The 39th Annual Meeting of the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) was hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome on the 14th June 2017. The DCED brings together more than 22 bi – and multi-lateral donors, development funds, UN agencies, and private foundations, to explore how to make markets work for the poor. Under the aegis of Annual Meeting, FAO organized a Thematic Day to explore the relevance of small and medium sized agro-food compan ies (SMAEs) in poverty reduction and the transformation of rural development, inviting representative of small and medium sized enterprises from Uganda and Ethiopia, and academics and experts on finance and agricultural value chain development. This report represents a summary of the proceedings by the FAO organizers of the Thematic Day.

Multi-stakeholder collaboration is an important process that can serve as a tool and strategy to solve complex issues and problems such as transforming national food systems towards more sustainable outcomes. This guide aims to support stakeholders working at all levels of the food system in the implementation of actions to transform their food systems. Centered on 5 building blocks underpinning successful multi-stakeholder collaboration for food systems transformation, the guide uses these constructions to illustrate ingredients of the process and show the interconnectedness of the steps needed to be successful. The guide also contains two annexes with a list of tools, and assessment questions. Annex 1 highlights a range of tools to support facilitators and participants with deeper guidance on a specific topic. Annex 2 contains a checklist of questions, customized to the content provided under each Building Block, and serves as an ongoing monitoring tool that can be used alongside the recommendations provided.

Multiple actors should be mobilized to ensure that agrifood systems help meet nutrition and sustainability objectives. [Author] Among these, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engaged in the supply of food are of crucial importance as they constitute the bulk of agrifood enterprises in most countries. [Author] However, there are still few examples of policies, programmes and initiatives aimed specifically at leveraging SMEs due, inter alia, to the novelty of the debate and to the limited understanding of their specific needs and challenges. [Author] Based on a literature review, complemented with FAO's experience in capacity development for SMEs, this publication is targeted at programme developers, experts and technical advisors to policymakers. [Author] Its objectives are: a) to improve the understanding of the linkages between topics that are traditionally dealt with separately; and b) to promote the inclusion of an SME perspective in nutrition and agrifood system policies, programmes and strategies. [Author]

This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems. Defining ¿local¿ based on marketing arrangements, such as farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmers¿ markets or to schools, is well recognized. Statistics suggest that local food markets account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage of their sales than for larger farms. Charts and tables.

This report is part of a multi-volume technical report series entitled, Running a Food Hub, with this guide serving as a companion piece to other United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports by providing in-depth guidance on starting and running a food hub enterprise. In order to compile the most current information on best management and operations practices, the authors used published information on food hubs, surveyed numerous operating food hubs, and pulled from their existing experience and knowledge of working directly with food hubs across the country as an agricultural business consulting firm. The report’s main focus is on the operational issues faced by food hubs, including choosing an organizational structure, choosing a location, deciding on infrastructure and equipment, logistics and transportation, human resources, and risks. As such, the guide explores the different decision points associated with the organizational steps for starting and implementing a food hub. For some sections, sidebars provide “decision points,” which food hub managers will need to address to make key operational decisions. This illustrated guide may assist the operational staff at small businesses or third-party organizations that may provide aggregation, marketing, and distribution services from local and regional producers to assist with wholesale, retail, and institution demand at government institutions, colleges/universities, restaurants, grocery store chains, etc. Undergraduate students pursuing coursework for a bachelor of science degree in food science, or agricultural economics may be interested in this guide. Additionally, this reference work will be helpful to small businesses within the food trade discipline.

The objective of this publication is multifold. First, it aims to learn from small and medium sized agrifood manufacturers about the role they play in food systems transformation in Senegal and the policy reforms required to harness their potential. Second, and more specifically, it gleans lessons from structured interviews with Senegalese rice millers, based on their day-to-day realities, highlighting the business creativity used by these firms in order to deal with difficult enabling environments. Third, the methodology adopts a food systems approach to analyze the target enterprises; cross fertilizing different disciplinary perspectives in order to develop evidence for the public sector on integrated policy making that better supports the role of small agrifood enterprises in sustainable transformation. Finally, the study shares ideas about innovations related to procurement, operations, logistics, finance, marketing and sales, human resources, and strategic partnerships. An important contribution of this work is to demonstrate the multidimensional and complex nature of the environment within which agrifood manufacturers do business, and the need for the public sector to harness their potential to reduce poverty through off-farm employment generation and to improve food security through the sustainable supply of affordable and nutritious food to domestic and export markets.