This research was carried out within the projects "Feeding cities and migration settlements" and "Improving food systems in less-favoured areas in East Africa", as part of the programme Food Security and Valuing Water (KB-35-002-001) of Wageningen University & Research and was supported by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.
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.
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