Innovation Lever of Change | Public Forum | June 7, 2021

welcome to our panelists and our participants today and uh thank you to the world economic forum for hosting this second public forum on the innovation lever of change one of four levers of change under the un food system summit it is a great pleasure to moderate today's panel on the role of innovation in transforming food systems for a more prosperous equitable and food secure future as a reminder this session is being live streamed and recorded and you may pose questions to the panelists and engage in discussion today on slido.com by using your qr code or the innovation lever which should appear on your registration page and on your screen while i am speaking just as a few framing remarks the unfss provides a unique opportunity to influence the way the world views and responds to some of our most pressing global challenges to achieving the sustainable development goals and it comes at a particularly critical moment in history 2020 marked the sixth year in a row where global hunger and under nutrition were on the rise we are in an unprecedented moment where converging crises to climate change conflict and economic downturns require fresh solutions to how the world produces processes transports and consumes food and innovation is an essential part of this the innovation lever of change led by the world economic forum in partnership with mercy corps is designed to help bring the vision of the unfss to reality by making innovation a significant enabling factor for food systems transformation working through a twin track approach the innovation lever supports innovation around the summit's five action tracks as well as cross-cutting innovation agendas it focuses on four key themes or working groups data and digital knowledge and technology society and institutional and national and regional which look at both the what and the how of innovation today we gather a distinguished panel representing a diverse community of public private and social sector innovation partners across these four thematic areas to share with us the latest work of the innovation leaver of change how that has been evolving as part of unfss related discussions and to hear their vision and game-changing solutions for food systems transformation after a 30 minute panel we will have time for a 20 minute q a so please go ahead and start posting your thoughts comments and questions on slido.com so turning to our panelists i'd like to welcome first david nabarro david is the co-director of the institute of global health innovation at imperial college london and support systems leadership for sustainable development through switzerland-based social enterprise 4sd he's also the curator of the food system's summit dialogues we also have with us andrew bavarnick who is the global head of food and agricultural commodity systems at undp he's also the societal and institutional innovation innovation cluster lead on the innovation lever of change we have with us also danush dinesh he's the head of partnerships outreach on climate change agriculture and food security at cgi cgiar and he's the knowledge and technological cluster lead on the innovation lever of change and the innovation lead for action track three which is focused on nature-based solutions and we also have the pleasure of having with us thule lynnea she is the coordinator of the kenya agricultural transformation office under the ministry of agriculture livestock and fisheries and a data and digital cluster champion so welcome to all our panelists and david i wanted to turn to you first to help us set the stage here the member state and independent dialogues are in many ways the foundation of the summit and the place where critical issues are being raised that require attention at all levels you talk about how innovation is emerging in the dialogues and what are you hearing in terms of how innovation is being tackled at a national level thank you very much indeed uh how lovely to be with everybody here today and greet big gratitude to all concerned with the innovation lever of change for inviting me to be here today so i'm very much involved in the preparation for the summit with this role in helping dr calabata the special envoy with the food system summit dialogues there are now dialogues underway involving multiple stakeholders in 126 nations those are the member state dialogues and there's also many many independent dialogues underway and i just say that as of the latest count 483 have been announced 383 have taken place and we've got feedback from 140 independent dialogues that means that we're likely to have well over the thousand independent dialogues that we were anticipating by the time of the summit so with independent dialogues and member state dialogues i can assure you that there's an awful lot of conversation underway and innovation is coming in more and more partly it's technological innovation ways to enable greater productivity with more efficient use of scarce resources like water or like pesticides or like fertilizer or more efficient preservation of foods once they're produced again through better technology or a more efficient analysis of what's going on particularly in aquatic areas to improve the efficiency of aquatic food production and to at the same time contribute to safety and sustainability but there's also an interest in innovation in order to actually help countries get onto their different value chains for example in the pacific they would like to access innovative technologies to improve sustainable cultivation of aquatic foods and then also making that sustainably produced aquatic food available into global markets so to finish i just want to stress that we are hearing all over the world a real interest in innovation in order to enable greater engagement of different groups innovation to enable countries to get more involved in global supply chains and innovation to enable different actors be they producers processors distributors or retailers to be able to contribute to sustainable and equitable food systems by 2030 thank you very much indeed for the chance to say these few words and i'm very very keen during the next 50 minutes or so to be