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The champions helping communities make better food choices
There is very little data about what Indonesian people eat and why. A study conducted by Hivos, IIED, the University of Jember and the community-based organisation Tanoker tried to plug this knowledge gap. Tanoker is helping to tackle the issue by working with local communities and policymakers to get children and their families to make healthy food choices. Healthy diets champions like Tiara are encouraging her generation to choose a healthy future for themselves.
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Save the tradition, nurture the Earth
Sharing food has always been part of Indonesia’s culture. Eating as a family or with friends not only gives nourishment, but also lets us share our culture and heritage through food. This is also the thinking behind Jakarta’s biennial PARARA Festival. It was first held in 2015 to display and promote local agricultural products from various communities and indigenous peoples. But just as important, to show there is a great need for changes in consumption patterns, production, and food distribution.
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Youth taking on the food system in Africa
Maria Gomez and Nout van der Vaart report back from Africa’s first Advocacy Workshop Event focused on the future of food in Africa, where youth from seven different African countries joined to gain the connections and skills needed to address the food system challenges they are facing in their countries.
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BLOG: Saved seeds are seeds of resilience
People have a right to define their own food system. This includes which seeds they use. Last week, farmers in Nakuru County, Kenya, celebrated the launch of “Ten rich, underutilized crops,” a publication and documentary that capture their efforts to promote and sustain the varieties they grow.
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The Zambian Diet: Food Voices and Choices
A recent exhibition, curated by the SD4All program in Zambia for World Food Day, explored the changes needed to promote healthy and sustainable foods – supplementing the traditional maize-based staple nshima (hard porridge), from farm to plate. In the photo exhibition illustrated in this photo blog, ten Zambian men and women reflect on their diet and the importance of food in their lives.
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Consumers are key: reframing the mindset in Zambia
Jane Zulu of CUTS Lusaka talks about her work with the Zambian government to create a food system where both agricultural production and diets are diverse, highlighting these issues on a global stage. For Jane, the consumer is key – and from a consumer perspective, it’s all about changing mindsets.
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Q&A: Encouraging the availability of healthy and diverse foods for students
Siti Latifah used to feel proud that she could buy her children snacks and instant foods, but she came to realize that this wasn’t healthy and it was her responsibility to teach them good eating habits. Now, as a teacher, she has pioneered the development of a healthy canteen that provides nutritious snacks for children and encourages them to develop healthy food consumption patterns from an early age.
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The Ugandan Diet: Food Voices and Choices
The Sustainable Diets for All program in Uganda curated a photo exhibition exploring the Ugandan diet. These food voices identify education and training about the importance and nutritional value of indigenous and traditional foods as essential to positively transforming the food system in Uganda.
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The Kenyan Diet: Food Voices and Choices
To coincide with World Food Day on 16 October, the Sustainable Diets for All program in Kenya curated a photo exhibition exploring the Kenyan diet. This selection of photos and accompanying testimonies shares these stories of local food knowledge and wisdom.
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Harnessing the potential of Zambia’s informal food sector
A new report supported by IIED and Hivos explores how harnessing the potential that lies within the informal food sector and integrating it into urban policy planning could help Zambia meet SDG 2 ‘zero hunger’ and improve the diets of people across all income groups.