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Improving nutrition in Africa by strengthening the diversity, sustainability, resilience and connectivity of food systems

HealthyFoodAfrica is an EU-funded research & innovation action aiming at sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems in African cities. The project is a collaborative effort by 17 partners in both Europe and Africa.

The overall goal of HealthyFoodAfrica is to make food systems in 10 African cities in six countries across three African macro-regions more sustainable, equitable and resilient by reconnecting food production and food consumption in effective ways.

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Objectives

Improving access to nutritious food is a systemic challenge. African agri-food systems are facing numerous challenges related to climate change, rapid population growth and urbanization. Both food production and consumption patterns must change in order to provide access to nutritious food while counteracting social inequality, environmental degradation, food loss and inadequate waste management.

Activities

17 European and African partners work in close collaboration to improve nutrition in Africa by strengthening the diversity, sustainability, resilience and connectivity of food systems.

The work in HealthyFoodAfrica is localized in ten African cities, the so-called Food System Labs (FSL). Cross cutting work is undertaken in nine work packages.

Expected results and impact

• HealthyFoodAfrica seeks to create 10 Food System Labs (FSLs) in 10 cities and 6 countries in Eastern, Western and Southern Africa. Each FSL will bring together local stakeholders – farmers, entrepreneurs, businesses, and policymakers. With the support of the partners, labs will tackle particular locally relevant food system challenges, from consumer awareness to sustainable production, local food diversity, improved post-harvest technologies and food safety.

• The Food System Labs aim to link local producers and consumers, diversify the product selection, and bolster local supply chains to create a more sustainable production system and promote more healthy and equitable diets. The Food System Labs are supported by researchers and practitioners from Europe and Africa, who will also enhance and facilitate the learning processes within each lab and across them.

• The participatory, multi-actor approach will ensure food system transformation not only in the ten Food System Lab cities but also in wider terms: the local solutions developed and piloted in the Food System Labs will be shared and disseminated to allow their adaptation to other countries and circumstances as well.

• “Only through linking the diverse expertise and knowledge this type of consortium includes, there is potential to develop tools for actual transformation. Both local knowledge and new technology are necessary, but the key to achieving sustainable change is in combining these to respond to context-specific challenges” summarizes HealthyFoodAfrica Project Coordinator, Senior Scientist Mila Sell from the Natural Resources Institute Finland.

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Source of funding

European Union, H2020 project

Programme and contact references

• Coordinator: Natural Resources Institute Finland, healthyfoodafrica(a)luke.fi
• Principal Investigator at CIHEAM Montpellier: Paolo Prosperi , Lecturer-researcher – prosperi@iamm.fr

Partners

• The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
• Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, Ghana (CSIR)
• African Population & Health Research Centre Kenya (APHRC)
• Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO)
• University of Helsinki, Finland (UH)
• Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia (BDU)
• University of Makerere, Uganda (MAK)
• University of Zambia (UNZA)
• University of Pisa, Italy (UNIPI)
• University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin (UAC)
• Aeres University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
• Hivos
• Finn Church Aid (FCA)
• Centre for Initiatives on Food Security and Environment (GIFSE)
• Mentes Visiveis Lda (MV)
• House of Böna Ltd
• Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes – Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier (CIHEAM Montpellier)

Collective and contextualized strategies to promote resilient and sustainable agricultural production in rural Mediterranean areas

Réduire d’une façon structurelle et durable la surexploitation des ressources hydriques et à améliorer le revenu des ménages agricoles au Liban et en Egypte dans un contexte de changement climatique.

Proposer, mettre en œuvre et évaluer des initiatives intégrées, agronomiques et socio-économiques, basées sur l’agroécologie afin de réduire la dépendance à l’eau de chacun des territoires. Ces initiatives seront concertées avec les acteurs et adaptées au contexte des deux territoires ciblés: la Plaine de Beqaa au Liban et le Gouvernorat de Louxor en Egypte.

