Seminar for Food and Nutrition Security Coordination of the EU Delegations in Eastern and Southern Africa (CODESA)

The Seminar for Food and Nutrition Security Coordination of the EU Delegations in Eastern and Southern Africa (CODESA) on 'Scaling up and delivering' took place in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 10-14 October 2016. Topics discussed included women and gender, land governance, resilience, value chain development and sector policy guidance.

The first day of the seminar focused on introductions and enablers. Themes covered included mainstreaming women and gender in EU approaches; nutrition; and land governance, including communal land rights. The second day focused on the impact of the El Nino crisis on food security in 2016/17, considering how the EU is reinforcing resilience interventions to respond to predicable impact of climate change on food system in Africa. In particular, it considered lessons learned from the EU Delegations.

Day three focused on value chain development including agricultural finance and Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Plans as a tool to promote and encourage Africa's full and equitable participation in global value chains. It also considered ways of financing smallholder farmers' integration into commercial agriculture. The fourth day considered increasing the focus of EU programmes and developing sector policy dialogue. The fifth and final day involved a field trip looking at value chain development and research uptake in project locations close to Harare.