Attachments
1. Project overview
This brief summarises Phase 1 findings of the Concern Worldwide Multi-Country Research Programme on Food Systems for Food Security (FS4FS). FS4FS is a multi-year research project examining the barriers to economic improvement and livelihood strengthening within food systems in three locations where Concern Worldwide is currently working: Burundi, Liberia and Niger. The research focuses on the social, economic and political mechanisms that lead to persistent economic precarity and marginalisation among food system actors living in extreme poverty. To date, global food system transformation has failed to accrue benefits to marginalised actors earning living within food systems. In this context, this research aims to understand how smallholder farmers and micro food businesses currently interact with agri-food markets, and what support – from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), donor agencies, and policy makers – can help them participate in markets more equitably. Specifically, the project explores the links between marginalised actors and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and identifies potential interventions to remove the barriers to economic improvement for those living in extreme poverty in the three countries. The programme is an Irish Aid-funded research partnership between Concern Worldwide and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK; the University of Burundi (UoB), Burundi; Statistical and Research Services Consortium (SRSC), Liberia; and the Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local (LASDEL), Niger.