SupMed vise l’adhésion d’au moins 400 agriculteurs par territoire à une charte volontaire pour la mise en œuvre de stratégies d’adaptation basées sur des pratiques agroécologiques.

Au niveau institutionnel, le projet contribuera à renforcer et mieux structurer, en termes de conseil agricole, le partenariat public-privé au niveau des deux pays.

Il s’agit principalement de capitaliser autour de cette expérience de partenariat et de formuler des recommandations pour les prochaines politiques agricoles. Ce travail de capitalisation sera d’autant plus important que le projet contribuera (au moins partiellement) à l’élaboration des prochaines politiques agricoles nationale (Liban) et régionale (Egypte).

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Source of funding

• Fond Français pour l’Environnement Mondial
• Plan Vert (Ministère de l’Agriculture), Liban
• Executive Agency for the Comprehensive Development Projects, ministère de l’agriculture (EACDP), Egypte
• CIHEAM Montpellier, France
• Egyptian Association for Sustainable Development de Louxor (EASD), Egypte
• Centre Agricole privé de Hermel (FSC), Liban

Programme and contact references

• Anne Cobacho, Chargée d’études CIHEAM Montpellier, cobacho@iamm.fr
• Hatem Belhouchette, Enseignant-chercheur, CIHEAM Montpellier, belhouchette@iamm.fr

Partners

Le CIHEAM Montpellier: Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier, Coordinateur et co-financeur du projet, assure la maîtrise d’ouvrage et la coordination scientifique.

Partners in Lebanon

• Le Plan Vert et le projet HASAD, cofinanceur et membre du comité de pilotage SupMed
• Le Centre Agricole Privé de Hermel, Maitrise d’œuvre du projet SupMed sur le terrain
• L’Union des municipalités de Baalbek-Hermel et l’Union des coopératives de Hermel, Membre du Comité d’appui du projet SupMed
• Le Ministère de l’Agriculture, Membre du comité d’appui SupMed
• La Faculté d’agronomie de l’Université libanaise (Département d’Économie Rural), Membre du comité d’appui SupMed

Partners in Egypt

• Executive Agency for the Comprehensive Development Projects (EACDP), Cofinanceur et membre du comité de pilotage Supmed
• Egyptian Association for Sustainable Development (EASD), Maitrise d’œuvre du projet SupMed en Egypte
• Le Centre d’études de développement rural (Université du Caire, Faculté d’agronomie), Membre du Comité d’appui du projet SupMed
• Le Département de statistiques et de développement agricole et rural du Ministère de l’agriculture égyptien, Membre du comité d’appui SupMed

Multi-agent Agri-food living labs for new supply chain Mediterranean systems

The main objective of LAB4SUPPLY is to provide practical solutions to address the current difficulties of Mediterranean smallholders and traditional farmers, who face the main challenges that arise in the Agri-food value chain.

The Project will offer innovative and viable solutions and opportunities to allow local smallholders to increase their competitiveness and profitability, using optimised agri-food supply chain and improving adaptation capacity to unexpected market changes, which at the same time are better perceived by the consumers.

The project will empower agri-food smallholders in the Mediterranean through the definition, enhancement and transfer of competitive and efficient food supply chain alternatives.

Website: https://www.lab4supply.eu/ 

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Source of funding

PRIMA-MED Programme funded by ANR

Programme and contact references

Maite Puig de Morales – Project Coordinator, puigdemorales@iamm.fr, +33(0)4.67.04.60.82

Partners

• Center for Agro-Food Economics and Development-CREDA – Espagne
• Mouloud Mammeri University in Tizi Ouzou -UMMTO – Algeria
• National Agronomic School at El Harrach – ENSA – Algeria
• Smartec Systems – SMARTEC – Égypte
• Agricultural University of Athens-AUA – Grèce
• HORTA S.R.L.- HORTA – Italie
• National Institute for Agronomic Research at Morocco INRA-MOROCCO – Maroc
• Sultan Moulay Slimane University – USMS – Maroc
• International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies – Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier CIHEAM-IAMM – France

Data-Enabled Business Models and Market Linkages Enhancing Value Creation and Distribution in Mediterranean Fruit and Vegetable Supply Chains

MED-LINKS aims at providing small-scale producers with tailored and effective solutions enhancing efficiency, sustainability and fairness along fruit and vegetable supply chains in Mediterranean countries.

