Background

Global Context

The first-ever UN Food Systems Summit (FSS) was convened by the UN Secretary-General on 23-24 September 2021 aiming to leverage the power of food systems for global food security. As committed by the UN Secretary-General, a global stocktaking meeting on food systems would be held every two years to review progress in implementing the outcomes of UN FSS and its contributions to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda supported by the RBAs, the broader UN System and partners.

This year, the UN Stocktaking Moment of FSS took place on 24-27 July. The event built on the momentum of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit and created a conducive space for countries to review progress on the commitments to action and identify successes, enduring bottlenecks, and priorities in order to close the implementation gap by effectively and efficiently utilizing the Means of Implementation for food systems transformation.

Corporate Context

As the anchor agency of Action Track 5 at the UN FSS, WFP underpins the ambitions on building resilience and mitigating 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. The areas WFP focuses on include financing food systems change; resilience and future-proofing food systems; food and the environmental commons; and health, nutrition, and food security.

WFP engages governments and other stakeholders to support National Pathways. WFP advocates for the inclusion of food security, resilience, and nutrition priorities for long-term support to food systems transformation at country level. According to WFP’s Post-harvest Loss Management (PHLM) Guidance, PHLM plays a critical function in sustainable food systems and can help optimize agricultural productivity and deliver food security and safety for all in an economically, socially and environmentally viable manner. WFP’s programmatic work on PHL is focusing primarily on reducing postharvest losses affecting smallholder farmers.

Country Context in China

As the largest developing country, China is basically self-sufficient in food supply through hard working over the past decades and has enough food to feed its nearly 1.4 billion population. China's food security is a success of worldwide significance and is advancing along a steadier and wider path with Chinese characteristics. Meanwhile, as a major country that shoulders its responsibilities, China has always been a positive force in safeguarding world food security. China stands ready with the world to enhance international exchanges and cooperation, share experience and practices in the food industry, and implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, making a positive contribution to safeguarding world food security and promoting common development.

In July 2021, an RBA plus ESCAP-CSAM event on China’s Good Practice on Food Loss and Waste was held online in China, drawing international attention for wider collaboration under this theme. Chinese experts contributed visions and insightful thoughts to enhance food supply chain with efficiency. Digital technologies are very much encouraged in food systems management.

In September 2021, the first International Conference on Food Loss and Waste, initiated by China, was held in Jinan, Shandong province. The Jinan Initiative of the International Conference on Food Loss and Waste was released at the conference. Actions are called for to deliver progress on shared goals of food loss reduction at harvesting, storage, transportation, processing stages and throughout the food supply chain.

In November 2022, WFP Centre of Excellence for Rural Transformation (WFP China COE), Henan University of Technology (HAUT) and the Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) organized the Seminar on Post-Harvest Loss (PHL) Management for National Food Security – A South-South Cooperation Policy Dialogue on Food Systems Transformation on November 18th, 2022. A total of 432 participants from 31 countries joined this online seminar. The Seminar provided insightful discussions on national grain reserves systems and digitalized technologies for food systems transformation.

Context in Other Developing Countries

Approximately one-third of the food produced across the world (around 1.3 billion tonnes) are lost or wasted along food supply chains. It is even worse in developing countries. In Africa especially, small agricultural producers (farmers, fishers, meat and dairy producers) operating in traditional food supply chains are the principal suppliers of food but face high food loss under normal circumstances due to lack of technologies, infrastructure and transport systems and technical skills to cut losses that occur at post-harvest stage. This is expected to be more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic due to disruptions caused by government measures causing poor-to-no access to the necessary products and services.

Rationale

PHL is a core component of WFP’s value chains development interventions through which WFP can build the resilience of smallholder farmers and facilitate their access to markets. The approximate 1.3 billion tonnes of food produced being lost or wasted along food supply chains every year would be sufficient to feed 1.6 billion people. From an environmental perspective, it is estimated that PHL account for 7% of total GHG emissions and 6% of total water withdrawals. Meeting the food demand of the global population through focus on increasing the global food production alone without due regard to PHL reduction will put more pressure on the environment and the sustainability of the food systems.

China’s experience in the past decades indicated that the PHL management at various stages greatly contribute to national food security and smallholders’ market access and livelihood. At policy level, disciplines and guidelines on post-harvest loss reduction monitor and evaluation are put in place to boost systematic actions at various levels. At technical level, facilities, standardized procedures, various technologies covering the harvesting, storage, transportation, processing and throughout the food supply chain are widely deployed.  

The Smallholder Agricultural Market Support (SAMS) programme guidance released in 2018 provided guidance and technical support to country offices in designing smallholder and food systems outcomes relevant for country strategic plans. With support from regional bureaus, the programme designs and disseminates tools to support implementation of SAMS for local and regional procurement and food systems coordination initiatives, allowing country offices achieve SDG targets. This is highly relevant to WFP China COE’s South-South Cooperation engagement on food systems transformation. In line with the newly released WFP PHLM Guidance in 2022, leveraging China’s knowledge and experience in aspect of Post-harvest Loss Management and Food Systems Transformation through South-South Cooperation is prioritized by WFP China COE and contributed to developing countries’ food systems resilience.

Henan University of Technology (HAUT) is an academy jointly supported by the People’s Government of Henan Province and National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration (NAFRA). The university is identified as a strong technical partner for WFP China COE with strength especially on PHLM & Food Systems as HAUT has committed to theoretic research and engineering technologies on post-harvest loss management and other food related areas. HAUT also has been long actively engaged in China-aided training support for other developing countries. In October 2021, a Seminar was jointly organized by WFP China COE and HAUT on Food Systems Management. In November 2022, a Seminar on PHLM for National Food Security was jointly organized by WFP China COE and HAUT online, during which an MOU between the two parties was signed regarding technical solution and experience sharing through South-South Cooperation capacity building activities and SSC Knowledge Sharing Platform.

The Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) is a platform of exchanges, partnerships and cooperation, which aims to respond to the increasing demand of national governments for capacity strengthening, technical expertise, knowledge management, South-South cooperation and exchange, sharing of good practices and lessons learned in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. Post-harvest Loss Management in African countries is highly prioritized by CERFAM.

In this context, WFP China COE is partnering with HAUT and CERFAM, to facilitate the knowledge and expertise exchange in National Post-Harvest Loss Management at Key Stages of Food Systems. A Seminar on Post-harvest Loss Management – A South-South Cooperation Policy Dialogue on Resilient Food Systems in a Sustainable Way (hereinafter referred as the Seminar) will be organised tentatively on 25 September 2023, which will target policy makers in developing countries looking for ways to develop their national strategies and policies by mutual learning.  

Objective

The Seminar aims to provide insightful discussions on national policy support for post-harvest loss within food systems. Through South-South Cooperation policy dialogue, this seminar is expected to exchange knowledge and experience to address post-harvest loss challenges and advance country-led progress towards national food security.

Specifically, the Seminar will share post-harvest loss management experience at stages of

· Harvesting

· Storage and transportation

· Processing

· Supply chain management

Targeted Audience

Representatives from government agencies, concerned academic and technical partners in China, WFP Headquarter, Regional Bureau, Country Offices and Centres of Excellence, and relevant UN Agencies will be invited to the on-site event in Henan Province.

For more in-depth research and insights into Post Harvest Loss Management, you may want to explore articles and studies in Grain & Oil Science and Technology (GOST). This international, peer-reviewed open-access journal, sponsored by Henan University of Technology, specializes in research related to grains and oils after harvesting. Click here to learn more: https://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/grain-and-oil-science-and-technology

Tentative Agenda

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