able to add if it's helpful back to you david uh thanks so much and thanks for for inspiring us with kind of setting the stage with the dialogues that and it's great to hear how innovation is coming out around water around fertilizer around aquatic food production food preservation just hearing those examples um really helps us make it concrete um i wanted now to turn to uh andrew andrew you are the cluster lead on the societal and institutional pillar of the innovation lever and we know that societal and institutional innovation is so essential to transforming food systems but we know that this is often an area that is overlooked or perhaps under invested in can you talk more about the importance of societal institutional innovation to the work of the action tracks and to the food systems agenda more broadly yes hi my pleasure ogre and thank you wes for inviting me here and it's a pleasure to be here on this public forum to share a glimpse at least of what we are trying to embrace and support through the societal and institutional working group um well it's such a pleasure to to lead this group is that for me and for many of us innovation is needed across all of society and across the way we support um all of our countries uh to try to change their food systems it's not just about technology that's often the the area of innovation most people think about technological economic solutions but these types of solutions innovations are only as effective as their degree of adoption by the users and if we think about a food systems uh arena we need the governments to be reforming policies uh food companies to be adopting uh new uh supply chain measures just as david mentioned and of course the farmers it's the farmers particularly a lot of the small holder farmers that uh dominate production across the world that need to be part of these innovations and to do that we need connection and it's very interesting a quote i like to use you know einstein albert einstein said famously we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them and the food systems that we operate in were created by specific stakeholders so no better way to bring innovation to our food systems thinking than to bring different people and different perspectives around the table and i'm thinking specifically of the farmers themselves the smallholder farmers in remote areas of the world now it's a time to innovate and find a way to bring them into these discussions and help us think through ways to solve the problems we now face in the food system and we also need to recognize that all of the stakeholders in the food system have different interests and different agendas companies have different interests from governments big agri business have different interests and needs from smallholder farmers so we need to find ways to help these stakeholders find common ground and this is where we need innovation we need expertise and facilitation to support and to support the creation of safe spaces where these stakeholders can come together discuss their differences and build relationships this is incredibly complex as we know as we look at the world today but the power the power of having the right people in a safe space to connect is quite unimaginable it's the this this type of space we can create can stimulate the creativity and opportunity for the changes we need and i believe we need to move from consultation to collaboration and from marginalization to inclusion this means bringing everyone round the table to really meaningfully discuss their needs and find common ground and vision to change food systems this is where we need to innovate we need to need to innovate in our ability to construct these safe spaces for dialogue and i think it's good for all of us to ask ourselves how can we create these spaces that are inclusive and participatory what type of innovation do we want to look for but if we move forward with this type of innovation across countries across landscapes to bring together all the stakeholders in the supply chain we can then really meaningfully catalyze the collaboration we need for a sustainable food system thank you thank you so much andrew we cannot solve our problems with the same systems that created them and we need to find space for common ground connection building relationships moving from marginalization to inclusion that is definitely food for thought and uh something that we need to consider as a central part of this agenda the news i wanted to turn to you um you are the innovation lead for action track three and together with the innovation innovation cluster on knowledge and technological innovation you are working on an initiative to support 100 million farmers to transition towards net zero nature positive practices by 2030. can you talk about what is needed for knowledge and technological innovation to support that transition and just before i might let you go i wanted to remind our audience that to please uh post your questions and your thoughts and comments um as you're hearing the panel of speak on slido.com you can go there uh with uh the hashtag innovationlever or the qr code on your uh registration page and then there's over to you yeah uh thank you olga and maybe i i will just take a step back and you alluded to my two different hats one is the hat is innovation lead for action track three and the other leading this cluster on knowledge and technology within the innovation lever so for those of the audience who have been following the food system summit preparations and andrew talked about making links and you also alluded to the twin track at cruise shoulder so that's essentially what we're trying to do here because there's all this work within the action tracks and as a lever you're trying to enable that action within action tracks so so that's a bit of background to understand how we got to the point we are at today so within the action tracks we we had a public call for ideas for game changing solutions and we had hundreds of ideas being submitted to us and as as david nabarro mentioned and it was really nice to hear what's coming out of the food system summit dialogues and similarly from the public survey also we were getting lots of ideas