1. Background
WFP Centre of Excellence for Rural Transformation (WFP China COE) prioritizes leveraging China’s knowledge and experience through South-South Cooperation to contribute to developing countries’ food security and food systems resilience. Rice value chain development is one of the prioritized thematic areas of South-South Cooperation by WFP China COE. In the past 3 years, policy-level consultations and field-level projects on rice value chain in Africa have been implemented, generating fruitful results including synergies for further policy dialogues and partnerships for technology and experience exchange. WFP China COE is committed to continue making efforts to the development of Rice Value Chain, highlighting China-Africa exchange, promoting more ground level engagement, involving more partners and stakeholders, and create knowledge products accordingly.
A series of initiatives and framework have built a solid foundation for the establishment of China-Africa Rice Value Chain Initiative. In June 2019, the Joint Initiative on South-South Cooperation for Rice Value Chain Development in Africa was announced at the Seminar of China-Africa Ag-coop and Development by China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE), World Food Program (WFP), United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MARA), African Union (AU), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), during the first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, China.
The 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC, November 2021 in Dakar, Senegal) highly prioritized food storage and rice value chain, enhancing China-Africa cooperation.
On 23 September 2021, the United Nations Food Systems Summit served as a historic opportunity to empower all people to leverage the power of food systems to fuel the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and return on track to achieve SDGs by 2030s. As the anchor agency of Action Track 5, WFP underpins the ambitions on building resilience and mitigate shocks, understanding and addressing the drivers and root causes of food insecurity, strengthening national supply chains, supporting smallholder farmers, and reducing food loss and waste.
Since 2021, WFP China COE has joined hands with the Regional Center of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) to facilitate knowledge sharing and resource mobilization on rice value chain development. In March 2021, WFP China COE and CERFAM launched the China Africa Rice Value Chain Development Project in Côte d'Ivoire under the Global South-South Development Centre project, jointly initiated by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchange (CICETE). The achievements made in Côte d'Ivoire resulted in further funding from BMGF for the China-Africa Rice Value Chain Initiative, enabling WFP China COE and CERFAM to scale up support for rice value chains in Western Africa, mainly in Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea, further promoting country-level engagement.
To create an enabling platform linking stakeholders from both China and Africa, WFP China COE has held two consecutive seminars on the China-Africa Rice Value Chain Development. In June 2021, the first Seminar on China-Africa Rice Value Chain Enhancement was organized in Shaoxing. In September 2022, the second Seminar on China-Africa Rice Value Chain with a technical focus on rice processing, storage and quality control was held in Jiaxing. Through South-South Cooperation dialogue, the Seminar facilitated the experience and expertise sharing on national food security and in agricultural development in China for innovative solutions and good practices on rice value chain development.
The Seminar on China-Africa Rice Value Chain Development to be held in 2023 is a part of the Rice Value Chain Initiative implemented by WFP China COE, CERFAM and funded by BMGF as a tool to facilitate dialogue and exchange.
Rationale
WFP emphasizes significantly on the smallholder farmers capacity enhancement and access to the market supportiveness. The Smallholder Agricultural Market Support (SAMS) programme guidance released in 2018 was structured on the development of four pathways that mirror the smallholder market access theory of change: inclusive aggregation, demand side, supply side, and enabling environment. In full alignment with SAMS strategy and the newly released WFP PHLM Guidance in 2022, value chain development for smallholders is one of the prioritised areas of WFP China COE aiming to help increase farmers’ access to the market and improve their livelihoods.
BMGF highly prioritize the wellbeing of smallholder farmers and rice value chain development in Africa. In 2022, BMGF funded a feasibility study implemented by the Syngenta Foundation and Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) and Derftdan Resources Ltd. on the rice value chain in
Nigeria. The study identified causes of the low efficiency of the rice value chain, concluded the funding gaps and investment opportunities, and provided strategic recommendations drawing from good practices and experiences from China. It recommended private sector engagement, sector specific rice policy and advocacy platform development, and strong knowledge transfer mechanism, fitting in the objective of the China- Africa Rice Value Chain Seminar.
In this context, the 3rd Seminar on China-Africa Rice Value Chain Development will be organized to expand the platform for more diversified dialogues and exchanges among concerned parties on China-Africa rice value chain development with a technical focus on rice storage, processing, and nutrition. Co-organizers of the event will be WFP China COE, UNOSSC, BMGF, National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration (NAFRA), CERFAM with support of CICETE, Depart of International Cooperation of MARA, China Africa Development Fund (CADfund), and Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and Jiangsu Provincial Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, tentatively.
Objective:
The Seminar serves as a platform to link partners, exchange knowledge, technologies, and insights on solutions and pathways to enhance cooperation on the rice value chain development, especially on rice storage, processing, and nutrition. Through South-South Cooperation, the Seminar is expected to forge an inclusive platform for all stakeholders relevant to China-Africa Rice Value Chain, including public and private sector, technical and academic partners.
Specifically, the Seminar will explore:
• At policy level: To host policy dialogues between China and African government agencies, sharing experiences on rice value chain and food security at an overall perspective
•At technical level: To invite experts from academic institutions to present the latest development; to allow private sector practitioners to exhibit solutions; to facilitate African countries to present demand, based on which WFP would provide matching assistance through South-South Cooperation
•For partnership: To share progress and achievements of the Rice Value Chain initiative in Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea granted by BMGF; to convene diversified partners for potential investment in China-Africa Rice Value Chain, building a synergy for rice value chain development; to create momentum for an upscaled and sustainable development of rice value chain in Africa
• For knowledge management: To channel abundant technical resources from partners; to develop knowledge products contributing to WFP-China SSC Knowledge Sharing Platform, which is expected to serve as a critical tool for long term rice value chain development
Event arrangement
1. Event Format
The Seminar will be organised offline. A half day field visit will be included.
2. Participants Invited
Participants include government agencies, UN agencies, academia, NGOs, and enterprises. Embassies of the African countries in Beijing including Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, will be invited. Representatives from WFP Headquarter, Regional Bureau, Country Offices and Centres of Excellence, African regional institutions, and relevant UN Agencies will be invited to the on-site event in Jiangsu Province. Enterprises and local NGOs working on rice production, harvest, marketing and sales and other relevant areas will also be invited.
3. Language
Chinese/ English/French simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
4. Follow-up
Insights and advice on rice value chain enhancement will be collected. Further actions will be taken to follow up and concretize valuable initiatives out of the meeting discussion.
The Seminar will feed the WFP-China South-South Cooperation Knowledge Sharing Platform and Cloud School courses. Relevant knowledge products including experts’ presentations and reference materials will be shared with participants after the event.
Agenda
