 So it's wonderful to have you all on board very special greetings to all of you in all the different parts of the world. This is amazing how many people are following us from every corner of the world. So very special welcome to all of you. My name is Marcela Villarreal. I'm the director of partnerships and UN collaboration division here at FAO. Just to let you know that the session is being recorded and I encourage all of you to write in the chat who you are. We've been seeing many of you writing who you are, where you're connecting from. And also, please just be reminding there is a Q&A box for questions you would like to ask specific questions. And if you ask a question, please also put in who the question is directed to. So very warm welcome to this very important event for us to launch the memorandum of understanding between FAO and Wageningen University and research. So our MOU is about science and innovation for more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems. So we have several objectives for the day of today. Of course, we want to celebrate the long-standing partnership between FAO and Wageningen, raising awareness on the recently signed memorandum of understanding and also new and strengthened areas of cooperation. We'd also like to highlight both institutions' visions and missions and their joint efforts to support the achievement, of course, of all the SDGs. We want also to provide a platform to discuss selected technical areas of joint work between the two institutions in line with the eight areas of cooperation of the memorandum of understanding. So we're going to have three segments today for this event. We start with a high-level session with our keynote speakers, then we go into two thematic technical sessions with technical experts from both institutions, and then we'll come back for a closing session. So the event is going to be officially opened in a moment by the FAO Director General, but first let us see a short video highlighting the partnership. Wonderful video. So it's now my pleasure to give the floor to FAO's Director General, Dr. Chu Dongyu. Please, Director General, you have the floor. Thank you, thank you. And the dear Professor Luis Fresco and Ambassador Maricel Pocoboom. Hello, I'm Professor, Dutch name is still correct. Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, today's event is celebrating the law and the fruitful partnership between FAO and the Wahili University and the research. For the over 50 years, FAO and the Wahili University have been working together with a shared objective to improve lives while they're protecting natural resources through the innovative and sustainable approaches. The collaboration offered unique opportunities to leverage our collective comparable advantages and they excelled our joint efforts towards the achievement of STGs. Collaboration and the partnership are essential to finding innovative solutions for growing and complex challenges of agrofusics. We have studied the framework 2022 to 316 to support the 2030 agenda through the transformation to more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable ecosystem for better production and nutrition and environmental better life for all living on behind. To achieve this transformation, we need a holistic approach to minimize the trade-offs using data science and innovation and enabling policies. Currently, the development of the first FAO-Semitic strategy on science and innovation. The strategy will prioritize science, innovative solutions, increase the process in the implementation of the strategy from work in full alignment with the 2030 agenda. The first flagship initiative further supported the key role of science and innovation for the transformation of agrofusics. This includes a hand-in-hand initiative, 1000 digital values, and that one country, one priority product initiative. We are hosting the first FAO-Semitic follow-up action, and we are hosting the coordination hub for that, for the UN First FAO-Semitic follow-up action. FAO has a key role in the UN First FAO-Semitic follow-up and by providing support to countries in the implementation of their national pathways and the priorities. We are also hosting international standard-siding bodies, such as Cortex Alimentaries for many years, which continue to be the global platform for food safety and quality standards that protect consumers, facilitate good profits in food trade. And the International Plan Protection Convention, which is a sole global standard-siding body for planned health. We also provide a range of global public goods, such as the global information and early warning system on food and agriculture, which is a world-leading resource of information on global food production consumption trade. Another important global public goods are the costs offered by the FAOE Learning Academy. We mentioned also our international platform for digital agricultural food and together the ICT application for agricultural systems and rural development. Our commitment is rooted in transformative partnership to generate the game changes which is needed to address the complex set of the agricultural system challenges and achieving the SDGs. The FAOE learning partnership focuses on developing shared knowledge and expertise harnessing the latest technology and innovation for agricultural systems based on the robust science and evidence. This collaboration has the impact of joint activities that contribute to delivery, effectively efficiently science-based high-quality programs. We renewed the memorandum of understanding science in December 2021 established eight technical areas of collaboration and provide a solid forward-looking framework to further strengthen and accelerate our collaboration and lead the concrete results. We renewed the agreement set out and new joint vision for bridging the science and policy interface and provide a platform to connect research staff to the policy makers. What I especially you know most FAOE is an inter-government UN specialized agency and also it should be bringing all the key stakeholders work together, namely government, international organizations, private sectors, economic institutions and the civil society NGOs. I think the one thing also it's personally I saw that also it's a very open international rapid, high-repetitive university and research center and also open to all the possibilities of innovation. That's something is unique for FAOE and for the world, especially for Europe. I think that this time we need more science empowerment in Europe, in the countryside, to have the transformer agricultural system in Europe by the science and innovation. And you name it all the products, green development or green deal you call organic food. First, you respect the international standard and the consistent traceability and also quality control. Any consumers appreciate the consistent quality. You pay for today $1 and next day you pay $1 for another different quality. That's something you're losing the competitiveness. I know the Wageningen and a large of you and a Dutch a culture sectors, you are benefit from linkage between research and extension and management or business management. That's your advantage. That's what the agent need for the rest of the world, not only for the development culture for other developed nations. You have to, you know, share this experience. And second, also, I just talked with the automobile professor, Luis Fresco. You need the agent need to open the training, the people who are working the international business and the environmentalists and the diplomatic persons and the financial people to understand what the real means of agriculture systems in Europe. And you can build up the real alias to support agriculture transformation Europe, because the farmers and the consumers are needing to make use of your experience and knowledge for the people in Europe. So why not only work for the culture and the farmers, you should open to the other sectors, which agent needed during past three years I have strong, you know, impression. And because not only they say the science and the policy interface. I think a culture interface with other sectors in Europe. Dear colleagues, science and innovation key transform the world a growth system to nourish people, nature and the planet and advancing equitable livelihood and they build a resilient ecosystem. Let us continue to work in a efficient effective and a coherent manner towards the world for you from hunger and also for the health food for health life. That's the value of the innovation science. This is the extra contribution from while having a university research. We, let's work together more and better. Thank you. Thanks very much indeed the director general. And as you mentioned, I think this partnership and collaboration between our two institutions is actually older than many should I say most of the people participating here today. And thank you for bringing up the importance of transformative partnerships for our new strategic framework. And we believe that this partnership in particular has massive transformative power for agri food system transformation, given the very concrete solutions it is proposing in terms of the science policy interface. So thank you very much for your words, director general. Now it is my great pleasure to ask to take the floor to the President of Wageningen University and Research Executive Board and to invite our dear Luis Fresco, dear friend who has been a long time friend of FAO to take the floor now. Luis, you have the floor. Thank you, Marcella. Thank you. First of all, director general for your words and for the friendship between Wageningen and FAO. I think indeed we go back a long way and it's also very appropriate that we renew and review the way we work together. And may I add that this is also a special moment for me. In this last position as president of Wageningen University and Research, I have been shorter than in my last position at FAO. So my years at FAO are as important as my Wageningen years. And so I feel a little bit as a person I embody also this kind of partnership. And there is good reason for that, because what links the two is a true commitment to food security, to improving the lives and well being of people but also to a science driven approach to this improvement. And I think it's the knowledge that makes us strong. And it's the sharing of knowledge, which is the most important thing we can do. And I hope very much that this framework agreement that we have today can also serve as an example or as an inspiration rather to other knowledge institutions that you will work with, because it would be very nice to think of a network of institutions that together want to provide the science that is so badly needed. And indeed, you rightly point to the concerns that you have and that I share with you that science is not perhaps as sacred and as unequal vocal as it has been perhaps 50 years ago when we started working together. That has a lot of courses which we cannot deal with today, but it is a fact that knowledge and science and scientists are not always seen as neutral and objective by society. And this is something we need to deal with. I'm saying this very much because I feel that if there is one sustainable resource that we share in society, it is knowledge. Knowledge is not