The project tackles five Specific Objectives:

1. to assess the competitive performance of Mediterranean fruit and vegetable supply chains and consumer preferences;
2. to support the adoption of quality and sustainability standards among small-scale supply chain actors;
3. to provide innovative IT tools supporting decision making;
4. to provide small-scale actors with optimised management practices and business relations enhancing quality, sustainability and profitability;
5. to encourage stakeholders to exploit the results for local communities.

MED-LINKS approach is based on the combination of three groups of optimization tools:

1. quality and sustainability standards and protocols,
2. digital platform empowered with blockchain technology (smart contracts)
3. managerial tools and coordination strategies (i.e. Business Models).

These will be customized based on the actual conditions of local actors participating in three different supply chain systems representative of commercial circuits in the Mediterranean region, namely:

• Local Short Food Supply Chains,
• Green Public Procurement,
• Export-Oriented Supply Chains.

The project will target and engage local clusters of small-scale producers in Egypt, France, Greece, Italy and Morocco to enhance their capability to adopt quality, environmental and social standards and thus to connect with other supply chain actors and profitability, while meeting final consumers’ needs.

After a recognition of the major existing public and private quality and sustainability schemes in each of the three supply chain systems, innovative quality and sustainability tools or strategies tailored for SMEs (e.g. voluntary certifications schemes, Participatory Guarantee Systems, etc.) will be proposed.

The second optimization set of strategies concerns the exploitation of innovative business models. An experts’ pool will evaluate and select the BM to optimize within specific clusters. Finally, partners will propose guidelines for pilot actions, bringing about technological innovation’s proposals compatible with selected optimized BMs.

As a third set of optimization tools, a web-based digital platform will be developed to support small producers in (i) networking with other supply chain actors and final consumers, (ii) increasing opportunities and reputation (iii) adopting quality and sustainability standards and (iii) managing commercial B2B transactions.

In order to scale out and scale up the proposed innovations, context-specific response strategies enhancing the competitiveness and sustainability of local SMEs and value chains of interest will be implemented and demonstrated through five Pilot Actions. Compatibility between the proposed certification paths, business models and digital solutions will be tested and their potential benefits will be verified in real contexts, in each target Country. MED-LINKS will also develop training and advisory activities, while stakeholders’ feedback will be monitored and drivers determining acceptance or refusal of the solutions proposed will be analyzed.

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Source of funding

• European Union: PRIMA Section 2 Call 2020 – Multi-topic

Programme and contact references

• Coordinator: University of Bologna – info@med-links.eu
• Principal Investigator at CIHEAM Montpellier: Paolo Prosperi , Lecturer-researcher – prosperi@iamm.fr

Partners

• ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – Università di Bologna, Coordinator, Italy
• Romagna Tech S.C.p.A., Italy
• Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Italy
• Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development, Egypt
• Isis for Food Industries LTD, Egypt
• Sekem Development Foundation, Egypt
• Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes – Institut Agronomique Mediterranéen de Montpellier, France
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
• International Hellenic University, Greece
• University of Cadi Ayyad, Morocco
• University of Moulay Ismail, Morocco

Sustainable Hub to Engage into Rural Policies with Actors

SHERPA aims to gather knowledge that contributes to the formulation of recommendations for future policies relevant to EU rural areas, by creating a science-society-policy interface which provides a hub for knowledge and policy.

