Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Member profile
Browse all members

Dr. Steven Sam

Member since
Organization: Brunel University
Country: United Kingdom
Field(s) of expertise:
I am working on:
My recent work focuses on co-developing with Indigenous Farmers a knowledge management platform for preserving and sharing African indigenous knowledge of indigenous agriculture and food systems and practices. I am also currently collaborating with colleagues at Brunel University, Digital Green, Microsoft Africa and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology to explore the potential for embedding sociality and cultural norms in AI enabled chatbot to improve agricultural practices for indigenous smallholder farmers in Kenya.

Dr Steven Sam (PhD, FHEA) is an academic and researcher at Brunel University London in the UK, focusing on computing for social good, data ethics and responsible AI, ICTs in society and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). As the founder and co-leader of Computer Science for Social Good, he has led an interdisciplinary team dedicated to addressing societal challenges through research, innovation, and capacity-building. His work centres on advancing social and context-aware technology that addresses real-world issues and enhances positive societal impact. 

Steven has collaborated with academic institutions, industry partners, development agencies and government bodies on innovative research projects in healthcare, agriculture, food systems and education particularly in Africa. His recent work focuses on co-developing with Indigenous Farmers a knowledge management platform for preserving and sharing African indigenous knowledge of indigenous agriculture and food systems and practices. Steven is also currently collaborating with Digital Green, Microsoft Africa and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology to explore the potential for embedding sociality and cultural norms in AI enabled chatbot to improve agricultural practices for indigenous smallholder farmers in Kenya.

In addition to his academic role, Steven is an experienced consultant, guiding organisations in the ethical design and deployment of digital systems, responsible AI and data-driven technologies. His expertise spans ethical assessments, risk mitigation, compliance and regulation, responsible design, policy development and stakeholder training. He combines theory, practical experience and human-centred approaches to help clients create digital technology, AI and data strategies that drive innovation and transformational change, respect public trust and protect individual rights. 

This member contributed to:

    • The need to streamline Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems aligns closely with our recent scoping research, funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council Food Network.The project –  AIKPlatform - Preservation and Visualization of African Indigenous Knowledge for Resilient Food Systems – researched and co-designed with Indigenous farmers a prototype of a knowledge management platform aimed at capturing and sharing African Indigenous Knowledge of agriculture and food systems (AIK). The goal is to tackle the challenges associated with documenting AIK and to establish a strong connection between AIK, scientific knowledge and modern initiatives to achieve sustainable food production. The platform, which includes features such as image, text and video sharing and data analytics and visualisation, has the potential to empower Indigenous Farmers to learn and teach their knowledge and contribute to modern sustainable food production efforts in Africa. The platform also has the potential to inform policymakers and research communities on the intersection between AIK and scientific knowledge for improved food security. 

      1.Do you agree with the guiding principles indicated above?

      Yes, I agree with the outlined guiding principles. However, I also suggest as part of the policy framework and recommendations to consider the following: 

      • Review and recommend how Indigenous knowledge (IK) and practices can be maximised to become an integral part of emerging modern farming practices by small and medium size businesses particularly in Africa. Including/recognising indigenous people in modern farming can increase their confidence for knowledge sharing and the protection of sacred and sensitive information, food biodiversity and important agricultural heritage sites. 
      • Policy recommendations on land ownership and distribution should be considered, particularly one that empowers indigenous people to maintain ownership of their farmlands. Our research shows that some indigenous farmers experienced challenges of maintaining their lands due to external pressure from SMEs and large-scale multinational companies. 
      • Policy recommendations on how new technologies (e.g. mobile, AI and Large language models) can be leveraged not only to preserve and promote but also to improve indigenous knowledge food systems and practices beyond subsistence – if the focus is to create sustainable livelihoods and food security in the rural area, where most of the indigenous people live.
      • Policy recommendations should consider issues such as ownership (or knowledge sovereignty) as a critical requirement for capturing, preserving and sharing indigenous knowledge. This will ensure that Indigenous People retain ownership and control of their knowledge. In addition, if any income generation is involved in the knowledge sharing framework, a fair revenue mechanism should be built into the policy/regulatory framework.  
      • The framework should also consider investments in fundamental resources in the rural/regional areas to retain older adults and encourage the younger generations to learn and apply the practices. This will ensure a long-term sustainability of indigenous food systems. Our research identifies rural urban migration as a significant threat to preserving and strengthening indigenous farming practices. 

