In June the IFSTAL team returned to Ghana, bringing staff and students from N8 Agrifood to train alongside University of Ghana students and other food-systems professionals.
“The world urgently needs more food systems analysts – the answer to that need could be sitting in this room right now”.
With this stirring call to action, John Ingram opened the first day of the 2019 N8 IFSTAL Food Systems Training Course, hosted by the University of Ghana. Our objective was to learn how to introduce effective change to food supply networks by considering them as complex systems, rather than focusing on individual elements. Besides students from the University of Ghana and 10 PhD students from the UK N8 Universities, participants included early career professionals from Ghana and four representatives from East Africa supported by the Open Society Foundations/Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA). This gave an incredible collective breadth of experiences and perspectives which made for stimulating discussions throughout the week.
A growing toolkit
Each day, lectures and workshops added more to our growing toolkit of systems-thinking approaches. These included conveying complexity through rich pictures; stakeholder analysis; developing interventions with the BATWOVE tool; and using foresight to explore future scenarios. In between these theory-based lessons, we had the chance to develop the ‘softer’ skills every changemaker needs, such as teamworking and communication – often involving some very creative games!
Each day, lectures and workshops added more to our growing toolkit of systems-thinking approaches. These included conveying complexity through rich pictures; stakeholder analysis; developing interventions with the BATWOVE tool; and using foresight to explore future scenarios. In between these theory-based lessons, we had the chance to develop the ‘softer’ skills every changemaker needs, such as teamworking and communication – often involving some very creative games!
We were also privileged to hear from representatives from industry and organisations already adopting systems-thinking skills, including the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Fairtrade Africa and Nestlé. Bob Doherty’s introduction to Divine Fairtrade chocolate was especially memorable: even a power failure during his talk couldn’t dent his enthusiasm for the positive difference this product makes to smallholder farmers. During our social times we continued to learn from each other, for instance comparing English and African diets over lunch and debating how best to prepare jollof rice during the bus ride to the campus. On Wednesday evening, alumni from the previous year’s summer school joined us for dinner to share how they were now applying systems thinking in a variety of food sectors across the local region.
Insightful field trips
The field trips on Wednesday were a particular highlight, this year to the Nestlé beverage factory in Tema and the Blue Skies fruit processing factory in Doboro: two case studies with marked differences. Most of the tasks at Blue Skies, for instance, were performed manually with much of the final product being exported to western countries. At the Nestlé factory meanwhile, almost the entire production line had been automated, yet the products were aimed at the local market. Both facilities increased our understanding of the factors hindering efficient food production in Ghana, besides how corporate social responsibility can be a force for good. Nestlé, for instance, had committed to tackle the problem of micronutrient deficiency by fortifying their beverage powders with vitamins and minerals typically lacking in West African diets.
All delegates were allocated to groups, each designed to maximise our diversity of experience and skills so that we could apply our new systems-thinking skills to a project based on a current issue within a Ghanaian food supply chain. Each day, we were given time to develop our ideas into cohesive, logical, and most importantly, systemic solutions to present to the other groups on the final day in the strict time limit of five minutes. The diverse and creative outputs included a film, radio programme, panel discussion, and role plays. Each project incorporated key learnings from the week including the role of stakeholders; the importance of examining the interests and motivations driving value chains; shining a light on the ‘missing middle’ of food systems; and the value of solutions for systemic change over the short, medium, and long-term.
During the following reflection period, we considered the difficulties of crossing the disciplinary ‘comfort zones’ of expertise; interacting with group members with different communication and working styles; and the necessity of considering different perspectives. After all, it is not every day that entomologists, activists, and economists work together on a single project!
Giving and receiving feedback
Following the intensity of the group presentations, the programme finished with the ‘Collaborate’ game, designed to develop skills in giving helpful and constructive feedback. Through a series of pitching, feedback and reworking sessions across groups, each team developed a solution to increase fruit provision in primary school meals. It proved an excellent opportunity for the participants to put into practice the concepts of systems-based interventions learnt over the week. In particular, the winning entry capitalised on the principles of communication and presented a set of systemic solutions that engaged multiple stakeholders within the food system.
It was a whirlwind week, with a lot of theory and new experiences to take in. But the overriding feeling was that this was just the beginning, both for our careers and a growing community of food-systems thinkers. Having committed to keep in touch via social media, we are looking forward to supporting each other and sharing our onward journeys.
With thanks to N8 Agrifood and IFSTAL for organising the programme and for the University of Ghana for hosting us. We are also grateful to the N8 Universities Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and York, who funded the attendance of the UK-based PhD students, and to the Open Society Foundations for supporting the participants from East Africa.
Blog written by Caroline Wood, a PhD student at the University of Sheffield and Dr Saher Hasnain, a Research and Community of Practice Coordinator at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute.
