Summary

At this national dialogue meeting, participants will reflect on ways to achieve an African food policy in order to deal with challenges inherent to incoherent food policy and related food system. Issues like environmental degradation, malnutrition, the rise in non-communicable diseases, cultural erosion, and loss of diversity are on the rise. People’s ability to adequately feed themselves is vulnerable to not only weather-related shocks and massive use of pesticides and agrochemicals, but also to the invasion of unsafe and unhealthy commercial foods. Participants will share on a better understanding of healthy, safe and sustainable food systems and define pathways for a cohesive Rwandan /African food policy.

Rationale or the need for the African food policy dialogue
Rwanda like other sub Saharan countries is facing challenges and issues inherent to food policy and related food system. The issues include environmental degradation, malnutrition, the rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), cultural erosion, and loss of diversity. Most of the food we eat and the food systems we enjoy are shaped by a variety of distinct policy frameworks and food related businesses when food is becoming rather a commodity than a basic right. While stunting and undernourishment have been reducing, the childhood stunting rate remains at 38%, which is high by international comparison, a large share of the population remains dependent on rain-fed agriculture and auto-consumption. Hence, people’s ability to adequately feed themselves is vulnerable not only to weather-related shocks such as periodic droughts and floods, but also to the invasion of unsafe and unhealthy commercial foods, which most poor and vulnerable citizens cannot afford to buy.

All those issues and challenges are largely related to the lack of a coherent food policy, cutting across sectors and joining up different levels of governance, means that accountability is hugely dispersed. When poor outcomes arise, no-one can be held to account.
Over 2020-2023, the African Union, AFSA and other partners are undertaking a collaborative process of research and reflection to identify what tools would be required to deliver sustainable food systems in Africa. A series of multi-actors dialogues will be conducted in a number of African countries including Rwanda, on how to bridge the different policy areas (agriculture, trade, environment, health, etc.) and different policy levels (AU, national, local) through which food systems are governed, identifying priorities for reform and bringing them together under a single agenda.

In this context and trends, producers and consumers have to discuss on what are the main food system related issues and reflect on how is our food production system supportive of a good food system. Today it is also imperative to link the current food production models to the issues related to healthy diets, decent livelihoods of food producers and consumers, and how the production models protect and preserve the ecosystem services and biodiversity. Today, citizens, producers and consumers in Rwanda need to understand what is a good food system, to make informed choices of what they eat and to voice up the change they aspire to. The national dialogue will feed in ideas and strategies into the continental food policy dialogue

The MOU between ACORD Rwanda and AFSA
ACORD Rwanda signed an MOU with Alliance for Food Sovereignty (AFSA) with a purpose to undertake a dialogue on African Food Policy in Rwanda, running from 1st January to 30th June 2021.
The general objective of the MOU is to strengthen the evidence base supporting the need for an African Food Policy that focuses on food systems, current governance structures and policy frameworks, their fitness for purpose, the information sources and influences on which they are based.

The specific objectives include 1. To bring together stakeholders working on food systems and facilitate a common understanding on what kind of food system works best. 2.To agree on pathways for a cohesive national/continental food policy and 3. To use the process and the outcomes of the discussion for media and policy advocacy.

At the completion of the MOU, the outcomes /results are 1. A better understanding among stakeholders on healthy, safe and sustainable food systems and 2. Defined pathways for a cohesive Rwandan /African food policy.

A good food system delivers sustainable healthy diets
A food system gathers all the elements (environment, people, inputs, processes, infrastructures, institutions, etc.) and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, and the outputs of these activities, including socio-economic and environmental outcomes. (HLPE Report #12 Nutrition and Food Systems, 2017)
To be complete, a good food system delivers sustainable healthy diets. Sustainable Healthy Diets are dietary patterns that promote all dimensions of individuals’ health and wellbeing; have low environmental pressure and impact; are accessible, affordable, safe and equitable; and are culturally acceptable. (FAO and WHO. 2019. Sustainable healthy diets – Guiding principles)

The need for a baseline desk review study
The above issues and challenges inherent to the current food system are largely related to the lack of a coherent food policy, cutting across sectors and joining up different levels of governance, means that accountability is hugely dispersed. When poor outcomes arise, no-one can be held to account.
Over 2020-2023, the African Union, AFSA and other partners are undertaking a collaborative process of research and reflection to identify what tools would be required to deliver sustainable food systems in Africa. A series of multi-actors dialogues will be conducted in a number of African countries including Rwanda, on how to bridge the different policy areas (agriculture, trade, environment, health, etc.) and different policy levels (AU, national, local) through which food systems are governed, identifying priorities for reform and bringing them together under a single agenda.

To inform the regional and national dialogue processes, a consultant will be commissioned to carry out a desk review study to explore the current governance structures and policy frameworks, their fitness for purpose, and the information sources and influences on which they are based. Actually, there are a variety of distinct policy frameworks: agriculture, food safety and public health, nutrition, trade, environmental protection, climate and energy, economic and social cohesion, rural development and international development, employment and education. The lack of a coherent food policy, cutting across sectors and joining up different levels of governance, means that accountability is hugely dispersed. And there are cracks: When poor outcomes arise, no-one can be held to account.

An African Food Policy is urgently required, not to replace these sectoral policies, but to bring them together and realign them, ironing out the many contradictions between them that are pulling our food systems in different directions. By contrast, a Food Policy would make it a requirement for policies to pull in the same direction, to build healthy food environments and promote healthy diets for all, to rebalance power in food systems, and to involve a wider range of stakeholders in designing and assessing policies. The consultant’s report will serve as a basis for the national dialogue

Compiled by ACORD Rwanda
January 2021