A Glimpse into the Future of Food Security - A Louis Dreyfus Alumni Webinar
The Louis Dreyfus alumni webinar was a great example of the WHT network's pervasiveness. In 60 minutes, we enjoyed context-specific insights on food security, education and sustainability. These are tremendously complex issues. But in sprints of 5 minutes, each scholar summarised delightful learnings from different sectors. Two of the alumni that participated offer some reflections. You can rewatch the full webinar on youtube [part 1, part 2, part 3].
Choosing and Financing Short Term and Long Term Goals
Antonio Beun (Argentina, Master in Public Policy, 2019 Louis Dreyfus-Weidenfeld and Hoffmann) from the panel “Big Meets Small - How can central banks, central governments, and NGOs support small scale farmers and communities?”
Si Ying stressed the importance of being financially inclusive from a central bank standpoint, given that small farmers tend to fall outside of the formal banking system. Tanvi underlined the importance of tailoring NGOs' policy design to ground-reality, instead of oversimplified templates used by funding structures based on universal and de-contextualised concepts. From a public sector perspective, we argued that many governments are under huge financial stress and their agenda combines challenges of the past –which are still unresolved– and new, emerging challenges. We put COVID-19 as an example of how it has compounded rural development problems that were quite pressing before the pandemic. We explained the importance of helping governments to prioritize in light of such an ever-expanding set of important issues. Because otherwise, governments tend to take the path of least resistance: embracing everything at the same time with little results.
Due to climate change, what is at stake for small farmers in the coming decade is tremendous. While there are no easy answers to what is coming, one certainty is that diversity will help us build comprehensive and creative foundations to tackle new challenges. My key reflection after the webinar is precisely that. A diverse group of people is always better equipped to tackle new and uncertain challenges.
Nature and Society should not be at Odds
Lekha Sridhar (India, Master in Public Policy, 2014 Louis Dreyfus - Chevening) from the panel “Nature and Society - How do we improve the relationship between the different parts of society and between society and nature?”
Research and technological advances now show that nature and society do not have to be at odds — agroforestry and nature-based solutions can not only reduce carbon emissions, but can also sequester carbon. In addition, as more corporations commit to climate targets and ‘no deforestation’ pledges, there is also strong motivation within the land use sector to make these solutions mainstream. However, the challenge is twofold, (a) making these techniques economically viable for smallholders through financial inclusion and long-term market access, and (b) ensuring traceability in the supply chain to build credibility among corporations, off-takers and consumers. Both these issues are connected: how can we trace emissions to the source, so that farmers can be incentivised for adopting climate friendly practices, and corporations are able to provide credible information to their consumers that their products meet environmental goals?
The webinar served as a platform to share the inspiring work WHT alumni are leading to help small farmers around the world. It also helped to learn from one another. But ultimately, the webinar proved the success of WHT and LDF of living to their core value of diversity. In other words, the webinar's positive outcome has been possible due to the diversity embedded in the essence of WHT's mission.