      2. Should the objectives include mainstreaming Indigenous Peoples food and knowledge systems, and lessons learned from them, for the benefit of all, or solely for the benefit of Indigenous Peoples as rights holders?

      The objective of mainstreaming Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems should prioritise recognising Indigenous Peoples as rights holders. At the same time, the lessons learned from these systems should be focused on the benefit of all. This is particularly important because a significant proportion of the population in some regions relies heavily on Indigenous food systems and practices for sustenance and livelihoods. For instance, in some African countries, such as Sierra Leone, 80% of the population depends on Indigenous and traditional food systems for food, employment and household income. Therefore, investments in mainstreaming Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems should consider their broader benefits to society.

      3. What are the challenges related to Free, Prior and Informed Consent and Access and Benefit Sharing when widely promoting and/or mainstreaming Indigenous Peoples food and knowledge systems?

      Indigenous knowledge is tacit knowledge held by Indigenous People and passed on by generations. Some of the challenges to consider in sharing or mainstreaming this knowledge include the following: 

      Knowledge ownership (knowledge sovereignty) – Indigenous People may resist due to concerns around the access and use of their knowledge – particularly the fear of exploitation and misrepresentation of indigenous cultural heritage of food systems. Therefore, it is important to establish protocols for what I called ‘knowledge sovereignty’. As part of the consent, detailed information should be provided on how the knowledge is captured, preserved and shared, potential risks involved (including protection of sacred and sensitive information and cultural heritages) and ownership. The protocols for knowledge sovereignty should grant Indigenous People full control over their knowledge information/data. In addition, it is important to introduce self-governance and monitoring mechanisms – to determine how their knowledge is stored, accessed and used. For example, a similar approach is evident in the US-based open source knowledge management platform (Mukurto). The platform helps Indigenous communities manage and share their cultural heritage on their own terms. 

      Challenge of fair benefit/revenue sharing – From my experience of researching with Indigenous People questions such as who benefits or how can we benefit from knowledge sharing are common. It is fair to say that the effort to streamline the knowledge should also consider how the sharing can benefit them. Adhering to frameworks such as UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.) and implementing revenue-sharing models to ensure equitable benefits for Indigenous People from their indigenous food systems and cultural assets could foster motivation and enhance the potential for sharing.

      4 How can the report ensure the inclusion of marginalized groups, sustainability, and protection against commercialization risks for Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems?

      Commercialisation risks the knowledge being exploited and appropriated beyond the intended purposes. It could lead to disrespect of the unique cultural norms and traditional practices of indigenous food system knowledge. Thus, in instances where commercialisation is involved, the following should be considered in the report:

      • Efforts should be directed at working directly with Indigenous leaders and elders to identify what knowledge can be commercialised.
      • As I mentioned above, an equitable compensation framework should be developed to ensure that Indigenous People benefit from any commercial or research use of their shared knowledge, such as through revenue-sharing models or licensing agreements.
      • Reinforce the building of Indigenous People’s capacity to manage and benefit from shared knowledge 

      Regarding the inclusion of marginalised groups, the report should outline methodologies such as participatory/community-led approaches that include the marginalised in knowledge collection and development of knowledge management platform/systems. Including marginalised groups as co-creators will ensure that their needs, values and governance structures guide the design of such systems. For example, in our research, we adopted citizen science approach which included three methods: 

      1. Participatory photo and video elicitation – to capture Indigenous Farmers’ experience and everyday knowledge and practices of food production, processing and consumption 
      2. Citizen- centred data interpretation and analysis where we engaged farmers to transcribe, translate, interpret, classify and categorise the data as non-scientific experts using the STFC’s Zooniverse platform. 
      3. Co-design together with the Indigenous farmers a prototype platform for capturing, preserving and sharing the African indigenous knowledge of food systems and practices. 