a resource like oil. It doesn't get exhausted. It doesn't get polluted. It may get polluted, but not by knowledge itself by other ideologies. But it's also something that actually improves when it's being used. Sharing knowledge means better knowledge. And I think it's a good time to say that now that so many misinformation moments occur in day to day life, and also now that there is so much confusion in the public, but also at policy levels. I think that we are facing a situation even before the current crisis in Ukraine, where perhaps policymakers, society, consumers are swamped with pseudo knowledge, with half-truth, with semi-facts. And it is very difficult to hear in that enormous chorus of voices, opinions and ideologies, what is really true science-based fact? What do we know? What don't we know? And I have to say immediately that also we as knowledge institutions have perhaps been too slow in identifying where the uncertainty in some of the knowledge is. But I think the potential and the needs and the moral necessity and duty that we have to bring knowledge to the possibilities, to the reach of all, is even more urgent today than it was 50 years ago or even 10 or 20 years ago. Having said that, it's clear that the crisis in Ukraine makes us enter a new age, a new geopolitical age, but also an age in which food and supplies to agriculture are again number one on the political table. It's very regretful that that is because of a crisis that makes so many victims, but it's also important to make people realize that we live in a world of very interconnected food chains, of very interconnected supply chains, and food and agriculture, and the inputs that are necessary, and the whole distribution system must be the number one priority of the heads of government and not just left to ministers of agriculture. I truly concur with you, Director General, that this is also a matter of ministers of finance and ministers of trade and ministers of defense. Agriculture and food security are essential, and the world can never be disentangled again. There is no autokey, not even continents can be on their own, countries certainly cannot and should not want to be. And food are like environment and health truly multilateral issues. They're truly global and we have a global responsibility to get the best interconnected science that brings to bear what we know and also shows how, for example, health and agriculture think corona, so not diseases are linked together. Having said that, it is true that we need a lot more work. We don't have all the answers, we have a lot of answers, and it's been always our aim at Wageningen to make sure that we share our knowledge and that we explore answers with whoever comes to study and whoever comes to work with us. I think the challenge we have is to get a new generation of young scientists and also of young executives of young entrepreneurs who are science and innovation based and want to apply that to food security. Unfortunately, as you know, most young and gifted people will go to sciences like computer science and not to agriculture. Agriculture in many countries is seen as rural areas and backwards. We should change that. There is a new narrative, and I would like to also encourage ourselves in our collaboration here between FAO and Wageningen to really think about that new narrative. How can we encourage young people to take up what I still believe after all these years that I've spent in the field is the most exciting subject you can work on? It is so important because it's piecemeal, it's part and piece of our future. There is no civilization, no peace, no well-being without food and agriculture. So what more do you want to work in? But what we need to show is that agriculture and food are not dreary subjects and not hardworking. The smallest beautiful approach that I remember from not so many years past that you should try and give small farmers a little bit of something so that they are still small farmers but can do their authentic thing. I think that is an idea of the past. What we need is to help entrepreneurial young farmers to become modern farmers, to become innovation driven farmers and get the best access to science. Whether it's the public route or whether it's to private sector and that kind of calibration needs to be articulated in every country. That is the true sense of entering in a dialogue. It's not just an interface between science and policy. As you rightly say, Director General, it's also very much the interface between science and the rest of society. We need to become societies, countries and a world that is truly science driven. Science driven doesn't mean that science has all the answers. It doesn't mean that there's only truth in science. Of course, there are things that are not the realm of science. But it means, I believe, if you say science driven, that there is the profound desire to test hypotheses, to test solutions and to speak about them and find the best possible solutions. And that is an ongoing process. It's not so that we will find all the answers at the same time. But to me, science is neutral and at the same time, therefore, there are no taboo subjects. We should educate young people, our collaborators, but also indeed the ministers of finance and what have you in asking the right questions, because it's only by asking the right questions that we get the right answers. And those answers are extremely urgent. I don't need to say that to you because you all know it. But if there's something that I want to leave with you is that I have that sense of urgency, I think you all have it and we must move forward. We cannot now sort of disintegrate into a world where every country or every continent is again reinventing its own science or reinventing its own ideologies and applying things that are not science based and not innovation driven. And innovation can do so much for small farmers, for women farmers, for biodiversity, just by offering the monitoring tools, by offering quality control, by offering ideas about how to move forward, how to apply the best of knowledge, which may be the best genetics, the best artificial intelligence, the best systems to understand economics. And our first task is to really show the potential of science. So let's find in those eight areas that we have identified some of the flagships to show what can difference can science make and get young people enthusiastic. And yes, indeed, see understanding agriculture and food systems as a lifelong task. This is something that doesn't stop when you have a degree that doesn't stop when you have your first post at FEO. No, I have learned throughout my life that every day is a day that comes with a question. Every collaboration should come with a question. And every day, we should really try to answer those questions, because we are privileged that we can sit here and have the chance to have a job to have access to knowledge to have access to a network and to friends. But so many people out there have not and we have a duty, a moral duty but also a scientific duty to get the best of knowledge to them. So I hope that this enormous task will be taken up by us, not just by FEO and Wageningen, but by all those who want to join this inspiring partnership. So thank you very much. And good luck. I will be there throughout this symposium with you. So thank you, Luis, so very, very much for your actually very inspiring words. And of course we remember you so very well from your years at FEO and indeed, you are strongly missed here at FEO. We agree with you entirely that knowledge is a sustainable resource and one of the most precious ones actually and I really like your take on that it's improved when it is used. We do need a new narrative but fully agree and I do believe as you say that this partnership in particular will provide that help provide that new narrative and definitely be an inspiration for many more to come. So thank you for for your words. Now, I have the big pleasure to give the floor to the permanent representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN organizations for food and agriculture. His excellence. Ambassador Marcel Boeikebom, you have the floor sir. Thank you, Marcella. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the children who are looking for passengers for Kumasi, take our hand and escort us to the right bus, dancing for joy. They're happy. If they find a passenger, they get a banana or an orange from the driver. We embark and sit down. This is the moment two cultures could clash a conflict could arise. That would be the case if the passenger is a newcomer and does not know Africa. Someone like that starts to look around becomes restless and starts asking questions. When will the bus depart. When answers the surprise driver. When my bus is full with people. This passage in the shadow of the sun, a book by Polish journalist and author Richard Kapuczynski about his adventures in Africa. When earlier this week, all train traffic in the Netherlands came to a sudden standstill because of it issues. Nothing worked anymore. There was no manual backup and alternatives could not be organized in time. In addition to the public was insufficient or unreliable. And in the end, people had to look after themselves. There are many elements in these two tales that could serve as an entry point or metaphor for my story today. In the interest of time, I will just take three risk, trust and inclusion. First risk. The Ghanaians in Kapuczynski's story did not seem to be bothered by the risk of coming too late or of getting to their destination at all. People in highly organized countries like my own have become very risk adverse, even risk intolerant. Citizens do not accept risk anymore and demand from their government to eliminate risk altogether. Of course, this is an illusion, but politicians do often oblige, fearful as they are to be seen as indecisive. Scholars of public policy have come up with a name for this phenomenon, the risk-regulate effect. That is a tendency to counter every incident with generic regulation. When we zoom out to the global level, we see a different picture. In this year's global risk report of the World Economic Forum, the number one risk as perceived by its respondents is climate action failure. At this scale, apparently, the risk-regulate effect does not apply, as the global response to date is highly inadequate. See also this week's IPCC report. Ironically, many respondents also fear that late and rapid policy shifts that are becoming inevitable will leave businesses and societies with little time to adapt and could cause deep disruption. Risk is a fluid concept. Risk is about uncertainty and probability. And as my bus and train examples illustrate, risk perception differs in place and evolves over time. This is the domain of scientists and experts. They study, interpret and explain. And next, it is up to policymakers to decide what to do. In today's highly volatile world, such science policy interfaces are of extreme added value. The risks topping the World Economic Forum's list provide a clear agenda for the science policy interface we celebrate today. The second concept I would like to highlight today is trust. Trust is the most important threat that holds our societies together. We trust the train will come and the bus will depart. We trust a jar