Enhancing capacity of scientists and practitioners for promoting more sustainable and resilient food systems in Indonesia and the South Pacific

Abstract

Three Resilient Food Systems training workshops were delivered in Bogor, Indonesia, Suva, Fiji, and Port Vila, Vanuatu. The workshops provided young and early-career professionals with the latest international thinking on food systems and resilience. The workshop teaching material was based on the IFSTAL (Interdisciplinary Food System Teaching and Learning; www.ifstal.ac.uk) programme initially developed in the United Kingdom. The intensive six-day workshop programme integrates learning across three connected themes: food systems and resilience concepts, soft system methodology, and personal skills and development. Each workshop is locally contextualised with field trips, local inspirational guest speakers, and local real-world food system case studies. Throughout the duration of the workshop, participants apply new concepts and methodologies to their case studies, thereby enhancing their understanding and learning. Participant evaluation of the workshops was overwhelmingly positive, and pleasingly, participants reported positive learning outcomes across all three learning themes. These workshops represent just the initial step in a necessarily long and sustained effort to establish a community of food system professionals across Indonesia and Pacific Island states.