      5.How should oral knowledge and traditions be documented and referenced in the development of the report?

      In my view, it is incredibly challenging to document oral knowledge and traditions of food systems in a single report. Generally, indigenous knowledge varies across different cultures, countries and regions.  I think what the report can document are best practices of oral indigenous knowledge using case studies and other resources such as academic literature, archives, websites and grey literature. I co-led a similar report writing for the FAO with my PhD supervisor at the University of Queensland in Australia in 2016, where we developed the first scoping research report on inclusive rural communication services. We drew on ‘literature review and 19 cases across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean to compare, analyse and document convincing evidence of evaluative approaches, methods and outcomes of communication programmes and rural communication services.

      Another way the report can document oral knowledge is to provide guidelines and frameworks on how oral knowledge can be documented through documents or knowledge platforms like our (AIK) Africa Indigenous Knowledge management platform. Similarly, the report can develop a supplementary website where this knowledge can be documented in different formats such as texts, audios and videos of Indigenous farmers sharing their experiences/knowledge of farming practices.

      6. What dimensions linked to Indigenous Peoples’ agency, e.g., in governance issues, could be addressed?

      Since the task involves the development of a comprehensive report that is geared towards policy and practice recommendations, in my view, the report should predominantly focus on governance and practice issues related to the following: 

      • Legal protection of Indigenous People’s knowledge on issues such as privacy, knowledge sovereignty and capacity building   
      • Localisation and inclusive practices and solutions of the documentation, preservation, sharing and promotion indigenous knowledge 
      • Responsible and ethical integration of indigenous knowledge into modern agricultural practices 
      • Investment in both indigenous knowledge of farming practices and community resources to ensure continuing generational transfer of knowledge and long-term sustainability  

      7. Are there important/relevant policy papers and instruments missing from the foundational documents list?

      Not to my knowledge 

      8. Could you please indicate relevant references that should be taken into account?

      • Berkes, F., Colding, J. and Folke, C., 2000. Rediscovery of traditional ecological knowledge as adaptive management. Ecological applications, 10(5), pp.1251-1262.
      • Kuhnlein, H.V., Erasmus, B. and Spigelski, D., 2009. Indigenous Peoples' food systems: The many dimensions of culture, diversity and environment for nutrition and health (pp. x+-339).
      • Continuance, C., 2018. Food Sovereignty, Justice, and Indigenous Peoples. The Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics, p.345.
      • FAO and Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT., 2009. Indigenous Peoples' Food Systems: Insights on Sustainability and Resilience from the Front Line of Climate Change from the Front Line of Climate Change. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT [FAO].

      9. What best practices, ethical standards, and strategies for addressing climate change should be highlighted in the report?

      In addition to some of the practices mentioned above, the report may highlight the following: 

      • Recognising and documenting best practices of how Indigenous People are adapting their farming practices to climate change variability and resilience.  This should also include respecting them as rights holders of their knowledge and resources.
      • Engaging Indigenous People as active agents and decision-makers in all stages of documentation, preservation, and sharing of their knowledge. Through this we can learn from their experiences and adapt/integrate into modern climate change policies and adaptation and mitigation strategies to enhance resilience and sustainability. 
      • Investing in education, tools, and resources that empower Indigenous communities to maintain and innovate their practices in response to climate challenges.

      10. Which best practices or strategies to promote cross-cultural understanding should be highlighted in the report?

      Promoting cross-cultural understanding of Indigenous Peoples' food and knowledge systems requires strategies that emphasise respect, inclusivity and collaboration. This may include the following:

      • Amplify Indigenous People voices through collaborative research, digital storytelling and knowledge management platforms that allow them to share their knowledge, traditions, and practices directly. For example, in our AIK project, we use the citizen science approach to amplify their voices and involvement in both the research and design of the knowledge management platform. 
      • Highlight the importance of cultural exchange programmes, such as workshops, festivals and events, which demonstrate indigenous food systems and their significance.
      • Another way we are trying to do this in our research project that might be a relevant strategy is creating learning resources that can be integrated into school curricula to raise awareness and teach future generations.