ZEF Public Lecture: Political economy of food system transformation: navigating some of the key obstacles to change
October 19, 2023 | 13:30 h - 14:30 h
We'd like to invite you to ZEF's Public Lecture!
Topic: Political economy of food system transformation: navigating some of the key obstacles to change
Speaker: Christophe Béné, Principal Scientist and Senior Policy Advisor working with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
Join us via Zoom: https://uni-bonn.zoom-x.de/j/65952109051?pwd=RFRyTktRd21JdVVFa0pTNWxWdmNNQT09
Abstract: While the need to transform our food system is undisputable, we contend in this presentation that several key obstacles are currently preventing this transformation from happening. After discussing the meanings of ‘transformation’ in the specific context of food systems, we draw on different elements of political economy to show how various self-reinforcing dynamics are contributing to lock food systems in their current unsustainable trajectories. We argue that until those key obstacles are acknowledged and tackled together, the transformation that many are calling for, is unlikely to happen.
Biography: Chris Béné is Principal Scientist and Senior Policy Advisor working with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) headquartered in Cali, Colombia. He is currently affiliated to the CGIAR Systems Transformation Science Group and seconded to the Wageningen Economic Research Group (WEcR) at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He has 20+ years of experience conducting inter-disciplinary research and advisory work in different parts of the world (Africa, Asia, Pacific), focusing on food security, and poverty in low and middle-income countries. In 2022, he was listed in the top 0.1 percent of the world’s most cited scientists in the domain of cross-field research. In his career, he worked on a wide range of topics, including natural resource management, science-policy interface, resilience measurement, and more recently food system sustainability.
