From Islands of Success to Seas of Change:
Initiative for Scaling Inclusive Agri-Food Markets
A group of international organizations, businesses and researchers brought together by Wageningen UR are jointly posing the question: “What works when scaling inclusive agri-food markets?”
The Seas of Change Initiative is a learning and research initiative linked to an international learning workshop on 11-13 April. The Initiative has arisen from discussions between a group of business players, development agencies and researchers.
In the context of rapidly growing attention for inclusive business, Seas of Change takes an in-depth look at the agri-food sector. The focus is on how businesses with the right support from government, donors, NGOs and research can scale up inclusive agri-food market development to ensure food security for 9 billion people and help to tackle poverty. Seas of Change is deliberately an emerging process that will give interested businesses and others the opportunity to help shape it, so that it will meet their needs.
International learning initiative
A background study lays the groundwork for the workshop. The international learning workshop will bring together 100 senior leading practitioners from business, producer organisations, policy, knowledge institutes, and NGOs with the aim of taking a big picture look at promising efforts emerging from the last decade’s experiences in establishing sustainable and equitable agri-food value chains.
The workshop will provide a dynamic learning platform of leading practitioners and a unique opportunity to shape emerging ideas. High-potential options for scalable innovations into the future will be identified. The outcome will be a ‘state of the art’ perspective on directions for scaling inclusive markets and an innovation agenda for joint follow-up action.
Context
The coming decades will require unprecedented change in global agri-food systems. Growing and changing demands for food, the impacts of climate change, responding to poverty and hunger, and rapid decline of natural resources create a set of interconnected factors that mean ‘business as usual’ is not an option if business are to maintain secure supplies and food security is to be assured. The big question for the coming decades is how to achieve the scale of change needed and quickly enough.
Scaling up inclusive business requires new models of business, innovative financing mechanisms, effective public private partnerships, supportive policies and mobilisation of peoples’ capacities. While profitable business will be a major motor of change, creating the enabling conditions is a joint task between public, private and NGO sector players. Much remains to be learned about getting these partnerships right and how the different players can most effectively play their role.
Outputs
The outputs will include a pragmatic follow-up agenda to guide new investment in inclusive agri-food markets, a synthesis of recent research and workshop’s outcome, and an interactive website (www.seasofchangeinitiative.net) that makes key resources and findings easily accessible It is expected that the workshop will lead to an on-going learning agenda that partners in the event will carry forward.
More information and registration:
Website – www.seasofchangeinitiative.net
E-mail – info@seasofchangeinitiative.net