Webinar - Polycrisis and the Food System: Views from African Urban Centres

ABOUT

Be part of this free pan-African panel discussion with experts from 5 cities sharing their contexts and experiences from across the continent. Engage with the urban centres of Tunis (Tunisia), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Kisumu (Kenya), Mbale (Uganda) and Cape Town (South Africa) as they share what is happening within their food systems with regards to climate change, natural environment, disease, water and energy, civil unrest and conflict, ideas and ideologies, and how they are responding to it.

The primary theme for Food Dialogues 2023 is our food system in polycrisis. We are barely out of a global pandemic, and are now dealing with load shedding, a pending water crisis, the impacts of climate change and potential natural system shocks. How do we strengthen our food systems to face these challenges? How can the lens of decolonisation and other conceptual re-framings help us imagine alternative approaches? How do food businesses navigate ongoing periods of volatility, uncertainty and risk, and what future is in store for our food economy? And how do these crises make a difference to Africans confronting daily shocks and stresses in vulnerable communities amid growing levels of inequality?

This webinar will be moderated by Paul Currie of ICLEI Africa and draws on recent research conducted as part of AfriFOODlinks, an EU funded project that aims to improve food and nutrition security, while delivering positive outcomes for climate and the environment, and building social and ecological resilience in 65+ Cities in Africa and Europe. Coordinated by ICLEI Africa, the project gathers 26 partners across the African and European continents.

This is a signature Food Dialogues event: All sessions are participatory panel discussions with no ‘talking heads’ presenting to a passive listening audience. The emphasis is on engagement and dialogue in person in real-time. Everyone in the room has expertise of some kind and is invited to participate. Sessions are extended to allow for in-depth discussion and substantive engagement with the issues.

The webinar will include real time French-English / English-French translation and also real time captions in many other languages that participants can self-enable and choose their own language.(The list of supported languages can be found here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/6643133682957-Enabling-and-configuring-translated-captions#h_01GYTKR6JK0KMXF4TCCTWB84MQ)