A learning journey guide for building food system resilience in protracted crises to improve food and nutrition outcomes : A toolbox for FNS-REPRO communities of practice

Summary

This working document is a collaborative effort between the Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (WCDI) of Wageningen University and Research (WUR) and FAO under the Food and Nutrition Security Resilience Programme (FNS-REPRO). The proposed methodology will be field tested in Sudan, South Sudan and Somaliland and validated by the parties mentioned above, based on which a final document will be produced. This guide aims to contribute to FNS-REPRO’s goal to build food system resilience (FSR) in protracted crises, in order to improve food and nutrition security (FNS). It shows how to do this with learning journeys – that is, working with stakeholders to engage and learn in different ways. Learning journeys provide opportunities for stakeholders to learn from each other in an interactive and participatory way. Building FSR requires tailor-made solutions for particular contexts, commodities, systems and actor groups. This means that local knowledge and expertise must be used. There also needs to be good collaboration between everyone involved (including government, UN, NGOs, private sector, local knowledge and research organizations, and civil society at large). The learning journey process is designed to facilitate this. This guide should be used flexibly. It should be adapted to specific needs and situations; specific topics and issues of interest should be central to the learning journey. It is important to know that learning journeys can have different natures, start in different ways, and be used by different actor groups. The FSR learning journeys are designed to create a common ground of concepts, challenges and opportunities to improve practice, and to inform the wider policy environment. They deliberately include a combination of open exploration of current practice and experience, content-specific workshops, and personal assignments. The different kinds of activities enable participants to explore and perhaps shift their dominant working habits. Learning journeys are strongly shaped by their participants. To be successful, they require active participation and open sharing. This guide assumes that a learning journey would be carried out over a flexible period of time, ranging from one week to one year. Depending on the participants, different learning journey paths can be chosen, allowing to tailor-make journeys that are suitable and cover the content. Each learning journey will need to be tailored to the current practices and priorities of the target country. This includes determining which events are suitable when, and selecting the focus content. Each learning journey has a specific topic. This topic needs the buy-in) of all the participants. If the learning journey does not feel relevant, motivation and commitment will decrease. Learning journeys can be designed around a particular learning question stemming from FNS-REPRO or beyond depending on needs and interest of participants. A typical learning journey consists of six parts: 1. a context and needs assessment. This is to understand FSR within the context. It includes identifying key stakeholders who could be involved, and assessing their information and learning needs. 2. a start-up workshop during which a wider group of actors involved in FSR comes together to consider how FSR in protracted crises could be improved through specific learning aspects. 3. a “deep dive” workshop into the content. This should be done through co-creating knowledge (knowledge workshops) and workshops on tools for knowledge (the systems we use to share knowledge). Concepts like food and nutrition security, food systems, resilience or even peace building should be part of this, depending on the learning journey’s exact focus. 4. Exchange and exposure visits with assignments as well as learning from a food system resilience case study – most likely to be a FNS-REPRO element – as long as this aligns with participant interests. 5. An action plan workshop in which progress and pitfalls are shared and steps towards further operationalisation of food system resilience in protracted crises are planned 6. Product development on the basis of all findings. These products can take a wide range of shapes, depending on the exact topic of the learning journey, and can be used by actors to improve practice and policy to build FSR to address food insecurity.