STOCK TAKING OF ACTIONS AND INITIATIVES FOR SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS
Please fill one form for each initiative reported
Name of the Initiative: Costa Rican Food Loss & Waste Reduction Network
o
o
Individual
Collective x
Respondent
Name: Laura
Surname: Brenes Peralta
Email: labrenes@itcr.ac.cr
Organization: Tacnológico de Costa Rica
Position: Teacher / Researcher
Are you responding?
o
X On behalf on the organization conducting the action/initiative
o
X As a member of it
o
Because you know its existence
Name of the leading organization: Tecnológico de Costa Rica / FAO
Type of organization:
o
National Authority (e.g. Government),
o
Local Authorities
o
Intergovernmental Organization
o
Civil Society
o
Non-governmental organizations
o
Primary food producers (e.g. farmers, smallholder farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk)
o
Private Sector (e.g. manufacturer, retailers, industry association, private research, etc)
o
Research
o
X Multistakeholder (volunteer group with public-private representatives)
o Other:
1
Partners (the case being):
Public: Academia (TEC-UCR-UTN, UCI, INA*), Government/Ministries (INTA,
CNP, SEPSA, Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería, Ministerio de Educación,
Asamblea Legislativa-1 diputado, ICT, INCOPESCA, PIMA)
Private: Budget Rent a Car, Dos Pinos, Banco de Alimentos, AED,
Automercados, CACIA, CACORE, Colegio Ingenieros Agrónomos, FAO)
Year of the beginning of the action/ initiative: 2014
The case being, year of end:
Geographical
scope of the
Initiative
Indicate precisely
Local
Input or
Main
service
Targeted
provision
Stage of
Food
Systems
If
appropriate,
indicate
precisely
National
Regional
Global
X Costa Rica
both productive
and consumers
end
Primary
Production
Processing
Distribution
Consumption
crops,
farms,
fisheries
Agroindustries
Markets like
PIMA
School
restaurants,
private
restaurants,
hotels
Main dimension(s) addressed (if several of them, please indicate order of priority)
o Environment 3
o Economic 2
o Social 1
o Governance 4
All of the dimensions are considered, since we aim to work in research (including
social and technical topics), awareness (through different scopes: environmental
impacts of FLW, economic challenges for SMEs and food security and safety
challenges), and governance-alliances (to promote networking and inclusive
approaches)
Main issue(s) addressed (if several of them, please indicate order of priority)
2
o
Water
o
Soil
o
Land
o
Air
o
Climate change
o
Biodiversity (including genetic resources)
o
Specific ecosystems, if yes, please precise:
o
X Food losses and waste
o
Energy
o
Pollution
o
X Food consumption
o
Consumer behavior
o
X Nutrition
o
Animal welfare
o
Fair Trade
o
Rural development
o
Land use rights
o
Gender issues
o
Youth issues
o
Employment
o
Workers rights and safety
o
Vulnerable groups
o
X Poverty alleviation
o
Other, please specify...
No specific priority, except the main issue is FLW, which directly or indirectly might
be related to food consumption patterns, effects on nutrition and poverty through
better distribution, etc
Main instruments used (if several of them, please indicate order of priority)
o
X Projects
o
Regulations
o
Policy dialogue
o
X Capacity development
o
X Research
3
o
X Knowledge dissemination
o
Advocacy and awareness raising
o
X Data collection and sharing
o
Training, extension
o
Consumer information
o
Voluntary standards, labels (hopefully some day)
o
Payment for environmental services
o
Other? If so, please specify:
Description of the Initiative (in less than 10 lines), including, as appropriate elements on size and
scale of the initiative:
The network began after attending the SAVE FOOD Partnership event in 2013 and
the FAO Regional Consultation on FLW experts. In November 2014 TEC and FAO
joined actions and called 13 institutions, which agreed voluntarily to create this
network. New members have been joining. We aim to establish guidelines to reduce
FLW in Costa Rica, through data gathering, research to understand the magnitude of
FLW in Costa Rica, awareness rising among the members-its institutions-civil
society, and the creation of alliances in order to consider the topic as a transversal
ax in the participant institutions-businesses-central government. We expect future
participation from our Environment Ministry and other actors to create a more
inclusive approach, wider presence and awareness.
Results:
So far we have met 3 times (every 3 months) and we have created a Work Plan,
from which we selected 1 activity from each main area to start developing specific
actions. We currently have 4-5 TV-radio-written published news, 4 executing or
finished research proposals, graphic materials delivered to the members to begin
awareness campaigns, and a possible workshop to be held in July 2015.
References ( Literature, web site, reports, etc):
http://www.tec.ac.cr/sitios/Docencia/agronegocios/Paginas/SaveFood.aspx
http://www.tec.ac.cr/comunicacion/Paginas/ImpactoTec-2015.aspx
http://www.mediatoolsadvanced.com/MG_NOTI/MTA/CRC/TMP/20150226__tv6__notici12__123915.mp4
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