WEBINAR: Covid-19: new challenge or new opportunity for value chains in EU partner countries

9 November 2020. “Covid-19: new challenge or new opportunity to enhance sustainability of agricultural and fisheries value chains in EU partner countries?”

This webinar was organized by Agrinatura and the Natural Resources Institute in the framework of the EU-funded VCA4D project (2016-2022). VCA4D performs value chain analyses to investigate the inclusiveness and sustainability of agricultural and fisheries value chains in EU partner countries from the economic, social and environmental points of view.

Agrinatura experts presented a diversity of cases from Africa and Latin America, summarising the disruptions and pathways of the VC performance during the COVID-19 crisis, and commenting on the effectiveness of solutions that governments and value chain stakeholders have put in place. EU policy officers managing programmes in support of value chain development shared their observations, experiences, concerns, and information requests in order to keep supporting value chains throughout this uncertain period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 and agricultural and fisheries value chains: 

introduction to the webinar (10 minutes) (by the moderator Gideon ONUMAH) 

VCA4D experts on “what happened” in specific agricultural and fisheries value chains during the “COVID-19 crisis” 

1. Case 1/ Togo - Pineapple (Konga PALASSI and Osée ALATE) 
2. Case 2/ Ecuador - Cocoa (Johan BLOCKEEL) 
3. Case 3/ Angola - Coffee (Bernardo PIAZZARDI and Margarida LIMA DE FARIA) 
4. Case 4/ Ethiopia - Cotton (Gian NICOLAY) 
5. Case 5/ Mali - Fisheries (Ivonne ACOSTA ALBA) 
6. Case 6/ The Gambia - Fisheries (Adama MBAYE) 
7. Case 7/ Ghana – Sorghum (Ricardo VILLANI and Gideon ONUMAH) 
8. Case 8/ Nigeria - Maize (Muhammed BELLO and Gideon ONUMAH) 
9. Case 9/ Colombia – Diary (Gustavo SALDARRIAGA) 
10. Case 10/ Zambia – Maize (Anthony CHAPOTO) 

Wrap-Up: “a synthesis of the evidence emerging from the different cases”  (Marie-Hélène DABAT) 

“In the policy officers’ shoes”: will the Covid-19 crisis change the future? 

• Katrine Mulvad THOMSEN and Frank Isioma OKAFOR, Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria and ECOWAS 
• Catharina BAMPS, Delegation of the European Union to Angola 
• Guy FAURE, DEVCO C1, Rural Development, Food Security and Nutrition