Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation

#KnowledgePartner 🤲 | "It used to be all about food production and preventing hunger, now a liveable planet and social justice are at the forefront. That can be about a living income for farmers, and about maintaining biodiversity and dealing with climate change." According to Hedwig Bruggeman, recently retired as director of Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation. 📑 In an article in the latest Wageningen World she reflects on the changes in international development. "We still have a long way to go, and that goes for the Netherlands as much as anywhere else. We don't have all the answers. We collaborate with national governments, research and educational institutions, as well as with civil society and farmers' organisations on an increasingly equal basis." Read the full article here 👉 : https://lnkd.in/eGG5rk_7 #Impact #FoodSystem #Agriculture #Sustainability #Innovation #Partnerships #Resilience

#SeedSector 🚜🌾 | We are excited to share some insights from the latest Seed Sector Assessment (SSA) report which evaluates the current performance of Bangladesh's seed sector and sets a roadmap for future investments and collaborations. This report is a collaborative effort of more than a 100 stakeholders through interviews and workshops by SeedNL. 🔍 Key Highlights: 🔸 Sector Evolution: While agriculture's contribution to GDP has declined with the rise of manufacturing and services, it remains a critical catalyst for economic growth. The focus is now on sustainable and nutritious food production, fostering entrepreneurship, and enhancing service access. 🔸 Challenges: Population growth, soil fertility issues, resource constraints, crop vulnerability, and poverty are significant barriers to agricultural growth and food security. 🔸 Strategic Priorities: The Bangladesh government prioritizes agricultural research, particularly seed sector development, to drive transformation. This includes high-value crops and climate resilience. 🔸 Collaboration for Change: The SSA report emphasizes the need for robust public-private partnerships, regulatory reforms, capacity building, and stakeholder coordination. Key interventions span from variety development to market inspection and seed extension services. 🔸 Focus Crops: Detailed analysis covers seed systems for potatoes, vegetables, and flowers, highlighting trends, productivity, demand, and supply dynamics. 🔸 Path Forward: The SSA provides a clear action plan addressing fundamental questions about the current state, future aspirations, and steps to achieve them. By leveraging these insights, Bangladesh and the Netherlands can forge strong collaborations, driving the transformation of Bangladesh's seed sector and ensuring sustainable agricultural growth.🌱 Read the full article here 👉 : https://lnkd.in/e2pDYu7Y #Agriculture #Bangladesh #Sustainability #SeedSector #EconomicGrowth #PublicPrivatePartnerships #Innovation

#LivingIncome 💶 | Who ensures you can choose from a lavish amount of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, coffee and even chocolate? Millions of farming families in Africa, Asia and Latin America work hard and we enjoy the fruits of their labour every day. Yet they earn much less than a living income. ⌛ In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, cocoa farmers must earn at least $500 per month, but unfortunately the poorest half of farmers earn only half of that. That is unacceptable and as colleague Yuca Waarts explains in this video our research shows that things must and can be done differently. 🤝 Our most important lesson: we cannot continue on the same path, we need structural change. Companies, governments, NGOs and pension funds can do things smarter and collaborate more with others to ensure farmers earn higher incomes, according to Yuca. They can also work together and pool money in a fund for greater impact. 📢 Sharing the actions we see to close the living income gap is a first step, but together we can amplify our knowledge and impact. What opportunities do you see? Want more information? Go to👉 : https://lnkd.in/eqYj3KZy

#ImpactAward 📢 | Thank you for your vote of confidence! We are incredibly grateful and proud to have won the WUR Impact Audience Award for WDCI Seed Systems Thematic Cluster. All of our work we do together with partners, and so this award it not just for our great team (Marja Thijssen, Falaq Tidjani, Arnab Gupta, Mirjam Schaap, Gareth Borman Walter de Boef, Abishkar Subedi, James Mulkerrins, Johann Bonnand, Carlo Cucchi, Ambrose Owoesigire) but also for our partners. Want to know more about their work? Watch this video 🎥 : https://lnkd.in/eHVyyB4H

#Leadership 🤝 | Waithera Ng'ang'a is a true game changer and rated as one of the top 50 African marketing leaders and marketer of the year 2023. But her journey to get there was not an easy one. 🔗 Joining the African Food Fellowship Programme was a real turning point and enabled her to successfully link her marketing and agripeneurial skills. She learned how to map food systems to create change, a skill she applies in her current role as Director for strategic partnerships and corporate communications for Bio Food Products Ltd | Certified B Corp 🌍 🖱 Read her inspiring story here: https://lnkd.in/dYfnXmWW

