Colombia: four territories, diverse challenges to invest in sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems
The FAO Investment Centre, the European Union and Agrinatura have supported the territories of Nariño Centro, Montes de María, Altiplano Cundiboyacense and Valle del Cauca.
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©Santiago La Rotta (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The FAO Investment Centre, the European Union and Agrinatura have supported the Nariño Centro, Montes de María, Altiplano Cundiboyacense and Valle del Cauca territories in identifying the main challenges that each territory needs to overcome to transition towards sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems. A programmatic results framework for implementation and an investment and financing framework will follow to support the transition and address financing gaps.
During the month of September 2024, teams from the FAO Investment Centre and Agrinatura, an association of European universities and research centres, organized participatory workshops in all four territories (Montes de María, the Tunja-Bogotá axis in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, the Circunvalar del Galeras in Central Nariño and the micro-region Palmira-Sur in Valle del Cauca), involving representatives of the province’s administration, municipalities, farmer’s representatives, academia and consumers, among others.
In the context of these events, 30 to 60 people attended each workshop, reviewing and discussing the main challenges that impede the transition to sustainable agrifood systems. Such transition is urgently needed to ensure food security and healthy diets, promote inclusive economic growth and equitable territorial development and conserve the environment. The specific challenges identified by participants include securing land tenure, maintaining biodiversity in agriculture, developing agroecology and strengthening livelihood and ecosystem resilience to climate change.
The FAO Investment Centre’s role consists of supporting the territories to identify viable solutions that address the priority challenges, to estimate their costs and to produce a result framework for change. Now that these challenges are identified, experts will also produce an investment and financing framework for the emerging solutions, map national support programmes for agrifood systems and identify potential investments from international financial institutions and other sources.
The Department of Valle del Cauca stands out as a pioneer in the implementation of agroecological policies with its newly launched Agroecological Plan 2024-2035. The Investment Centre will support the structuring of an investment and financing framework for this plan, aligning public and private funding sources for its implementation.
Hans Thiel, Senior Investment Support Officer at the FAO Investment Centre based in Bogotá leads this work: “This project is interesting and effective since it encompasses actions at different levels of government: the municipal/territorial, regional (departamentos) and national levels. The sub-national territorial level’s participatory, bottom-up approach will help us build a well-grounded investment and financing framework also for the regional level. The national level activities in support of agroecological approaches and sustainable value chains will be initiated soon as well.”
“The participation of all relevant actors and sectors of the agrifood system in the development of a collective vision for the transition towards sustainability, social inclusion and resilience to climate change is also fundamental to the formulation of the Departmental Agroecology Plan and Strategy that we are building in the Department of Nariño,” said the President of the Departmental Assembly, Dr Rosita Guevara, who is leading this policy innovation in the legislature.
These activities in Colombia are part of the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Intelligence (SASI) initiative led by the European Union and implemented by Agrinatura and FAO Investment Centre. It seeks to support countries to translate national goals and plans into operational programs, policies and investments that enhance the economic, environmental and social sustainability of their agrifood systems.