around knowledge and technological innovations which can change the game in food systems and especially for nature and for climate change so we we looked at all of them and our question was how do we bring all of them together and and this is what brought us to this initiative on 100 million farmers so this was actually one of the game-changing solutions which was proposed in the public forum and it really looks at achieving a tipping point reaching 100 million farmers with nature positive and sustainable production practices so if the underlying assumption is that with 20 of the global number of farmers we would be able to shift the dial on um sustainability so so we found this game-changing solution so that we then which was able to bring together all the other different technologies and practices uh like david mentioned about improve improved fertilizer use there was also a regenerative agriculture within that use of digital tools and technologies so all of these different ideas which came from the people together under the umbrella of really reaching scale with 100 million farmers so that that's what we're really trying to do with this initiative um and and david spoken in previous forum for others ab as well and this is the people summit so we really want to bring in those ideas from people and really reach scale with the people we're talking about the farmers so that's what we seek to do and how do we do that so in terms of knowledge and technology it's about having a system that works that can get us to scale how can we reach this hundred million farmers and we've started a process of doing a design sprint with stakeholders within the system and we identify three key areas where we need to work on one is really on accelerating the base and scale of technology adoption and prohibition so how can we really get the technology and knowledge to people who need it and you know what are those pathways and how can we get there faster and better and be more inclusive in that approach as well so that's the first thing that we need to do the second and there was a question about this which is already appearing which is all about entrepreneurship you know this is not going to reach 100 million farmers if you don't have a system where the knowledge and technology is used and there are business models and there are entrepreneurs appearing so it's about how can we get at least 10 000 entrepreneurs and business models around them which can help get this knowledge and technology to scale and finally it's all also about linking to the finance level of the food system summit and the work that the financial sector can play so can we have a system of knowledge and technology the networks in place which inspires confidence amongst this group so that they are willing to unleash the finance that we need because unless we can connect innovation to finance we're not going to get the scale so these are the three key things that we think the knowledge and technology cluster is moving towards fantastic donors thank you and i particularly like that the fact that this is a kind of a bottom-up idea that's bubbling up from multiple public forums and these stakeholder discussions and also this idea that innovation has to come from multiple places to get to scale and reach those solutions that we're talking about um tule i would like to come to you um you are spearheading a pace setting transformative initiative focused on the digitization and coordination of kenya's agricultural sect sector data to achieve the country's 10-year agricultural vision and support 100 food security that is a wonderful target can you talk uh to us briefly or talk to us about this vision and why spurring innovation through data and digital technology could be transformational in ensuring food systems benefit all kinds thanks and you know echoing a lot of what um danish and andrew have said you know for us it's also a ground up um a bottoms up um development approach so the agriculture transformation strategy is our 10-year strategy i just want to take a you know to give some context and as the coordinator for the agriculture transformation office is about making sure we implement um you know our nine flagships across the sector in making sure that we transform it towards being more digitally enabled so that we can aggregate and collect data from our users and stakeholders and especially our beneficiaries to ensure that we have policies that are driven by data and not anecdotal it's not about a feel good it's about how we make sure that we actually impact the beneficiaries that we say we're going to impact so for example we have implemented the e-voucher program which is actually a mobile based product and because for us in kenya um mobile penetration in terms of network connectivity is over 80 percent and handheld device penetration is 110 which means most people have two lines um and it's it's we've understood that using or leveraging the availability of those networks will reduce not only um the investment required from our fiscal space but that we encourage more players to participate because the mobile phone is now ubiquitous um to our users so when we launched the e-voucher program for example we saw a very slow uptake but once people understood that it is based on ussd and not having to download an app um we found that uh usability increased um and so for us you know when we when we look at supporting partners or working with the private sector to implement all digital platforms or support to ensure that our farmers use it it's about usability right um you know we can have a great app but if it's too costly for our farmers to then use it or it's not an easy fix to the work that they do on a daily basis and you're now adding work to them um you you find that you have high drop off rates um another way that we're definitely like we used data uh to respond to some of our challenges was during covent at the height of covet we brought in 50 stakeholders to work with us to ensure that we had the data available for our food balance sheet and this like gave us information on food availability food pricing so it's affordability and food accessibility so that we could intervene as government to ensure that