CIFAL Jeju Co-organises Workshop on Agricultural Innovation for Food Security and Environmental Sustainability
3 April 2018, Jeju, Republic of Korea – UNITAR’s Affiliated Center for Authorities and Leaders (CIFAL) in Jeju convened 42 participants from 12 different countries in the Asia-Pacific region working in governments, international organizations, academia, and NGOs for a 3-day workshop on ‘Agricultural Innovation for Food Security and Environmental Sustainability’ in Hanoi, Vietnam. The workshop was co-organized with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and took place from 3 to 5 April 2018.
In recent years, developing countries, China and India in particular, have been working hard to provide enough food for their explosively increasing populations; consequently, the agricultural sectors of those countries have achieved outstanding progress in satisfying their growing populations’ nutritional needs. At the same time however, their land and water resources, which form the foundation of any sustainable and self-sufficient food supply, are being used at an unprecedented rate. This has created a situation in which many developing countries’ natural resources are either in a state of depletion or on the verge of complete exhaustion. Moreover, they are now facing the secondary problem of paying for the increased environmental and health costs that arise as a by-product, like air pollution, desertification and surface runoff. In response, CIFAL Jeju's workshop aimed to enhance participants’ knowledge of theory and practice of agricultural innovation, food security and environmental sustainability. The workshop program allowed participants to learn about international trends from experts actively engaged in these fields.
Countries represented in the workshop included India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. The workshop served as a platform to enhance the capacity of local decision makers to make an informed decision on environmental sustainability related policies with a focus on agricultural innovation options and strategies for food security. The workshop was the second joint workshop with ADBI, the first one of which was held back in March 2017 in Jeju-do, Republic of Korea. Presentations focused on key topics including agricultural development and governance; international cooperation in Asia; sustainable production and consumption; international trade and investment; infrastructure financing on agriculture; energy and food policy; legal dispute and solutions in international agricultural trade; and green growth and food security. The workshop also included a visit to the Vietnam National University of Agriculture.
Similar to a previous workshop held in Cambodia in November last year, CIFAL Jeju once again invited the Vietnamese participants for a farewell luncheon on the workshop’s last day. 12 past Vietnamese Jeju workshop participants joined the event which was a fruitful opportunity to enhance and extend the network among CIFAL Jeju workshop participants and organizers.
Photo 1: Presentation of UNITAR's "CityShare" methodology (learn more)
Photo 2: Alumni luncheon
Photo 3: Workshop group photo