with peanut butter contains peanuts, as its label suggests. We trust there will be a bed in hospital when a virus threatens our health. And we trust our governments to take care of the rest so we can carry on with our lives. Or don't we? In its annual trust barometer, the global communications firm Edelman measures the temperature in 28 countries across the globe. The ominous theme of this year's report is a cycle of distrust. People say institutions are failing to address existential challenges and are not doing well in their responses to the pandemic and climate change. There's a general lack of trust in leaders, but worst of our government leaders and media. There are two glimmers of hope in this report that are relevant for today. First, against this trend, scientists are still highly trusted, even gained a little bit. And second, trust in multilateral institutions rises with WHO driving up this figure by showing leadership during a global health crisis. That's no reason for complacency, though. As trust is hard to gain and easy to lose, this brings a big responsibility with it. Science and multilateral institutions have something to defend, but also to build upon. Indeed, exactly as we are doing here today. A third and obvious conclusion to draw from my public transport examples is, we should leave no one behind, the work ethic of the Ghanaian bus driver. For the UN, this is one of its core principles, the sustainable development goals aimed to do just that. Wageningen University and research embraces this principle and the SDGs for that matter as well. Projected on a science policy interface, however, it is not immediately clear what leaving no one behind means. Is this about access to education, an equal footing for all sources of information, a democratic application of knowledge? Should scientists be involved in policy formulation? I'm sure these questions will be addressed in this renewed partnership between Wehr and Vau. I just take this opportunity to table a few more challenges that need attention in this context. In the interest of time, I only briefly mentioned the inclusion of youth and women, the inequality in access to information and knowledge across regions, the inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized groups, and the value of indigenous knowledge. Ms. Fresco, Mr. Chu, Ms. Eluafi, Excellencies, addressing global risks by taking the necessary risks, building trust by trusting each other, and working on an inclusive world by being inclusive could as well be the solid pillars under your partnership. I congratulate FAO and Wehr with the renewal of this partnership and thank you for the honor to speak at this memorable event on this special day. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Kapuchinsky's bus left after two hours and eventually made it to Kumasi. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you so very much, Ambassador. And yes, Kapuchinsky. Actually, Louise Fresco, I don't know. Louise, if you remember, you were the one, the first one who gave me a book on Kapuchinsky. Absolutely. I was going to say, Kapuchinsky is a very great example of a writer who has been really seriously looking at what is happening around. So I'm glad you remember that, Marcella, as well. And for everybody, by the way, not only read Kapuchinsky, but read books in general. I fully agree, fully agree. And thank you so much, Ambassador. We strongly believe that this partnership is going to address the issues that you're bringing up. Partnerships are based on trust and will go a long way in making that trust much, much deeper. And as you say, we need a science policy interface. And as Louise was saying, we need to bring in the civil society also, that will deepen the trust, but will also address the issue that you brought up, Ambassador, inclusion, and all together that is going to reduce the risk. So thank you so very much for that intervention, Ambassador. It is now my pleasure to give the floor to FAO's chief scientist Ismahan Elwafi. Thank you very much, Marcella. And I have to say it's really hard to speak after these three great speeches. But let me just really express my real pleasure to be with you today. And with these great speakers and celebrate FAO-VER partnership. Let me also join our DG in thanking the President of the Executive Board, Professor Luis Fresco, and the Permanent Representative of the Nether Lab, Ambassador Marcel Bukibu, for being with us today. Thank you for the joint work with FAO and for your commitment to supporting science and innovation for more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable, ugly food system. I couldn't agree more with many of the things that were said today. One of them is that we need today more than ever science and innovation. Is that we have to bring back more trust in science. It's good, Marcel, to hear that the survey shows that people trust science. But still, I do think that we have an issue with a lot of partisan taking part of science and financing science, which has weakened our strength. So we have to get it back. So science and innovation is at the heart of the 2030 development agenda, and it does contribute to all SDGs or the majority of the SDGs. Science and innovation also serves as a foundation for our FAO strategic framework for the next decade. And it cuts across all dimension of the strategic framework. And as our DG mentioned, we are currently working on developing the FAO first ever science and innovation strategy. And it's really overwhelming to see how much interest this brings from different member states, but also from different organizations. This development of the strategy, the science and innovation strategy to support the strategic framework, it's being done through a very extensive, inclusive and transparent consultation process with our member states and within FAO. So we always say FAO, it's a very technical organization and the special UN agency for food and agriculture, and hence everything we do has a science and innovation background to it. But could we push the bar? And I think this is the kind of partnership that really can help us get there. So the strategy covers all sectors and areas of agri-food system, including the crop, the livestock, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture. It covers from natural resource management to production, consumption, but also food loss and waste. It does recognize the need for the diversity of innovation. And in that perspective, we're looking really at the broad definition of innovation to support the transformation of the agri-food system. And that includes technological innovations such as digital innovation, but also social innovation, policy innovation, financial innovations and institutional innovation. The strategy also underlined that the importance of the knowledge of small scale producers and indigenous people are very important as a source of innovation, but also a source of knowledge. And I think really we haven't been good enough at capturing the local knowledge and the indigenous knowledge. And what we said about the knowledge, it gets bigger as it is used. I think that indigenous knowledge and local knowledge has been restrained or has been shrinking because we have not been sent. It also gives particular attention to the need of low and middle income countries with the focus on small scale producers, on farmland farmers, indigenous people, women and youth, as well as micro, small and medium size enterprise. I think really if I have to go back right now, I have a different view, but when I was young, I went into genetics by chance. But really if I have to redo it, I would do it. And this is really what we have to get the youth people think is that agriculture and food, it's a thing that we cannot give up whatever happens. Actually doesn't work, the buses doesn't work, we still need to eat, we still need to produce. So I hope really that science and technology and innovation can get those youth to get excited about it and come back and innovate and innovate using the new technology, but also using the old knowledge particularly. So the strategy has two enablers, transformative partnership and innovative funding and finance, which both of them will act as catalyzer for our goal achievement. Transformative partnership is essential to leverage technical expertise, promote knowledge sharing and sparkle innovation. Working jointly with our partners, we can afford duplication, we can enhance complementarities and synergies, so that hopefully we can deliver an impact that's cave globally and have an impact that's cave. I think the goal of our strategy is that members harness science and innovation to realize context specific and systemic solution for more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agriculture system. So that we get to our better production, better nutrition, better environment and the better life, leaving no one behind. Ladies and gentlemen, we can only achieve the school by working hand in hand with our partners to fully leverage the potential of science and innovation to support the delivery to the FAO strategic framework and ultimately to the 2030 development agenda. This is why transformative partnerships such as the one we have established with Wageningen University and research are very crucial. These are the type of partnership which will catalyze the achievement of our goal and this is the kind of network of universities and knowledge generator that we need to build up. And I fully agree with you DG and Louise. This is an example that we have many more will come and that will attract attention and hence we get really that environment of so many knowledge generators holding hand and working together. FAO is not a research institution, but we cooperate with the research institution, both national and regional, as well as universities from both the north and the south, which are producing breakthrough scientific knowledge and innovation that are badly needed when we look at the least income countries and we look at the marginalized communities and people. This allows us to work as a neutral platform and broker for the science policy interface, supporting our members in accessing more innovation and evidence and science based knowledge. Going forward, FAO must strengthen its position as a source of reliable scientific information and a neutral platform at the heart of important debate. Engaging on issues that are contentious and have presented communication challenges, it's therefore very important. And I think we could help really bring back the trust, the 100% trust in science, because from our position, we could really clarify what we know, what we don't know, and where we see wrongdoing or where we see wrong calculation and analysis. So allow me to give you a concrete example of our joint work with Ver. We have commissioned an issue paper on gene editing technologies for AgriFood system. It focuses on the potential benefits, but also the risks and the unintended consequences as well as the barrier for adoption and diffusion, implication for small scale producers and the co-regulatory ethical and policy issues. The proposed issue paper on gene editing is intended to be science and evidence based and forward looking, growing on current information and the plurality of science methods and analysis scale. It is not