Food Systems Leadership Program for Youth Regional Workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean
by Carol-Faye Bynoe-George
The United Nation (UN) Food Systems Coordination Hub and the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Office of Latin America and the Caribbean organized a regional workshop under the project “Building the Next Generation of Food Systems Leadership in Developing Countries“.
This training was held in Santiago, Chile during 6th to 10th May and was funded by the Government of Germany. Representing Antigua and Barbuda was Mrs. Nicolette Francis/Agricultural Science Education Officer for the Ministry of Education. Other countries represented from the Caribbean region were: Barbados, Belize, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. Other countries present were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and the United States.
“I was one of twenty-five participants from Latin America and the Caribbean that attended the UN Food Systems Workshop. The workshop aimed to build networks through collaborative leadership to improve the Food Systems within our region”, Mrs. Francis said.
Principles underpinning the workshop were:
Peer-learning and networking to create a trusted community of young food systems leaders
Practical and actionable learning offering to develop and implement plans in their respective countries.
A learning offer that stimulates sharing and advocacy to amplify and accelerate the gained knowledge, skills and attitudes for food systems change in the respective professional ecosystems.
Training objectives: 1. Enhance knowledge and the capability to have critical conversations around the complexity in food systems.
Gain knowledge on systems thinking practices in food systems transformation.
Understand the role of evidence and scientific knowledge for food systems transformation.
Increase the ability to design a collective vision for food systems transformation.
Have gained skills to design for systems change and have access to tools and methods to design systems change initiatives.
Improve competencies for evidence-based knowledge sharing and communication to a broad audience advocating for food systems transformation, based on principles of trans-disciplinarity.
Improve skills and attitudes for negotiation and conflict resolution in a multi stakeholder setting.
Feel more resilient in terms of self-knowledge and personal leadership capacity to be resilient and vital in contested situations, dealing with uncertainty from a value base.
Increase their network with robust relations and have access to inspiration and resources.
Appreciate and invite diversity, multiple perspectives, address tensions and develop robust relations.
In addition to the plenary sessions the participants were taken on a field trip to vegetable gardens in the small city of Penaflor.
“It was a very informative, well organized and impacting experience. Despite the very cold weather it was worth attending and I am happy that I participated. I am a firm believer that education is the key to our “Food Security solutions. I plan to apply the knowledge acquired, learn from opportunities and embrace mistakes in order to build a team that inspires and empowers learners to ensure food security on Antigua and Barbuda”, Mrs. Francis affirmed.
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