Location - Sunbird Lilongwe Hotel, Lilongwe, Malawi (click for Google Maps directions)
The Food Systems Transformation in Southern Africa for One Health (FoSTA-Health)
The FoSTA Health Dialogues are a vital component of our mission to enhance the expertise on Food Systems and One Health in Malawi through active involvement in research, experience, and evidence-based decision-making, all of which are tailored towards fostering a stable, healthy, and equitable transformation of Malawi's food system for One Health.
Our dialogues are designed to initiate this transformation by bringing together a diverse group of experts and providing open access to cutting-edge research and predictive modelling. Participants will play an integral role in contributing to this mapping and predictive modelling research through a series of participatory presentations, discussions, scenario development, and visioning exercises.
We envision your continued engagement throughout the FoSTA Health project as we work collaboratively to build evidence for various pathways of food system transformation. The results of this project will be presented at national and regional workshops in 2025, which will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of Malawi's food system.
Objectives:
Improve understanding of the food system for one health in the country
Introduce and get input on the integrated assessment framework and Representative Transformation Pathways
The Food Systems Transformation in Southern Africa for One Health (FoSTA-Health) project is evaluating the implications of plant, animal, and human health for food systems transformation in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Across southern Africa, a combination of environmental, climatic, and other external shocks to supply chains (including those resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic), are creating new challenges for food systems. In this context, strategic transformation of food systems will be central to national and regional strategies for improving human, animal, plant, and overall environmental health.
The key transformation agendas in the region that we are exploring include:
In relation to these transformations, FoSTA-Health will strengthen transdisciplinary understanding of the interactions between human, animal, plant, and environmental health; and build future scenarios using a participatory modelling framework.
Below is the report of the Food Systems Transformation in Southern Africa for One Health (FoSTA-Health) National Dialogue that took place on October 26, 2023 in Lilongwe. The event was jointly organized by the Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET), Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), Kulima Integrated Development Solutions, and CARE Malawi.
The Policy Dialogue had a dual purpose: to enhance the collective comprehension of the food system's interconnectedness with One Health principles and to solicit valuable insights into the proposed integrated assessment framework and Representative Transformation Pathways. Through engaging stakeholders and key actors, this event sought to contribute significantly to the advancement of national policies that intertwine food systems and One Health considerations.