about FAO taking for or against position. Rather, FAO has a role in providing robust evidence and convening the global community for constructive dialogue and exchange of knowledge. Based on the relevant scientific expertise, gender and geographic balance, we have assembled a very strong drafting team with the Ver experts as the lead author. The recently signed MOU between FAO and Ver comes at a very strategic time when we are on the path to endorsing the FAO science and innovation strategy and thinking about its implementation. I'm really positive that our partnership with Ver will be strengthened to support the implementation of the new strategy science and innovation strategy and consequently of the FAO strategic framework in the 2030 agenda. So let's keep working together to support our members to really harness science and innovation to realize context specific and systemic solution for again a more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agricultural system so that we get to really a better work and that we provide science to all and that really that accessibility will allow the local communities to innovate and do better and produce more with less. Thank you very much and over to you. Thank you so much is my hand our chief scientist and fully agree with you, we need more than ever science and innovation, but for that we need to really push the bar, and we need to be able to also bring in the types of knowledge that are there, like the small holders, indigenous peoples, women, youth, they all need to be brought in into the knowledge equation so thank you very very much for those words. Now, I think we would need to go straight into the next session. There will be no time now for questions and answers but there are questions and answers already in the Q&A function. So I would like to ask also our panelists if you would like to take a look at those questions and see if you can provide answers so thank you for that. Now, just to close this first session and move on to the second session and for that I'd like to invite Preet Lidder to take the floor. So thanks very very much to all of our panelists in this very very interesting and stimulating session. Over to you Preet. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Preet Lidder. I am technical advisor to the FAO chief scientist and I'm very pleased to moderate the first technical session on science technology and innovation for food security and climate action. Back to the objectives of this technical session, one is providing a platform for experts from FAO and Wageningen University to share first hand experience on their joint activities and discuss how science technology and innovation is essential to overcoming the impacts of climate related impacts in agri-food systems and promoting interaction with you, the audience on science technology and innovation for food security and climate action, generating a two-way debate and collective reflection on the theme. Ladies and gentlemen, as was just reiterated during the high level segment, harnessing science technology and innovation is key to meeting the aspiration of efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, as well as for leveraging emerging opportunities for achieving the SDGs. We are joined by two panelists from the two organizations today. Mr. Evo Demers, program lead for the research program on food security and valuing water at Wageningen University and Mr. Eric Van Ingen, digital agriculture and innovation specialist in the FAO office of innovation and the FAO office of climate change, biodiversity and environment. I would first like to invite Evo Demers to deliver his statement. Over to you Evo. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everybody. Thank you for having me in this session, Prit and Eric. Yes, food security and valuing water that's a research program which runs through the entire Wageningen University research organization, hence connecting animal, plant, economic, social, environmental sciences. So it's truly multi-disciplinary research program in which we use a food system approach to tackle SDG two issues, which includes climate change. To say a bit more about it, we are focusing in the research program on East Africa and Southeast Asia. So I will mention briefly some examples related to those areas. One of the topics we cover is food and water and then specifically we look at dealing with saline environments on multiple scales. And that is becoming increasingly important due to climate change, think of sea level rise, but also autonomous and human induced drives behind that like soil subsidence. We're working together with the FAO on that and that's the most important to mention here in the session with WESAC and INSA's working groups. And in our research program we not only look at saline agriculture, but look at the entire kaleidoscope of what we can do with increasing food from water. So we look at coastal waters, but also look at the degraded lands which are in the interface between land and water. And we look at saline environments, shorter and a bit further from the coastal area. So research focuses for instance on the combination of seaweed and shrimp and mangrove and shrimp, which offers so much increasing opportunities for coastal communities to increase their food security, but also benefit from the connection to the international market, so to really increase the value chains. And that in our research has a pivotal role. It's a food systems approach. Look at production, look at increasing diets, inclusive and equitable value change, which go hand in hand with sustainability and resilience. And in that respect, not only the technical issues like in how to deal with saline environments is important, but also how we deal with midstream developments. And it was already mentioned. Farmers, but also the midstream development, the midstream companies behind that need to attract young people need to be talented entrepreneurs to really transform our food systems. So how do we do that the midstream development, especially in areas where there's no so much as a formal sector. Especially in Kenya and improving bringing proteins to Kibera, a slum of Nairobi, we work together with FAO officers in Kenya on how to reach out to the informal sector in Islam, and using informal networks and business development to bring a thousand kilos of fish every week to Kibera and actually have it also consumed. And in the role of FAO and we're together was was very nice to see in the sense that even before the project to work on that there were already contacts, but also during the project. There was a lot of support and exchange of knowledge and making use of each other's networks. And you could see it as a loop goes after the project and and the thousand kilos of fish were being constantly shipped to Kibera. We got the opportunity to present the results in a independent dialogues organized by FAO for the food system summit. So there you can see we have multiple roles in this collaboration. It's about bringing out networks, bringing knowledge to the table, connecting to informal networks, but also connecting to formal networks. One last point I would like to make, and that is about farmers, big and as well noted also small scale produces private sector and governments need to address often highly dynamic situations, often they occur in in deltas. Then they have to react to consumer preferences, markets, climates, in order not only to produce enough but also safe foods for all without compromising the environment. So in that respect, only climate smart agriculture may be enough, but we really need the agriculture transformation. And exactly that is what is going on in Vietnam, but also is going on in Bangladesh. And they see that a strong collaboration between FAO and work may speed up this also needed and cherished agriculture transformation just also by the Bangladesh government and by the international financing institutions may provide opportunities not only to show what the benefits of our collaboration are, but also really to speed up the transition in an area in a specific delta area in Bangladesh. And I know this is on the table already in the international conference on Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 in May of this year, 26 and 27. There's room reserved to discuss the agriculture transformation there. FAO will be there marketing university will be there. And of course a lot of other organizations will be there so I will really take the opportunity here to bring this as an opportunity to really cherish our collaboration. I haven't touched too much on on data and high tech but Eric will do that. I would like to leave you with a message of cooperation. It's not it's a matter of working together between people and organization our organization shoot them can facilitate that it's about people working together. I would really urge you to take the liberty in all of your projects to really connect to each other and to reach out and to connect and to see where there's bridges to get into shared knowledge, share the visions and share your networks into really start a new collaboration on my existing projects. So reach out and get to know each other. And let's start by doing that today. Thank you. Thank you in particular for emphasizing the need to collaborate to be able to spark transitions on multiple scales. With that we would now like to move on to Eric van Ingen from FAO over to you Eric the floor is yours. Thank you and thank you for your introduction. We do already work intensively together with Wagner University, for instance, in your area we work in the water productivity improvement project, and they also use heavily the data of the water platform. Today we discuss science technology and innovation and actually the topic is also on climate and science technology and innovation and climate change threatens the food production. The two are very much interlinked and the global food systems on their side account for more than 30% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. The world's food crisis and climate change are an unprecedented skill and we believe that conventional project approaches and methods do not suffice suffice anymore. And that's where today also is Mahan and we are we are found chief scientists spoke about this science and innovation strategy. It is based on three pillars. The first is science and evidence based decision making. And the second is innovation and technology at the country level, and the fourth is that where file can help and provide capacities to better serve the country. And as we was already mentioned today we have a long spot standing relationship with bargaining and I would like to give a couple of examples where I was personally involved in. In 2019, we restarted bargaining for help on decisions on blockchain for climate action. We started bargaining and assigned three researchers and at the side of how we follow the work with 10 reviewers. From that we published together the blockchain for climate action in agriculture and in bargaining and this work was led by Len van Wassner. I didn't fight nine blockchain use cases from various agricultural sectors and they were detailed and documented by then identified the three main features of a blockchain application which was through a block distributed ledger. There