2015

First International Workshop on "Making Food Systems Resilient"

World Food System Conference 2015 at Monte Verità

At this exciting conference, which was held from 21-26 June 2015 at Monte Verità in Ascona, Switzerland, we discussed with conference participants about resilience in food systems. Divided into three sessions, the goal was to first understand resilience from a general perspective and then measure and build resilience by using tef as a specific case study. The workshop was viewed very positive by the participants as a means to gain increased knowledge on how to understand the linkages between different activities of a value chain in case a shock occurs.

Previously known aspects of food security such as access and availability were highlighted to be important, but also soft factors were mentioned to be important, such as trust and institutional characteristics.

Workshop participants found it crucial to better prepare food systems against any types of shocks which could potentially harm their functioning. It became also clear at this workshop that more research is needed to better understand how the concept of resilience can be applied among different activities within a value chain. And also, what indicators are suitable to measure and build resilience in food systems against shocks.