Africa will drive global demographic trends in the coming decades as climate change and the geopolitics of regional energy and water systems further threaten food security globally.
SustainFood uses a WEF Nexus approach to sustainable food systems by developing solutions that promote:
1. systems-level understanding of sustainable WEF security
2. increased STEM participation of under-represented groups in coidentifying solutions; and
3. advance science-to-policy impacts.
Evolving SustainFood network faced programmatic challenges:
1. Goal inflation - setting of ambitious program goals expected at the
proposal stage, ultimately limit flexibility to respond to strategic
opportunities later during implementation
2. Erosion of “think globally”; now faced by “make … [local] great again”
mindset and financial resource re-allocation
3. Step back from explicitly pursuing climate action goals
4. Re-budgeting was required
Future outlook for network science and practice – better outcomes?
1. Partnerships to enhance WEF security outcomes are here to stay
2. Inevitably, this will lead to a new set of framing challenges beyond the Nexus and innovative future mechanisms by which to enhance
capacity while demonstrating tangible and long-lasting impacts.