was a need for a governance and a surrounding ecosystem and I come back to that later. With this publication bargaining a really helpful understanding that we should probably not start building with a blockchain first we needed to get the right ecosystem in order for consensus consensus governance and the broader ecosystem. This work was of direct use in the scholar program scholar stands for scaling up climate ambition and land use and agriculture through nationally determined contributions and nationally adaptation plans. This is a common project from file and UNDP and here in this project, they work on solutions for land use and agriculture by identifying the climate actions through planning and the private through private sector engagement. In general you could say that scholar connects science and technology and innovation with the policy for the so called national determined contributions. Also in this project we engage with blockchain private sector place. This year through the contract that we signed just in this last December we kicked off to other streams which were also blockchain related. One is on blockchain options for sustainable forest management and the other one is on watching for child labour monitoring and remediation in the crop value chain in Ghana. We do this work with our colleagues in the forestry division and with our child labour experts from the agriculture prevention team. In this work, the common theme is understanding the key data elements that can be registered in the blockchain as critical tracking events for sustainable forest management and child labour risk exposure in the targeted cocoa growing areas. This is to improve child labour monitoring and remediation along the cocoa value chain in Ghana. Even though these two streams are very different, we heard that on the bargaining side there actually those two teams are actually working speaking together also on a regular base and we were actually very happy to hear that. That it's not only us bringing those two streams together with bargaining and proactively is looking for synergies on both topics. Then another example in another division of the division of nutrition, we came to speak about the notion of digital nutrition and honestly we are a bit in the dark here. So through our pretty extensive network with file we are, we also feel free to pull in some experts to have certain brainstorm sessions on what this does actually mean the notion of digital nutrition. And if this goes forward we may even issue a research with Wagner University to better understand what is what is digital nutrition. That on a personal note, I'm personally very interested in design science research, and this comes from a discipline of information systems. And it tends to focus on prescriptive research rather than on descriptive research, and it has a strong focus on research through an iterative and agile design process. And somehow we already applied this in the work of this year, we are designing how we can think the project could work and could contribute to sustainability. I mentioned design science research only as an example of a new paradigm that could help us addressing the food and climate crisis, because we need to speed up. And in our dialogue and discussion with Wagner, I would really recommend that we would continuously review our paradigms and try to understand are we doing research in the right way are we doing science and innovation and technology in the right way. And does this indeed lead to more effective policies. So here I'm coming to my end of my introduction notes so being partners as far we are very open for feedback. And it's actually critical that we get feedback also from Wagner. Because we in file we are, we have competitors and it's good competition is good and we would like to improve our competitive value as an international agency and we would. And it happened already today on where we would like to receive even more feedback from file how we can improve as an as an international organization. So I would recommend that the partnership sharpens the collaboration with Wagner and also with other academic institutes on a strategic level to advise file on how we can increase our value to this sustainable development goals through science technology and innovation. Over to you. Thank you Eric for providing those examples in particular on the potential of blockchain for climate action for child labour monitoring and remediation as well as digital nutrition. Now I see there are lots of questions coming in from the audience in the Q&A box and also in the chat function. Before we ask the panelists to answer a couple of questions I would like to take this opportunity to invite the audience to reflect on a few questions and provide feedback as we move along in the chat box. Moving to the experts experiences about the FAO bargaining and university joint activities the results the possibilities for scale up. How do you see the future of this cooperation. Are there other potential areas for collaboration and also looking forward if you could add in a few thoughts about how science technology and innovation can better support your region or your area of work. Now I see there is a question for you Evo. So this says you mentioned shrimp aquaculture can assist coastal communities. What type of cultivation systems are you referring to as commercial shrimp farming in coastal ecosystems like mangroves is unsustainable and not eco friendly over to you Evo. So actually here we have examples. Thanks for the question. You see the same Richard also asked for the Caribbean opportunities. Here I refer to research we're doing in Indonesia where we combine seaweed with shrimp farming in mostly degraded areas where the ponds have not been used and now can be taken back into use providing income and and also food from for local communities. But the mangroves of course a large commercial farming is not what I'm referring to the mangrove and shrimp combinations are in Bangladesh. So applying mangroves on the sides of the ponds provide litter shade for shrimp production so that's basically not the big commercial shrimp farming. That answers the question. So and Eric a question is posed to you if you could elaborate a little bit on the importance you talked about the examples of climate action of linking the food systems agenda with the climate as well as the biodiversity agendas and a bit more on the role of science technology and innovation therein. Also for my experience with this camera project when it comes to national determined contribution even with for myself it was difficult to get my head around what is this project aiming to do and now it's becoming much more clear but it is indeed a challenge to connect all the dots and especially for myself when I come from a technology background. I do know that it is not an easy construction so we also from the technology side we really need to explain very well and sit together in the same room with a lot of stakeholders. And of course in the technology side I believe we are very comfortable with the topic of data and thinking in terms of data and where we can use the power of data or even see an ecosystem of data which can help on various levels on the global level regional level and national level, but this is somehow also sometimes a topic which where technologies like myself feel feel very comfortable with, but not every policy makers would think in terms of data needs and how is able to formulate the needs or possibilities which are relevant for these specific areas. Thank you Eric and this is a really exciting topic but we do face some time constraints, and I would encourage the panelists to look at the questions that are directed to them and answer in the Q&A box if possible. So this has been thank you to both Eric and Evo for sharing your perspectives and both in this technical session as well as in the high level segment we've heard that the strategic deployment of science technology and innovation can really be a central and significant enabling factor for agri-food system transformation, but this also needs a network of actors and an enabling environment and has to be accompanied by a range of social, political and institutional measures for inclusive development. And strategic partnerships in this area are absolutely critical. In closing I would encourage you to find more about these topics by browsing the FAO and Wageningen University official website. It was really my pleasure to be here today and moderate this discussion. I will now pass the floor to Miss Inge Wallach, the moderator for the next session. Over to you Inge and thank you. Thank you very much Fritte. What a lovely bridge you've built right now because you mentioned transformational partnerships because this is what this session will be about. What is, what do transformative partnership mean for resilient agri-food systems. I'm joined by Miss Marion Herans and Mr. Srilvarand. And like previous session, this session is aimed to make sure that you could all join. So please use the Q&A box, use the chat, which I've noticed you're all very, very good at. And I'm very pleased that you're all here. So good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in this world, that you've joined us for this important session today and for this important whole session that we're hosting as FAO and we're together. This session will be recorded. And so please be aware of that. Let me first give the floor to Marion, who carries over 25 years of experience in the food and nutrition and security health promotion, both nationally in the Netherlands as well as internationally. And she's passionate about action research, and is currently responsible for work for the joint partnership with FAO in the DACA food system project. Marion, the floor is yours. Hello Inge, thank you all for joining our session on transformative partnerships for resilient agri-food systems. I'm pleased and honored to participate as a panelist in this session. Yet, at the same time, the title made me wonder what knowledge in action is needed to shift from partnerships, building transformative capacity, as we try to do in the DACA food systems project, to transformative partnerships, which in my view are a bit different again. With a kind of question for all of you. I was asked to make a contribution in my capacity as program manager for the support, the modeling of DACA food system or in short the DACA food systems project at the Wageningen site. The DACA food systems project started in 2018, and will end next year in June 2023. It's funded by the Dutch Embassy in Bangladesh with FAO as lead implementer and Wageningen University and research as the so-called knowledge partner and co-implementer. But of course, we do all the work there in collaboration with a lot of national universities in Bangladesh, other knowledge partners there, and also societal actors in and around DACA. A little bit about the background of the DACA food systems project. It seeks to have a positive impact and significant impact on improving the performance of the food systems for the DACA metropolitan area, which in a way is probably quite unique to make it really so specific in spatial or aerial terms. In this project, we strive to build capacity for partnerships able to drive the necessary food system transformations to make