SHERPA will contribute to policy development in three main areas:

Provision of inputs for the design of future research policies, with a focus on the preparation of work programmes under Horizon Europe.
Support for implementation of policies relevant to rural areas in the programming period 2021-2027; and
Supporting for setting the direction of rural policy in the next programming period.
To achieve this, the project will:

• Map the main drivers of future trends and dynamics of EU rural areas;
• Establish 40 Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) across the EU as effective and sustainable Science-Society-Policy interfaces;
• Create a shared knowledge base relevant to EU rural policy by taking stock of results of past and ongoing research projects;
• Engage in a dialogue between citizens, researchers and policy-makers across EU territories;
• Formulate recommendations linked to different scenarios for the development of modern rural policies at European, national and regional levels, as well as for the future rural research agenda.

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Source of funding

• European Union: Horizon 2020

Programme and contact references

• Project Coordinator: Olivier Chartier and Elodie Salle (ECORYS), Belgique, sherpa@ecorys.com
• Project Manager at CIHEAM Montpellier: Samuel Féret, feret@iamm.fr

Partners

• CIHEAM Montpellier
• ECORYS
• WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY & RESEARCH
• AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS
• AEIDL
• NORDREGIO
• UNIVERSITA DE PISE
• UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID
• THE JAMES HUTTON INSTITUTE
• JOHANN HEINRICH VON THEUENEN INSTITUT
• INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AISBL
• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
• EUROPEAN RURAL DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
• ALMA MATER STURIORUM-UNI BOLOGNE
• UNIVERSIDAD DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
• CONSULAI, CONSULTORIA AGRO INDUSTRIATRIAL LDA
• ASSOCIATION DES AGENCES DE LA DEMOCRATIE LOCALE

Innovative education for sustainable development in peripheral rural areas

RUR’UP is an international cooperation project between Higher Education Institutions (HEI), intergovernmental organisations and rural development stakeholders, funded by the EU Programme Erasmus+. The project aims to support Higher Education institutions in equipping their graduates with skills and competencies relevant for specific labour market and societal needs of peripheral rural regions in the EU (HNV areas). The project will develop new e-learning blended modules through an educational transdisciplinary approach and by using innovative pedagogies such as student-centred and project problem -based learning, and therefore, will support the development of the HEI curricula based on learning-outcomes. Specifically, the project will also develop and test a unique modular course design (including online, intensive learning modules and case studies and on-field work.

RUR’UP is built up on HNV-Link H2020 project: 

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Objectives

Peripheral rural areas play an essential role in our territories and contribute to the sustainable development of agro-pastoralism, to the preservation of the environment, and are essential for biodiversity, rural heritage and traditional practices, while improving the socio-economic conditions of rural communities. However, there is still a gap between professional needs and student’s practices and skills. Teachers and academia should bridge this gap and enlarge teaching and learning scope while raise awareness among future professionals on peripheral rural specificities.

Activities

Main activities of RUR’UP are the following:

1. The assessment of the education needs and gaps for the sustainable development of the EU peripheral rural areas
2. Elaboration of a blended e-learning course
3. Elaboration of a Bank of Case Studies – including ready-to-use training capsules
4. Development of a Digital Teaching Platform and Digital Learning Resource
5. Organisation of an training on-field Intensive Study Activity

Results et Impacts

Main expected outputs and impacts are to:

1. Build understanding on the specific needs by the labor market in peripheral rural regions (high nature value areas – HNV areas)
2. Support curricula development to ensure learning for the skills and competencies
3. Strengthen collaboration between HE and potential regional and cross-regional employers
4. Support professional competencies of the HE educators in such regions, and
5. Contribute to the international pool of open educational resources (OER).

The project will enhance skills and professional competencies of at least one hundred (100) participating students and fifty (50) academic staff and researchers.
Therefore, RUR’UP will have a positive impact on field approaches concerning sustainable development of peripheral areas.

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Coordinator

University of Thessaly (UTH) – Grèce

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