it was an enabling environment to allow for all our partners especially digital platform service providers accessing markets we only knew that markets were open because of the digital partners that we were working with and so for us it's really important that um we create the enabling environment rather than being government being the ones who create the platforms because it'll stifle innovation and we want to ensure that we continue to innovate um and then the last example i also wanted to give was um on what we're currently calling uh kuzabia shara or kuzabot um it's a digital extension product which we piloted recently with the support of agra the world bank and some work with ephrat where we're looking at how do we ensure that the youth get more involved in agriculture they may not be our primary producers but they need to participate in the value chain some part of the supply chain and we found that creating an agency model where they provide extension work or last mile service they become the agents for our climate insurance product um they also become an agent for the uh our participating uh financial institutions we're still working out the modalities of that because of course banks have their requirements of how they do their kycs um and credit checks but in the end is to create um a self-sustaining model that allows for use to participate in the sector but not might not you know have access to land as we you know some of the issues with regards to assets but are participating uh within the value chain so for us it's about creating new and innovative ways of ensuring that we continuously have access to information um and data on our value chain actors thanks all organ thanks so much julie and great to hear how data and digital can help to create this infrastructure for inclusion for youth for for smallholder farmers and also allow you to shape policies based on kind of continuously keeping pulse of the context and i think that the covet 19 example you described was really compelling um i wanted to come back to david um david we heard a lot of of compelling innovative innovation initiatives being discussed across this group but there is still an outstanding question around how innovation can be most tangible for those who are on the front lines of transforming food systems so from your perspective how can we make innovation meaningful for people at a national level and certainly tuley started to get at this and what tools are needed to achieve new ways of engagement and inclusivity okay thanks very much indeed um first of all i don't think many of the people who participate in dialogues whether they are independent dialogues or national dialogues will find the word innovation easy to absorb and use in their normal way of working and for me when i first heard innovation used in health or in food i was always thinking that it was referring to new technologies new gadgets and then what i learned from from you in the innovation lever anger is that you don't see it like that you see innovation as a much broader concept and that has been immensely liberating to me because it's meant that i can start to see innovation as something immensely powerful that is basically about doing stuff differently in order to get better results and by creating a much more generic description i've also found it much easier to connect with people in national dialogues and in independent dialogues about the value of looking at the innovation lever and seeing how innovation as a way of thinking as well as a way of working can help to weave together ideas for all five of the action areas that are emerging to be so important in the summit because food policy is not separating out nutrition nature positive or from livelihoods or from resilience food policy is about finding way to ways to bring all these different ideas together so that they can be looked at as a policy issue at local level or at national level regional level or global level and it's innovation olga that gives us the opportunity to do this differently innovation how we think innovation and how we organize ourselves innovation in who we listen to innovation in how we meet innovation in our style of engagement for example the dialogue itself is an innovative methodology in many settings so let's keep really broad with this concept of innovation and i promise you there are people all over the world who are looking at innovation as the means through which they will be able to work differently on food in the months and years to come but it's not just going to be with technologies digital technologies it's not just going to be with new new ways of of designing meetings it's going to be innovation in terms of who we engage with and how we engage with them and that's the fun and toulet i'm so glad to see you here i want to say to you as i finish talking that i am overjoyed by the way in which stakeholders in kenya have come together and have made a really exciting basis for looking ahead to what food means in your country and that innovative approach that we're seeing in kenya forgive me using those words again we're also seeing in at least 40 other countries and that's the joy of being in my role you see stuff completely new and that brings me to olga to finish my remarks by saying thank you to the innovation lever for giving us all an opportunity to look for what is new in really unusual ways and to see how this can bring in completely different people into the conversation and it will help us thanks again thanks so much david i love this concept of broadening how we understand innovation to beyond being a thing to a way of thinking a way of doing a way of organizing and so bringing everybody along uh that's fantastic um and since you called out toulet i will uh go to her next i'm kind of truly continuing on this thread of ensuring innovation is tangible and practical and accessible and you started talking a little bit about it in your earlier remarks but how can we move from kind of data integration uh optimizing digitization to greater uptake and use of data across all food systems actors whether they're small holder farmers or wholesalers consumers young people so that we can really ensure our food systems