Improving food value chain efficiencies can support greater availability of and access to safe and nutritious food for all, and help shape more resilient food systems, particularly in Low-and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Acting effectively on value chain inefficiencies is a complex task and many variables and food system dynamics should be considered relevant for making intervention decisions. Lasting long-term change needs a combination of interlinking, inclusive interventions acting on different components of the food system (e.g. the food value chain itself, as well as the enabling environment), and attention to critical success factors (e.g., affordability and accessibility) to be able to provide the right conditions for success. This document serves to support intervention and implementation decisions towards the goal of reducing food value chain inefficiencies, focusing on the reduction of Food Loss & Waste (FLW) in Bangladesh, specifically in Dhaka Metropolitan Area (DMA).As FLW represents a major food value chain inefficiency, this document specifically aims to answer the question 'How to identify and implement interventions for reducing Food Loss and Waste in Dhaka's food system?', to support greater availability of and access to safe and nutritious food for all. This approach can be used by value chain stakeholders (including policymakers, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and financiers) to develop their own strategies for improving food value chains at the local, regional, or national level, as well as by private sector actors who wish to strategically explore how and where to intervene to reduce FLW. It can also be used by researchers and other knowledge experts to build on and add to for purposes of enhancing knowledge and expertise on the topic of FLW reduction interventions for the specific food value chains that are elaborated, and new food value chains.The framework includes the description of a value chain intervention roadmap. In this report, a roadmap focuses on addressing FLW, but the steps of the presented approach could be relevant for assessing other value chain inefficiencies as well, such as greenhouse gas emissions, food safety hazards, water use or food production issues. The roadmap approach consists of two main components: 1) Selection of FLW reducing interventions and 2) implementation strategy of FLW reducing interventions in the food system. For the first component we use the EFFICIENT protocol developed by Kok et al. (2021a), and for the second component we elaborate on intervention criteria as presented by Soethoudt et al. (2021). This document provides a structured, yet adaptable approach to sketch possible pathways and structure coherent action towards improved food value chains -a roadmap, not a blueprint.The selected products for which FLW will be addressed in more detail are a selection of most frequently consumed items by households in Bangladesh, and continue work on earlier conducted value chain studies.The products are beef, chicken, fish, onion, potato and ric...
Food system frameworks and approaches are increasingly informing researchers, development practitioners, and policymakers on the sustainable and equitable development of food production, consumption, and the systemic context of these activities. However, there is a disconnect between food systems thinking and decision-making by private organizations in the food value chains themselves, who are indispensable in realizing food system change. Based on a review of food systems frameworks, we identify three drivers of this disconnect, namely (1) misalignment of public and private goals, (2) a mismatch between macro-level and meso-and micro-level activities and interventions, and (3) ultimately identify a need to make food system approaches relevant for value chain actors. Subsequently, based on interviews with actors in the research and policy domains as well as in private companies, we explore if this disconnect may be bridged. In doing so, we distinguish between smallholders, micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and large companies in the private sector. These actors vary considerably in terms of size, scope, resources and capabilities, take up a different position in the food system, and therefore also require different approaches to leverage their potential for food system change. We close with a discussion of several examples (from around the world) of successful efforts to leverage value chain action for the improvement of food system outcomes. Interview guide public sector partiesTo share beforehand: this interview guide Opening Thanks for your time, we do this interview to answer the following research question:How can we better help private sector actors with food chain optimization through a 'Food Systems' approach?A Food Systems (FS) approach includes social, economic and environmental aspects that food chains interact with. Namely, in addition to processes in chains themselves, attention is paid to causes and consequences that take place outside the food chain, for example in policy or the climate. A FS approach is different from more linear value chain analyses through its, as the name already implicates, systemic lense. Your answers will be processed anonymously. Interview guide researchers/client supportTo share beforehand: this interview guide Prerequisite for participation: experience with Food Systems approaches Opening Thanks for your time, we do this interview to answer the following research question:How can we better help private sector actors with food chain optimization through a 'Food Systems' approach?A Food Systems (FS) approach includes social, economic and environmental aspects that food chains interact with. Namely, in addition to processes in chains themselves, attention is paid to causes and consequences that take place outside the food chain, for example in policy or the climate. A FS approach is different from more linear value chain analyses through its, as the name already implicates, systemic lense. Your answers will be processed anonymously.
Adoption of food loss and waste-reducing interventions in Low-and Middle-Income Countries (No. 2196). Wageningen Food & Biobased Research. * This approach is loosely based on the EFFICIENT protocol for estimating food loss and waste (FLW). During these workshops the approach was applied to broader value chain inefficiences than FLW. See 'further reading' for more info about the EFFICIENT protocol, including the Food Loss & Waste cause & intervention tool. Pilot studies & measurement templates of the EFFICIENT protocol Tomato Nigeria: https://edepot.wur.nl/470201 Rice Nigeria: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666790822000921 Further reading 36 The steps of the value chain assessment during this workshop were loosely based on the EFFICIENT protocol for identifying interventions to reduce Food Loss and Waste. Find more information here:
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