Swarm intelligence, extended networks and team spirit at AFC’s project meeting 

On January 18, 2023, international experts from AFC’s project teams came together for an internal networking event and technical exchange in Berlin. Seven projects from five countries such as Khazakstan, Morocco, Thailand, Ukraine and Zambia were presented by 15 of our team leaders and project staff. 

The experts had two common denominators: i) All projects are funded by the same donor, the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), represented by its general mandatory GFA; And ii) all projects are affected by the current political situation, characterized by the Russian war against Ukraine with consequences of food systems worldwide. The topic of food security matched the main aspect of the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) which started the next day, on Jan 19. 

The motto of AFC’s workshop was “The wheel does not always have to be reinvented”, so what has been successful in one project or country can also be useful to others and thus allows us to be more efficient in our work. Consequently, the experts jointly shared ideas and experiences in the first part of the meeting. They were encouraged to try innovative approaches technically and administratively and learned different perspectives for shared challenges in daily project life. Thanks to fruitful interactive discussions, the participants benefited from swarm intelligence and the team spirit created. 

Then, a special contribution was given by Dr. Olga Trofimsteva, country representative Ukraine, for AFC and IAK with focus on agricultural economy, food security and reconstruction of the agricultural sector. In her speech on the global impact of the war in Ukraine on food security she also referred to the effects on AFC’s on-going projects. She pointed out that on the one hand, due to global domino effects acute food prices have tremendously hiked in 2022. On the other hand, Ukraine’s prominent place among agricultural exporters in the European Union remains significant. In our projects in Ukraine, the most important short term priorities are measures to improve the following:  

• Food security and food accessibility,  

• Humanitarian aid,  

• Local small scale production systems, as well as  

• Immediate access to financial resources for SMEs. 

Long-term post-war priorities in our projects are:  

• Building of resilient agrifood systems  

• Sustainability and climate adaptation 

• Infrastructure and logistics development 

• New technologies, including vertical farming 

• Human capital development 

As the agriculture and food sector belongs to the promising sectors related to the future of foreign direct investment inflows for Ukraine, the importance and relevance of AFC’s projects rises – in the view of reconstructing the country as well as of global food security in general. 

The project meeting closed by a joint dinner with stories of and behind the daily project lives.  

Below, you find all team leaders and project names who attended the workshop: 

For further information concerning the projects, please turn to https://www.bmel-kooperationsprogramm.de/projekte/ or Stefanie.Maak [at] afci.de.