are are more inclusive and efficient and resilient yeah i mean i just want to add to uh what just what david said because i do agree that you know we have really focused on innovation being digital and tech etc but we've also recognized internally that is about changing your mindset changing about your mindset about how we deliver change um in the ministry and then across the sector so for us um you know like i mentioned earlier the mobile phone is ubiquitous i mean in peso this is the birthplace of van pesa or mobile banking right um and so for us what we've done is we just embracing um that if you use mobile platforms we can then increase availability and accessibility as well as the data aggregation and collection um our sector as the agriculture sector is what we call devolved so now as national ministry we have to work much closer with our county counterparts and so we recognize that they we need to ensure that there's capacity and availability of hardware and understanding of you know data and information uh driven think ways of thinking as just your business as usual this is not um okay so we just do this for the policy team it is for everyone who's designing programs who wants to have impact who wants to actually have an effect on any part of the value chain we need to understand for example when we looked at the issue of our potato farmers right now they have high losses how do you then mitigate those losses without knowing the numbers without knowing where those farmers are how many they are what the volume of loss is and how we then intervene to ensure that we have issues and we can respond to their call chain requirements for example who their market off-take is going to be what type of volume is required to make sure that they can um effectively meet um uh the the market requirements and as we're always saying internally now it is we are driving the sector to become more commercially focused rather than moving up or moving our farmers from being subsistence and remaining in the subsystems but now to become market entrants how do we ensure that um so that we can mitigate us continuously having to give them a helping hand right how do you create the enabling environment and for us that's that's through data and it may not be specifically digital for the ministry but certainly for the valley chain actors it requires them to be able to connect more effectively with their producers um great too i i really like this this notion of you know how data and digital allow us to respond to very specific needs and experiences of foreign farmers so we can um you know that that's one way of motivating their participation in the system if they're seeing the benefits um and ensuring their their connection to markets as well um dinosh coming back to you um on the same question of tangible outcomes but from a slightly different angle um you have very clear goals and clear objectives related to 100 million farmers transitioning to net zero production nature positive production how will we know if the knowledge and technology solutions to support farmer transitions are reaching their goal and achieving success for nature and people how can we track this thanks um i'll make an attempt but i just wanted to comment also on something david mentioned and and the question the slider is overflowing i see lots of comments and with something really resonates with which david mentioned was we're bringing ideas together bringing people together towards an end of you know sustainability and better livelihoods and ending hunger so that's what we are after here and there was a comment about breaking silos and even when we're talking about knowledge and technology it's all about bringing these ideas together towards that ambitious goal of 100 million farmers that we want to reach to get that transformation in food systems so that's why we're ambitious and trying to reach that ambition we're bringing together ideas from across different silos and breaking these silos so that's really important and what we want to do is achieve that goal so the question that you had specifically is how do we know we are achieving that goals how do we how do we measure that because that's equally important we can we have at the summit a big ambitious announcement but how do we follow through on that so i i think there are three key areas that we need to focus on in terms of knowledge and technology and how that can enable us to measure that progress so firstly it's around people so are we reaching the right people so uh some of the points that they mentioned as well who are we reaching are they the right people i mean uh uh and one point which hasn't come up enough is our own inclusion inclusion in terms of gender diversity are we reaching those bright farmers and right stakeholders in this transition so how can you measure and manage that you know so that's that's one key area for the knowledge and technology agenda the other is for nature so in terms of halting nature loss tackling biodiversity enhancing biodiversity how do we measure that what are the protocols where do we apply and how do we aggregate that at the global scale and finally and this is the field that i come from is on the climate benefits so really quantifying the benefits for greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation to climate change as well a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions comes from food systems and if we are talking about 100 million farmers shifting to more sustainable pathways how do we measure that and traditionally measurement of greenhouse gas mitigation has been a huge challenge costs have been high you know validation has been expensive so how do we manage that and we see a lot of innovations in this space in the use of satellite based monitoring and how can we apply all of that to measure that progress we're making in terms of financing mitigation as well as adaptation as well so breaking it down measuring inclusion which is certainly possible measuring um nature loss or productivity through biodiversity and then looking at the climate benefits that's fantastic um so andrew coming to you for the final question before we open it up to uh q a you talk about um how do we