this happen. The project area itself is quite well-defined. It includes four cities, DACA North, DACA South, Gazipur and Narangganj, all together making up a population of over 21 million people. And it shows a population growth of 4.2% annually. So it's really dealing with a whole large population groups in a very limited space, which makes the food system issues quite specific indeed. It makes DACA one of the world's largest and fastest growing mega cities in the world, facing immense challenges when it comes to ensure food for everyone. Thinking of its infrastructure, sometimes also poor infrastructure, volatility in food prices, food safety, markets and market management challenges, equity issues, nutrition issues, excess and affordability of food, not to mention sustainability issues. But the bigger issue is that food is not part of an urban agenda. The four city corporations in the metropolitan area are unfamiliar with food in the policy domain, and it's not considered in urban plans. They let knowledge and experience in food system management. Food is generally considered as an agricultural issue, the domain of national government, primarily the ministries of agriculture, of food, of fisheries and livestock. And overall, many government agencies are responsible for the food system, but they often also let clear mandates when it comes to the urban level and coordination and collaboration are really challenging things to undertake. So our project seeks to contribute to this challenge of ensuring that all people, current and future citizens in DACA have access to sufficient, safe, healthy and nutritious food. At the global level, the project seeks to assist the government of Bangladesh in meeting its international commitments and the Sustainable Development Goals to and hunger and achieve food security. And Sustainable Development Goal 11 to make cities and human settlements more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Some of the things we have heard before already by other people presenting during this session. So how do we try to make this contribution in our project? We adopted a two-fold strategy for strengthening the DACA food system. It's trying to address many of today's urgent issues relating to food in the city, combined with developing the tools and strategies for developing the foresides and scenarios of DACA's future food system in, for example, 20 years from now, with a particular focus on 2041. How do we try to actually practice that? Well, we try to facilitate the change in the focus on the use of data to really build on evidence and be evidence informed to analyze drivers, trends and developments to map the DACA food system as it is, and to identify key issues which need to be urgently addressed or that have been largely ignored. So far, for example, food loss and waste. And some of these data regard markets, food value chain, food and nutrition security, food safety, but also social, economic data and spatial data. And we use either new data by data collection or we build on secondary data analysis there. There's also a focus on use of data for spatial and social economic modeling and foresighting to be able to support and quantify the longer term foresides and projections there. Think about land use, how that will evolve for the social economic developments. A third line of action practice in the project is by putting forward and testing workable solutions with city corporations and partners in the cities. And then you can think of very concrete and direct intervention strategies like urban gardening in poor communities or getting farmers markets off the ground. Start pilots on waste segregation, federalization of organic waste, but through using black Saudi flies for instance, use of biogas digesters, but very practically also with training on the ground in markets on food safety. Training on the ground in restaurants in slaughterhouses and so on, very practical hands on actions, basically done largely by the FAO team on the ground in Dhaka. And then there's the sharing of information and raising awareness as a kind of threat throughout the project. So more people can learn and implement the different practices within and across the city boundaries. Last but not least is the core focus of the project on strengthening food systems planning and governance. The project supports the formation of city working groups at the level of the city corporations and to form a strong multi-stakeholder platforms to be able to identify and act upon the most urgent food issues, the pressing issues in the food system, hampering nutrition and food security for large groups of people. And also the national level the project brings together a range of stakeholders to collaborate, including people from the private sectors, the civil society, international NGOs, professional associations, the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority for instance, and community groups. And our latest current highlight relates to the engagement of many actors across the different levels and disciplines in the formulation of the Dhaka Food Agenda 2021 as a strategy to establish and invest in transformative partnerships anchored in Bangladesh. We did this by implementing a robust stakeholder driven, but also evidence informed foresight process. And that's really driven by a joint FAO work team effort, really working shoulder to shoulder to get that done. So it made us actually really proud to have at least 70 to 80 people engaged in this whole process thinking about Dhaka's food future. So let me wrap up with some brief reflections on what we learned in the way we operated all of this. It was our project was among the first joint projects, applying a food systems perspective while addressing urban food issues and it might be still one of the very few projects doing that, acting at a subnational rather than at national level. So in practice, it is meant a lot of learning as we went along to find out good ways to align FAO and work planning, vegetarian operational procedures, which were not automatically fitting well straightforward in a straightforward way. And this is basically still an ongoing dialogue and it requires flexibility, adaptivity, while acknowledging and respecting also the differences at the same time. In my experience, the value of our partnership in the Dhaka food systems projects is firmly grounded in seeking complementarity in different approaches, which opens up a great potential for joint learning. Not only at our respective organizational levels, but involving all partners and stakeholders with whom we work in this project. So this is what I would like to share with you. So I really thank you for your attention. And I go back to you, Inge. Thank you so much, Mariam. Fascinating, I think, particularly for the audience to hear you talk about the element of subnational rather than national. I think many can probably relate to that. The fact of flexibility, adaptability, appreciating differences, and the shared learning. And I wonder whether you've concluded yourself that maybe you can come back to that later. But the fact that building capacity for partnerships, whatever it means, driving transformation, it'd be interesting to hear the audience and their reflections. But before we go, we would first love to hear from you, Sil. You've been with FAO for over 20 years, carrying great experience across the world in many different environments from Europe, to Asia, to the Middle East and Africa. So we would really like to hear from you. The floor is yours. Thanks a lot, Inge, and good afternoon everyone. Good morning or good evening, depending where you're located. And thanks for the invitation and to allow me to present one of the concrete application of the partnership between FAO and Vining and University through a program called the Food and Nutrition Security Resilience Program. I will use the acronym for the rest of the discussion that we call it FNS3PRO. So what is FNS3PRO by FAO and Vining and Centre for Development Innovation, which is part of Vining and University, and it is funded by the government of the Netherlands. This is a four-year program that is addressing the cause-effect relationship between conflict and food insecurity in Somaliland, in South Sudan and Sudan. So the program started operationally in October 2019 and is meant to hand in September 2023. What is interesting here is to acknowledge that the FNS3PRO program is a direct operationalization of the United Nations Security Council 2417. For those who don't know what it is, I mean at the time when the Netherlands was in the UN Security Council, when one of the rotating chair, the Netherlands played a key role in the anonymous adoption of the resolution in May 2018, which establishes a direct link between armed conflict and conflict-induced famine conditions. And it strongly condensed starving of civilians and as unlawfully denying you made an access as warfare tactics. So I think it was a quite strategic program and a quite strong decision by the UN Security Council in 2018. The program has been designed jointly by the government of the Netherlands, Vining and University, and FAO. And basically the program takes livelihood and resilient based approach in some of the least stable region of Eastern Africa, as I said, Somaliland, South Sudan and Sudan. The main premise of that agricultural program is that livelihood or agricultural based livelihood are people's best defense against hunger and malnutrition in general. And that people with resilient livelihoods are better prepared and can better cope with shocks and crises. So that's basically the premise of the program. At country level, what does that mean? It means that we have been selecting strategically three value chain systems and we are meant to strengthen these value chain systems. These are the gum Arabic value chain in Sudan, the seed system in South Sudan, and feed and fodder in Somaliland. At regional level and global level, the partnership between FAO and VUR focuses on strengthening evidence based adaptive programming and implementation and building awareness and capacity on building food system resilience in context of productive crisis. So basically the partnership with VUR is focusing on the learning agenda and how learning is going to influence programming and behavior. And we are right now plugging also behavior science into the learning agenda, which is quite important for us. Why do we think that FNS3 Pro and the partnership with VUR is unique? First, because learning is part and parcel of the programming and the implementation. We are not doing a post-factum learning, but we are learning as we go. And I think it is quite important to acknowledge the change in the principle of learning, which often is post-factum. So this time we want to do it as the program is being implemented. We want to be able to draw lessons as we implement. The other thing is really looking at who is learning. Very often we consider learning as important for those in implement and for the decision makers and policy makers. Here we start with the assumption that learning is also and primarily for beneficiaries themselves. And I think there is really an effort that is being made to make sure that learning is not just for us, but it's also for the people that we are trying to serve and to help through