#changingcourse 🔀 | Last week we said goodbye to Hedwig Bruggeman, Director of Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation during the symposium 'Changing Course - reflections on transformational change in an era of uncertainty'. During this event, a number of inspiring keynote speakers took the stage to share their perspective on international collaboration: 🔹 Wilma van Esch, head Food Security Devision at Inclusive Green Growth Department, reflected on the Dutch policy for international collaboration. She concluded with a number of opportunities for the future, among which: "With national food system pathways based on dialogues and food system analysis there is an opportunity to return from fragmentation to coherent national action." 🔹 Dawit Alemu, PhD, country representative Stichting Wageningen Research Ethiopia looked back on the impact development cooperation brought to Ethiopia and what key lessons can be drawn: "A more focused development cooperation with a holistic approach on knowledge, skills, technologies, infrastructure and policies can create true sustainable impact." 🔹 Ellen Mangnus, Sr Strategist & Research Coordinator at Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken shared her insights on the changing role of the international cooperation experts, looking at it from the point of view of the anecdotal priest and merchant. She looks at the future of cooperation experts in terms of knowledge broker, mediator, advocate and watchdog. 🔹 Lastly Kiza Magendane, Political scientist and author, revisited international development cooperation, stating that "knowledge workers should not limit themselves to technical support and knowledge transfer to the Global South. Instead, they can play an important part in promoting global citizenship." It was an insightful and inspiring afternoon, which was concluded by the farewell to Hedwig, who has worked tirelessly for WCDI for the last 9 years and will now retire. In her role as director she was defined by her energy, decisiveness and authenticity. We wish her all the best! Marianne van Dorp, will temporarily take up the role until the end of this year. #globalcitizen #knowledgebroker #internationaldevelopment #collaboration

#ImpactAward 📢 | We need your vote for the WUR Impact Award! The WDCI Seed Systems Thematic Cluster is nominated for the Impact Award and with good reason. Their work puts abstract food systems thinking into seed sector practice, helping to improve access to quality seeds for millions of farmers. This has led to the creation of sustainable local enterprises, enhanced educational opportunities, and various initiatives with partners, all contributing to greater food security in the Global South. 🤝 Together we can amplify the work that we do, and the Impact Award can put a spotlight on our efforts. Vote here for the WCDI Seed Systems Thematic Cluster 👉 https://lnkd.in/ewRtb6_G #SeedSector #Impact #FoodSystem #Agriculture #Sustainability #Innovation #Partnerships #Resilience

#SeedSector 🌾🍅 | The Ethiopian seed market is transforming: both seed production and quality is greatly increasing, making it more vibrant, pluralistic, and market-oriented. In the past two years seed production has already increased by 30%. Thanks to the collaborative efforts of local seed companies and Dutch breeding companies, with support from the ENSP Ethiopia, the quality and availability of seeds are improving greatly. Even though it is still under development, the seed market has a lot of growth potential for companies. There is an untapped demand for locally produced seed of traditional food crops and the total import of vegetable seeds in Ethiopia has grown from practically zero to 12 million euros in just five years. "However, growth is hampered by a shortage of foreign currency", says Gareth Borman. Want to know more about the solutions and challenges involved in this transition? 💡 https://lnkd.in/eijRp-GU #Agriculture #Ethiopia #Sustainability #Innovation #Partnerships #ENSP #Resilience

#FoodSecurity 🌍🍽️ | A recent publication in Nature magazine's Communications Earth & Environment highlights the critical challenges and opportunities in transforming our food systems. Our colleague Bart De Steenhuijsen Piters, together with Jessica Fanzo, Ariel Soto-Caro, Arlette Saint Ville, Mohammed Mainuddin, and Jane Battersby, share in the article the need for equitable access to nutritious diets, resilience in food systems, and balanced power in food policy. Resilience as a concept has been known for more than a hundred years in many scientific fields, but its application to food systems is relatively recent. This is hardly surprising, as resilience is difficult to define in food systems. This, in turn, is due to the complexity of these systems. Bart de Steenhuijsen Piters has designed a framework to make it easier to define and, more importantly, support such resilience. In doing so, the framework focuses on four elements: ⚡ Ensuring the agency and the means and capacities of populations to mitigate risks and respond to shocks 🌀 Creating buffers and resources that can be relied on in the event of shocks and stressors 🔗 Boosting connectivity between market actors and segments 💹 Increasing diversity from production to consumption and across spatial scales. The Food system’s resilience can increase if the people, communities and institutions master these four capacities. Read the whole article here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gGTG88D4 #FoodSecurity #SustainableAgriculture #ClimateAction

#Webinar 🐟 | Over the past two decades, aquaculture production in Sub-Saharan Africa has boomed, growing at nearly double the global rate. Despite substantial investments, the sector's full potential remains untapped. Join us to explore the potential of the aquaculture sector and the insightful lessons learned so far. 📅 Webinar: Aquaculture Project Reviews in Africa, Sharing Findings and Lessons Learned 📆 Date: 28 May 🕒 Time: 10.00 CET 🔗 Register Now! https://lnkd.in/etT2ahvu 🔍 We'll delve into insights from 10 aquaculture projects supported by The Netherlands and China, under the “Up-scaling the FAO-China SSC Programme through Triangular Cooperation with the Netherlands” initiative. This collaboration aims to enhance the capabilities of the FAO Reference Centers in China through a partnership with Wageningen University & Research (WUR). Let's chart the path to sustainable aquaculture growth in Africa together! #Aquaculture #SustainableDevelopment #Africa #FAO #China #Netherlands #WageningenUniversity