Food System Approach to Promote Urban Agriculture Practice and Policy Training Workshop

55 stakeholders met to learn and discuss challenges and opportunities for urban and peri-urban agriculture in Hanoi city region.

Ky Hoang, Ciara Varley, Charlie Spillane, Anna Lorente Sebastian

EcoFoodSystems attend Holistic Assessment for Food Systems Transformation in Vietnam

EcoFoodSystems PhD researcher Ky Hoang recently attended CIFOR-ICRAF’s Holistic Assessment for Food Systems Transformation in Vietnam. The meeting was organized to identify and prioritize issues, opportunities and challenges for food systems stakeholders at the national level in measuring the food system transformation (FST) in Vietnam. 

In collaboration with other attendees, EcoFoodSystems worked to identify goals and priorities in measuring current food systems and the transformation process, as well as discussing the most essential metrics and indicators needed for monitoring food system progress under a range of topics, including income and livelihoods, nutrition, consumers’ access to agroecological products and sustainability. 

The meeting was an excellent opportunity for EcoFoodSystems networking and stakeholder relationship building, with many key food system stakeholders including VAAS, ALiSEA, CARES, VNUA, VNA, CISDOMA, Alliance Bioversity International and CIAT, the Institute for Plant Varieties, ICRAF, ATDT project, and CIRAD in attendance. Following EcoFoodSystems’ recent multistakeholder research prioritization workshop in Hanoi, the EcoFoodSystems team were delighted to reconnect with the attendees from many stakeholder organisations at the CIFOR-ICRAF conference. 

The meeting provided the EcoFoodSystems project with useful insights into paralelle work on inclusive digital tools for agroecological transitions, as well as current methods and approaches to measure gaps and challenges in the implementation of agroecological principles in food systems. 

The consultation represented an opportunity for EcoFoodSystems to engage with national stakeholders, and identify potential collaborative opportunities with food system stakeholders in Vietnam, as well as providing enhanced opportunitues for EcoFoodSystems to contribute to food systems transformation in Vietnam. 

EcoFoodSystems looks forward to continuing work with stakeholders across Hanoi city region to improve the affordability of healthy and sustainable diets in Vietnam.