a strengthening value food system. So FNS3 Pro is also flexible and adaptive as we are looking at very regular so-called sense-making processes that enable the program to apply course corrector. And I think that's another very strong innovation that we are doing in this kind of program. And finally, repro is evidence-based and informed by science. We are applying a very rigorous methodology, including from the inception phase of repro, where we had a lot of analysis and that are reviewed on a regular basis. So we have baseline that are looking at of course, resilience measurement, but also into conflict and conflict analysis and establishing baseline for the program implementation. Let me give you some concrete example on how we have been using the learning agenda and the work of VIR into the program adjustment. The learning agenda has informed the recent programmatic shift, for example, towards inclusion of a range of opportunities that do not exist necessarily at the beginning in the different value chain. We are looking in particular at private sector. When we designed the program, we looked at beneficiaries, we looked at the learning agenda and the academia, but we didn't include the private sector. We do realize through the learning agenda that if we talk about value chain, we must have the private sector engaged and we are gearing the rest of the program until the end of 2023 into a much stronger involvement of private sector. And private sector is not only the one in the countries of implementation, private sector can also mean looking at at entrepreneurs and experienced people from the private sector in the Netherlands, for example. And how do we link the project areas with global entrepreneurship and innovation and knowledge from the private sector. So that's something that we are looking at and that we are learning and that the course corrector that all the flexibility that is provided by the donor will always to do. So I think that's an important, an important element that we are looking, looking into into a more business oriented value chain system in a win-win relationship between private sector and communities that are exposed to these shops. And when we talk about exposure to shocks, I mean, that brings me to the second example. I mean, at the moment, the owner of Africa is unfortunately facing a difficult time of different natives. When you look at South Sudan, South Sudan has been eaten by for the third consecutive year with floods and of course floods are potentially damaging all the crops including the seed sector. How do we adapt and how do we basically make sure that we have safe haven of areas that are less affected by floods that we could potentially transfer the program into or boost some of the areas that are not flood affected. So the adaptation is coming from the learning here as well. Likewise in Sudan, I mean the Sudan region has been unfortunately seen a significant increase in violence in the end of 2021. And again, we are looking at adaptation within the context of conflict in these areas. And in Somaliland, we are facing droughts. And again, I think that it is again look exacerbating the need or demonstrating further if need was the need to adapt and to build this resident system. So again, the learning agenda that we did at the very beginning is allowing us to apply cross-collector throughout throughout the project and we are using our flexible and adaptive programming approach and informed by evidence and lessons generated through the learning agenda. And then we have identified action to maximize the FNS report and impact in light of the current and future shocks basically. So I think that these are these are some of the use of the learning agenda to adapt, not post facto, but within the implementation. And with of course this requires also a very flexible approach by the donor and by the government of the Netherlands in this particular context. So in conclusion, let me say that the FNS report is in my opinion in our opinion is uniquely designed to support and work with household communities, local organization and institution as well as government in building resilience in such a shock and stresses and to create the condition and structures necessary for a comprehensive approach to build food system resilience and for improving food and nutrition security in protected crisis. The FAO of your partnership in FNS report allows us to set good examples, learn important lessons and identification of best practices of how to build food system resilience in protected crisis. And then there is another part of the program that is fundamental, which is how do we bring the learning agenda into the global network against food crisis, which is a global platform that both FAO the World Food Program and the European Union have been at the origin of that are now embedding a lot of lessons from a number of field program that we are implementing and very instrumental in bringing the learning agenda into the policy decision using a framework that does exist that is the one of the global network against food crisis. So let me stop here in it. Thank you very much for real. And you've emphasized the ongoing learning, the learning agenda at all levels and at all times and making sure it's not just for those involved with others that which is particularly important I hear you say as well in times of volatility. And I think we've heard that throughout today, the volatility at whatever different levels is fundamental to us so thank you very much for your contribution. And dear audience. I've seen there's some questions. And there's input in the chat. I think I particularly interested to see if anyone has a focus on the, if we move to forward looking being forward looking based. How can this, but also other transformative partnerships, enrich your region, or your area of work. So the audience if you could reflect on that. I'd love to hear from you. And whilst you reflect and still is the same time my own. There's a question for you. Let me read that out to you. What would be your advice for building or strengthening partnerships for designing joint projects and activities that are really transformative and focused on supporting the transition towards the more resilient food system. Yeah, thank you for the question. I think in terms of strengthening partnerships. I'll make it down because I think strengthening partnerships is quite an extensive action or can be is quite extensive action in itself. Partnerships are not just formed and stayed then as they are, you know, they are dynamic, they change, people go, people go. So, if you want to have strong partnerships, you should have people watching over the partnership itself so it requires people who understand group dynamics, partnership logic, and also have a very good understanding of how to organize process management in, in addition to project management. You need to be aware what processes require to, to understand what people are doing in the process and how they, how you join to can move towards that. So that is one thing you need to actually have people helping your partnership to govern the partnership outcomes. And then the other part. I think you cannot say we are actually driving transformation because transformations sometimes just emerge by the actions you take it's not something like a project goal you can define from the start. Sometimes come across things which help and support or help drive your transformation and then others you have planned are being stopped by certain events. So it is also being very clean and then I go to more also academic literature around food system governance for transformation. You need to be very clear about how you frame your problem and with who you need to be very keen on. Okay. Do I have boundaries for my food system, or do we need to be to a little bit of boundary spanning and who's able to do that, who can reach out to partners we don't actually know I think so you gave a nice example of how they now try to reach a private sector, which they didn't do in the first phase in the project. That's an example of trying to expand your boundaries. The third aspect is really to be adaptive and be flexible, and not to be too rigid in what your own goals are but really try to be able to adjust which I think also was shown in the different in both examples. And that can help build transformative capacity. Thank you, Marion, and I see you not still and part of what Marion was answering reminds me of an element that you also brought forward, which is behavioral science. So I can imagine you would like to add something as well so please go. You imagine well. Now look, I think I was about to say that I said, if we want to transform food system, we have to transform people. And I think that transform people in a sense we need to transform our mindset. I think that we will not transform from system. If we consider that our systems are robust and solid but we need, we need really to be able to to change the way of thinking the way of consuming the way of interacting and understanding the bottlenecks for our food systems or the limitations, or what eventually climate risks or conflict are putting at stake when we talk about food systems and, and we have big demonstration of that nowadays in the past two or three years. So, I think one element that again we were, we were not considering at the, at the beginning but that came somehow through the learning agenda and a little bit opportunistically is the fact that if we want to build resilience against the climate and climate climate shocks or conflict, then it's important we understand, indeed, what is the behavior of people and what is scoring high if we try to change the behavior of people, or how to engage with people, if we want to mess our messages to go to go well. As FAO in terms of changing behavior, one of the big revolution in the past 20, 30 years has been the use of the farmer field school, for example, which was, which was very transformative in the way we are interacting with people in the way we are transferring skills and knowledge. And I think this was very fundamental. We need to build on that and we need to understand again through behavior science how potentially we can influence systems. And in the face of again the numerous challenges that we are that we are at stake and, and again I mean just to mention here that Kenya Somalia Ethiopia, for example, are facing one of the worst drought in 40 years. And we are extremely concerned by that and, and obviously it explained the relevance in particular in Somalia of the work we do on feed and fodder. Because because the first livelihood affected by drought is going to be pastoral and agro pastoral communities. So we need really to work along that line and the age of science would be important to it. Thanks. And I feel like we're just going. And I'm sure we would like to continue this dialogue, particularly also including the audience but I'm afraid that time means that this session has come to an end. So I'd like to thank you my own answer very much for your contribution and for reflecting on the points. It was my great pleasure as communications director at war, to be able to moderate this session. And I'd like now to say that this is the end of we go back to the wrap up of this. I feel we're joined partnership. Event. Thank you. Well, thank