know if societal and institutional innovation is catching on and working um and building off of what danish was talking about and how do you envision taking forward innovation in food systems following the summit great thank you and it's a pleasure to hear all the speakers and i think what i'll talk about builds a lot on all of our aspirations particularly as we look now post summit because as we all know the summit is coming up very quickly and before we know it september has come and gone um but so much important exciting efforts have been going on as part of this summit and you know as david said now 126 member states have initiated and organized food system dialogues uh many headed towards developing a food system pathways with with david's uh help and with this amazing leadership from all of these governments and so what interests us most i think is how can we continue supporting these dialogues as i mentioned earlier we see the need for innovation around stakehold multi-stakeholder collaboration uh creating these safe spaces and i think these dialogues and pathways are exactly the right mechanisms on which we can build and we can build in inclusion and collaboration of the stakeholders across the food systems into these dialogues but so is can someone go on mute please give me some typing um so just to say that you know we've been working at undp for over a decade now on trying to support these types of multi-stakeholder dialogues at country level and we've learned perhaps quite obviously that it takes years to help support develop relationships between stakeholders and to support the space for collaboration between stakeholders what we're seeing here this year is an amazing start but it's just the start if we really want to overcome conflict and different interests between stakeholders at a country level at a local level at an international level we really need to have our eye on 2030 and what can we be doing to continue all of this work and innovation around collaboration for these dialogues over the next decade another quote i quite like is progress moves at the pace of trust and therefore we need to continue to support this trust building and innovate about how we can do that so throughout the summit we've been building a coalition around this ambitious concept to work with member states on their needs and interests after the summit to continue supporting the dialogues and pathways it's these pathways which are like road maps that if they are inclusive they really can represent the needs of all the stakeholders and propose changes to the food systems that will be holistic and systemic in nature and what we are looking to do is develop a package of what we call the backbone support for these types of dialogues so help member states with the convening with the facilitation to really ensure that these dialogues are inclusionary and participatory and to help them with capacity building tools and trainings uh so that the countries themselves and the governments themselves and our colleagues like tulane can really uh move forward and and without our assistance continue these types of dialogues with the innovation that we are trying to to experiment now and if you think about it if we try to measure can you try to imagine measuring some of these let's call them more process oriented innovations how do we measure trust how do we measure the development and strengthening of relationships and and collaboration we need innovation around these these types of measurements for relationships um but just to say that we are we are really looking to to bring on board as many partners as possible because it will take everyone to support all the countries and their continuation of these pathways and it's through the pathways that we can also bring and connect all the technical solutions and innovations across the thematic areas that are being generated by the summit and bring them into these country uh food system discussions uh we're having these types of discussions already with the summit's un task force to explore coordination across the u.n system uh we're also discussing how to have the support embedded within the governance action area of the summit but it is a big tent approach and we welcome all partners because it's only together if we work on this together can we then underpin and enhance the opportunity to change food systems across the world thank you uh andrew i'll just say that uh from a personal perspective coming from an organization that works a lot on governance on interest based negotiation on facilitation it's great to hear that the dialogue process itself is being given such promise prominence in the innovation space and that this is something that we hope to continue and that we will continue to track and measure process as one of the ways that we get to food systems transformation uh so thanks for those remarks um we will now move into the question and answer portion of our time today as a reminder um you can post questions comments on slido.com for those who came

late i know many of you are um already on there we're getting lots and lots of questions coming in uh to our panelists i'm gonna start uh with a question that perhaps um david you can tackle um and then maybe chile we know that innovation needs funding um at development implementation at scaling level so we need it at multiple levels um can you talk about how you see innovation connected to funding streams beyond kind of what is happening now um where will the money flow from thanks a lot well this is really what i would like to put to everybody here innovation is at the front end of everything that's exciting in food systems we will need together to establish innovative ways of thinking innovative ways of working innovative ways of collaborating innovative ways of leading and innovative ways of financing because the challenge of food systems uh requires a a very different form of implementation from what i think has been the practice so far quite simply olga so much of what's tended to happen in support for others as they're trying to move forward has focused on identifying a single activity and trying to implement it at great intensity in order to get a shift in a large