and to converge best practices and successful methodologies to bridge the existing gaps.

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Review of the Joint Donor Concept Interactive session on the draft document Presentation__ Marylaure Crettaz, SDC and Platform focal point Introduction to the review of the Joint Donor Concept on Rural Development. Details on the progress made towards a joint effort of Platform members to agree on a set of the thematic priorities for ARD and FSN based on member inputs and strategies reviewed, highlighting the advancing common ground on these themes: Aid/Development Effectiveness/Results, including CAADP Climate change/Resilience in Agriculture Gender Equity (and Youth) Agriculture Research for Development Private Sector Development in ARD Food Security/ Nutrition and Agricultural Development Pastoralism/Livestock Post-harvest Losses/Food Waste Land Governance/Water Management

Read more about the update and review process and find material

Platform members and guests were invited to comment on the different perspectives and messages proposed following the questions: What is missing? What is not correct? What could be deleted? Where would you like to engage (workstream) to complete the messages? Participants comments will help to further elaborate key messages for the first draft of the Common ground on Platform priority areas

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Platform A review and planning ahead Key take away messages Session objectives: 1. What can Platform members do in the next year to support food, farmers and markets? 2. What are the potential areas of work for the Platform in the next year?
3.

How can Platform members be better at networking and knowledge-sharing to support this? Summary of the discussions underlining clarity on the work to be done in 2013 regarding the post-2015 debate: Changing circumstances of the agricultural sector (trade not aid) do not allow business as usual and classic food security messages might not make it on the post-2015 development agenda To influence post-2015, G8 and G20 debates, the Platform needs to focus on resilience issues; social inclusion; employment for women & youth; sustainable intensification of agricultural production as well as the importance of diets, stunting and nutrition and agriculture research for development Focus more on regional trade and work closer together with the private sector to increase production, income and employment Dedicate more time and space to the adaptability of ARD in the climate change agenda Redefine the discussion about the development of food systems

Speakers__Brian Baldwin, IFAD and Platform Vice-Chair and Prof. Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, Centre for Food Policy, City University London

The Platform is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2013. The network has established a good position to mediate between the private and the public sector and to advocate for the policychanges donors want to see. Tim Lang commented with a need for donors to: Prioritise and work hard to support smallholder agriculture Define the terms of engagement with the private sector Focus on complex and multi-disciplinary food systems Look for allies in the public health sector and consumers to create more impact regarding the post-2015 debate Closing remarks Closing__ Monique Calon, Senior Policy Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands and Platform Chair Constructive meeting and enriching experience. There is great enthusiasm to continue the broader perspective of food systems, but agriculture remains key within the food system debate as so many smallholders depend on it for their livelihoods. Looking ahead to 2013, Calon encouraged Platform members to stay active and contribute to the network to achieve joint impact: Harvest can be done now, but we have also to think about what kind of seeds we want to plant now

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