you. And this brings us as you say to the last very last session of our very, I think, very, very interesting, very, very stimulating event. And now we will do the wrap up. And I think I hope that everybody is as inspired as I have been with these really down to earth very important examples, including what is more in people's minds today than, for example, what is addressed by resolution 2417, the relationship between food security and peace. Peace is of course, fundamental to the whole of the development agenda there was no peace without food security no food security without peace and the same applies to all of the SDGs. So very, very relevant topics in this very important collaboration that we've had up to now and that now we are reinforcing. So it is my pleasure now to give the floor back to Luis, Professor Luis fresco who as you all know, is the war executive board president Luis you have the floor for your final remarks. And thank you to all of you, not just those who spoke but also many, many people commented in the chat. I have rarely been at a meeting where we had so much interaction. And I think that is a good sign. It's a sign that, first of all, this subject is really alive, but also it's an illustration of what science should be about. It is about dialogue. It is about talking together. So it's wonderful to see that put into practice. I'm not going to try and summarize everything, but I think there perhaps a few highlights, and I think one of the main questions posted in the chat is of course, is this just another, and this is these are my words and not yours. Is this just another paper thing, or is this really going to make a difference. Professor obviously has to be yes this is going to be different. This is not just a paper thing because we all want this to work. But there are a couple of things that have been highlighted by the examples that may be pointing in the right direction. I'm formulating them in my sentences so I may not do justice to everybody. But it's very clear that by by combining the strength of FEO being on the ground in a lot of countries and having the mandate also for standard setting and for policy advice. And the scientific expertise and educational expertise of bargaining. We suddenly have a huge framework of services of ideas of things that can be offered at the country level and the subnational level. So in itself, I see this memorandum of agreement also as a mobilizing factor, it's, it can, it's not a pot of money let's be very clear there's not something hidden in my drawer here, which can hand out cash to everybody who wants to collaborate. The idea is to have this as a mobilizing force to draw in donors to draw in countries, the private sector, and all those partners. I think in that sense, we should highlight the strength and really target the kinds of people who want to be part of it. Because the second lesson of what you all said is, you can only do this well when it's embedded in a whole national or subnational context. The context must be all the partners that are involved context must be also the the public narrative around it, you cannot do this alone it's not FEO, and we're as a team going together somewhere and sort of out of the blue come up with a miracle of collaboration. The collaboration is always with third parties or fourth parties or fifth parties. We know this very well through what we call in the Netherlands, the Dutch diamond involving government, local authorities, the public, the private sector, and this is true for every country. So it's it's the mobilizing force, the building of partnerships, I think that are really the key factors here. Another one that we haven't mentioned, and I hope you will allow me to throw in one thing to the to the conclusions is, we have a huge network of alumni at that I'm sorry, I don't feel true, but I mean I meant the bargaining and that is, we have about 50,000 alumni, a sizable number are in developing countries, a sizable number are still very much involved in these subjects. Let's try and mobilize them when when FEO and where we want to do a project somewhere let's look at who are the alumni can they be mobilized can their networks be mobilized. And the third point is the framework does not mean doing everything all the time by everybody. It's not going to be one of these mortadella sausages that you know in Italy, where all it's a bit of pieces and they're all lumped together and then something big is coming out. Very savory, but that's not how this is going to work. It has to be selective. It has to be precise. It has to be flexible, and it has to involve again right people. And it was highlighted by several people I think it's very important collaboration, whether it's with third parties are between FEO and bargaining is very much about getting to know one another. It's about speaking the same language, spending time together as a team, and I really would like to encourage all of you to reach out. And here if you've seen people reacted in a nice way in the chat or or post something that you didn't understand, reach out right to them, and find out how you can go together how you can perhaps, you know, kind of develop a working relationship even if you don't meet physically right now. So the, the last point I think that was interesting from the chat also is, how can we, again, my own words how can we evaluate that we're doing the right thing, can we be our own subject of research in a way. You know, there is very often we assume that collaboration is a good thing as such and it's, it's always taken for granted, but taking a critical look at ourselves at how we collaborate what's going well what is going. Not so well, what is the next level collaboration that we want to achieve. You know, we started in the 70s with what I would call FEO bargaining and 1.0, but now we should at least have FEO bargaining and 2.0. And so being our own subject and questioning our own collaboration at all these different levels I think is the best thing we can do. And last but not least, let's draw lessons from across countries across disciplines and across institutions. So let's not have things in isolation but perhaps Marcella, think of creating a kind of little website or group so that we can share interesting documents interesting ideas, all the things that are being said, I hope it will keep the chat. Let's make this a living document and not a piece of paper. Let's really engage ourselves and do the best possible thing. Again, because we're talking serious business and serious urgent business on top of that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so very much, Louise and points very well taken will make a point in ensuring that this becomes a real sharing of knowledge opportunity. Thank you. And now it's my pleasure to give the floor to FEO's chief scientist Ismael Wafi. Thank you very much, Marcella. And let me first thanks Professor Louise for her inspiring speech and the way really to bring point together. That's what we need. We need really to interconnect, be it ideas, be it people like nature is, I always say it's many species cohabiting and linking up. So thank you very much to all keynote speakers, technical panelists, moderator, and the audience that really was very active in the Q&A and the chat. Thank you for the very productive discussion and for bringing your experiences, views and suggestions for the future of this partnership. That for us really we see it as very important strategic partnership that is around science and innovation so that we get to more resilient, more inclusive, more sustainable and more efficient agri-food systems. So let me also thank all of FEO and work technical officer who have been engaged for so long in implementing this successful partnership through joint capacity development activities, joint projects and joint research program. And they joined Louise in really thinking big in if we are doing a new MOU and in one of these science and innovation is needed more than ever. We are really at very critical point where the only way for us to produce better and produce more with less, it's really to use science and innovation. So I hope really this critical moment in history and this partnership would really take advantage of this moment and this relationship that is strong and mature to develop more innovation. And I think really the examples we heard from the ground, be it from South Sudan or other countries, it's very interesting to keep in mind. And let me also thank Celebration, this is really a celebration of the long standing partnership between FEO and FER to raising awareness of the new areas of collaboration established under the MOU that we signed last December. And I hope really this going to be bringing a bit of inspiration but also interest because as Louise and Adiji said at the beginning, it is a relationship between the two institutions but definitely can get only merrier and better if we have other partners that can join us. We heard our technical expert experiences and lessons learned in different areas including science, technology and innovation for food security and climate action and transformative partnership for the resilient agri-food system. I think really Louise answered most of the questions and what I want to only announce before closing is that we are organizing the science and innovation days on the 5th to the 7th of October. And that's really a follow up to the science days that we did last year with the UN Food System Summit Scientific Committee and we hope really in there we could discuss on a broader areas as well. But I think as it was said before, this is a moment where we have to do more and we have to do it differently. And I think in my mind the combination of lock and knowledge with really the new technology could spark a lot of innovation and could give hope to youth to join the ranks and come back to agriculture. Because it's a very vital sector for the continuity of human being on planet Earth and in this life. So thank you very much. Thank you very much Marcela for the great moderation and over to you. Well, thanks to you is Mahan and I think that just by seeing the participants that are still here more than 200. This shows that this is renewed partnership is not going to be a paper thing, as Louise said, I think we all know that it is going to be very, very valuable in all of us getting together and really moving forward towards towards transformed agri-food systems. So thanks again, thanks to all of you. Thanks, I really enjoyed listening to the technical presentations. I really feel extremely happy when I hear about working shoulder to shoulder between the two different institutions. Just joining forces as if we are just one team doesn't matter where we actually work in, but we are actually working together. And that's what matters. So thanks again to each and every one of you. And we count on all of you, all of you, your networks to make this partnership really, really reach out and have an important impact. Thanks to all and it's exactly for 30 right now. So we're exactly on time. Thanks everybody and have a great rest of the day, night of your in that part of the world or even morning. Goodbye. Thank you very, very much, especially to the speakers also and Marcela for sharing is so Emily. Thank you. Pleasure. Thanks to all. Thank you. Bye bye.