scale of what is happening now i'm not sure that that is necessarily the kind of approach that will be needed to help food systems move to where they have to be by 2030. indeed the likely requirement is a more sophisticated intervention that's not taking one activity and pushing it really hard because in systems work if you do that what you end up with is a whole load of unexpected outcomes that you then have to deal with so instead the innovation is to do a systems intervention where you're take working on multiple different issues simultaneously presenting them as different elements of a systems intervention and making sure that that's done for long enough and in a really sensitive way so that it responds to local political and other needs because in systems work you always have to adapt your intervention to the environment within which it's being done you can't assume that the system is the same wherever you're working so we will need to find a way to establish an approach to financing which can take account of the reality that the systems that are changing will feel very different in different locations are we able to do that i hope so for me the innovation in finance is to make sure that people at local level can access the finance they need to do what they have to do without finding themselves being pushed into a position where they don't feel comfortable meet them where they really are give them the relatively small amounts of money in order to enable them to come in and test their innovations but then make sure that the necessary follow-up is not too conditional and enables them to develop their ideas more it's a kind of reverse of standard financing where everything is narrowed and made very very restricted no keep broad keep open support people to experiment and most of all remember that innovation is start-up work and in start-up work you don't ask people to tell you where they're going to be in a year's time you ask them to tell you what their idea is and you decide whether you like the way in which they're going about it and you say here get started and then we'll see what goes on innovation support is truly startup back to you olga thank you thanks so much tula do you want to weigh in on this issue of funding well i just want to add um a little bit to uh what david said but i completely agree with him on some of the um the foundational requirements make it catalytic um you know we just need to solve for a problem and allow for the ecosystem um to to respond to those issues right um and allow for the market to to play but also have maybe some support from governments and from our donor communities in particular because we have a lot of discussions with with some of the innovators and the issues are it's either their ticket size is too small or they need um and they need support to get into the market so that they can start doing the work and then where is it that we then support if they require scaling up i think um issues of we're not short of ideas i don't think we're short of tech developers or ag tech or even innovators um in in the ecosystem it's how do we ensure that we provide that catalytic um you know funding and then allow for the market to support i know i'm very different from a lot of our government um my counterparts i really do believe that it should be a lot more private sector partnerships to ensure that um there's you know less pull on fiscal requirements when it comes to innovation um and you know and then we can support where we're required greatly now a question um to perhaps uh donutian andrew you both talked about kind of broad inclusive processes um can you talk a little bit more about how you see involving youth uh towards building food systems for the future in in some of the processes that that you've discussed what is the role of youth where do we see them in in the process danushi want to kick us off okay sure thanks olga um yeah so i don't uh this is i'm also thinking through this as you mentioned but what i have found in the summer process is that there's been a huge emphasis on youth with each even at the action track level there is an emphasis on youth leadership within the action tracks the used advisory group um and david's been the one who's been telling me we've done several food systems summit dialogues and he's always emphasized on the role that young people should have as a voice in that process so what as far as what i'm seeing certainly there are there is youth inclusion and empowerment in the summit related processes and i think that's crucial because when we are talking about farms and farming in the future it's really the youth who have to drive the way forward so i i see that and then coming back to uh the work of the innovation lever and how that interacts with young people and to a great part and this relates to this whole work around you know making farming more attractive for young people we are seeing from our work that more and more people are leaving rural livelihoods and want to migrate towards cities or other countries and there is this issue and that is because farming is not an attractive option even when in some cases they might be attractive economically still not culturally very attractive you know you don't get that status in society in some countries um so i don't want to make the uniform comment but really the focus is on how can we make agriculture and food related work cool again for young people and that's where innovation comes in andrew over to you thank you um yeah i think it's a good example of we need to continually be thinking how do we strengthen the voice of different groups in this case youth in these dialogues or pathways so that youth are part of co-creating the future of their food system in their countries and so when we think about these dialogues [Music] they are not usually let's say open to to the public they're not a public forum they are a place where you have representatives of the different stakeholders so from the different ministries the different companies private sector you have pharma producer groups who will be represented in the dialogue so for me i think what's what's important is to be helping youth to organize themselves and be able to represent