Strengthening resilience to shocks and stresses in African food systems

The world is currently faced with multiple health, climatic and military crises that are putting unprecedented pressures on global and local food systems. In Africa, high levels of vulnerability and low absorptive capacity compound the resulting disruptive effects. The real challenge facing African countries is not the level of exposure per se, but the lack of capacities to anticipate and respond to prevent occasional shocks from resulting in massive suffering and irreversible damages to livelihoods. It should be possible to further delink vulnerability from large-scale and permanent disruption by enhancing countries’ capacity to innovate and craft more effective and timely resilience-building policies and programs.

This event explored possible solutions to reducing African countries’ vulnerabilities to external stresses and shocks through targeted interventions within the food system. Speakers addressed various resilience-building interventions, including the opportunities presented by a bioeconomy, a thriving agroprocessing sector as well as the enabling environment, i.e. the policy and institutional innovations needed to accelerate transformative change.

Agenda

Moderator: Joachim von Braun, Distinguished Professor, Center for Development Research (ZEF) and Co-Chair of the Malabo Montpellier Panel

Welcoming remarks and introduction to the book “From Potentials to Reality: Transforming Africa’s Food Production” byJoachim von Braun

Introductory remarks by Anke Oppermann, Head of Directorate 12 „Decent work worldwide, food and nutrition security”, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

Panel discussion:

Ousmane Badiane, Executive Chairperson, AKADEMIYA2063 and Co-Chair of the Malabo Montpellier Panel (virtual)
Dorothy Okello, Dean, School of Engineering at Makerere University, Uganda and Malabo Montpellier Panel (virtual)
Mahamadou Issoufou-Wasmeier, Regional Director West-, Central- Africa and Caribbean, Welthungerhilfe
Heike Baumüller, PARI Coordinator and Senior Researcher, Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn

Location

The event will took place at the Center for Development Research / ZEF (conference room on the groundfloor), Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn, and was also be accessible via Zoom.