themselves and so we talk about youth leadership so the representation of youth are at that table and can be invited and included into these dialogues so that their needs which are much longer term um are taken into account and it's actually that long-term thinking that is absolutely essential to help us with the systems change and to to improve these food systems so they they are not just welcome i think they're essential at the table but we need the right mechanisms to bring them to the table which which i think the governments and the dialogue organizers can help with but it also obviously requires that organization within the youth themselves to to be able to have representation at the table thanks andrew and we have just time for one more very quick question uh for tula i found this one particularly compelling and too late if you can take just one minute to answer because we have to wrap up um someone asks you know breaking down silos is key but i'm curious to hear more about how a country's digitization strategy could link to reforms and law and policy that are necessary across various sectors how can those sectors uh coordinate can you just give us a really quick answer and then we'll hand it over for some closing remarks okay quick answer i have an agriculture agriculture transformation office with the mandate for collaboration um so uh look for us it's it's it's it's about it's a mind shift and something that david mentioned earlier it's it's an internal mind shift and having the leadership that encourages collaboration um if you continue in the silo way you know you don't change you know we the only place we change is where you're uncomfortable and we have found that especially for kenya with the fiscal tightening um it's really pushed the one government approach um and pushing for all the ministries and mdas or ministries and departments and agencies to work together to figure out how how do we make digitization and how do we make data core to how we operate um so i hope that's yeah that's one minute for your olga wonderful now that's very it's very inspirational to hear about king as one government approach and setting up these kind of structures that really force that that cross-ministerial uh collaboration well um this has been an illuminating discussion on how innovation can play a role in transforming food systems and i wanted to thank the world economic forum and the distinguished speakers for today for sharing their vision and your work with us and uh to all of you online and i just want to hand it over to shonda clean for some closing remarks shout out to you thank you olga and uh just what a great panel um i i was just i i just was enthralled and suddenly went oh yeah we're nearly at the end that was that was great and uh and just i mean if we are gonna transform food systems so that they can be fair uh they need to be fair they need to be nature positive they need to be resilient they need to be healthy for all they need to be inclusive as you've heard innovation is is going to be key to this uh if it's going to be a solution summit the rise of you know technology innovations represents a huge opportunity the role of data and digital and uh scientific technologies you know for a common purpose but i think what you're hearing today which i just really like is this idea of a broader sense of innovation um i have the the privilege of code leading the innovation lever together with the ceo of mercy corp jada mckenna and uh and mercy corp been a great partner in this and i just want to thank you uh olga for not just your work on the panel today and doing such a fantastic job as a moderator but the role that mercy called play in really looking at this broader more inclusive understanding of innovation and and then you know it just falls to me to to thank the panel i mean i think you know what you heard today was you know david navarro talking about this much broader need to to think how innovate how we think how do we meet i mean the dialogues the food system summer's dialogues they have been a powerful example of innovation in their own right for for the way that summits like this are done uh you know you know just the bold vision there that you're talking about how do we innovate around nature positive solutions but how do we look at like real big scale agendas how to bring uh you know 100 million farmers with us on that journey quickly and and then that is a tipping point for for the rest of the 500 million farmers that uh that you know are involved in this worldwide tulane uh lennae you just i mean what you brought out was the the power of the country uh and how this needs to be responsive to local needs and there's there's a num what you're hearing is you know there's a fantastic group of these country leaders that are emerging uh through the the un food system some of them tula is just one of those and it's really nice to hear this uh that spirit of the country coming through and andrew bavarnick just thank you for you know the the thoughtfulness that you're bringing in there from the wider um system and how yeah we really need to look at this much broader thinking around innovation and just the whole institutional innovation rethinking that has to go on so so great panel you know really exciting um there's a lot happening out there and uh just yesterday the committee on food security uh launched their their um their their principles around uh agroecology and innovative approaches and so you know what we're seeing is there's there's a broader framing around this so if people are interested in that you should look at that but thank you very much uh really interesting power and if you have an idea on innovation you want to get involved you know this is challenging both to be innovative but also to to contribute and and so this is really the nature of this uh session today was really to get you inspired and make you feel that you want to engage and there's plenty of opportunities through the un food system summer to do that so so so get engaged and really lean in and be innovative thank you thank you thanks sean and everyone and we will now close the session

2021-06-29 02:50

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