Stakeholders Workshop held at USP for the Global Community Food and Health (GCFaH) Project
26 January 2023
The Global Community Food and Health (GCFaH) project is a collaborative interdisciplinary research that involves Fiji, Philippines, Dominica, and St Lucia for which the University of Exeter as a leading institution, the University of the South Pacific (USP), and the Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises & Development (FRIEND).
The project aims to design a work program that will enable us to robustly evaluate and compare community-based food production initiatives in the Caribbean and Pacific, from the perspective of their impacts on NCD risk, social and economic well-being and the environment.
The two-day GCFaH Workshop, which will be held at the University of the South Pacific, Japan ICT conference room on the 26th and 27th of January 2023 from 9 am -5 pm, will bring together key stakeholders in agriculture, food security, and health.
The GCFaH project is a much larger project that is based on the Intervention Co-creating Community-based Food Production and Household Nutrition in Small Island Developing States (ICOFAN), but it focuses on finding potential ways of improving household diet, nutrition, and food security, as well as reducing the burden of nutrition-related diseases, by promoting increased community-based food production (CFP) based on agroecological principles in small island countries.
The focus of the GCFaH research is to answer the question – “What is the potential for improving household diet, nutrition, and food security, and reducing the burden of nutrition-related diseases by promoting increased community-based food production (CFP) based on agroecological principles in small island countries?”
Minister for Agriculture and Waterways, Honorable Vatimi Rayalu said, “the Ministry of Agriculture cannot over emphasis the importance of this project. We are the Ministry that is tasked to ensure that there is ample food for every Fijian and ties in well with the food security aspect of this project.”
“With the high incidences of Non-Communicable Diseases(NCD’s) that is occurring in Fiji and the region, we also have to be conscious of the nutrition side of the food produced in our country, that is equally important as food security. So its food security as well as nutrition security,” Minister Rayalu added.
The targeted communities in Fiji are the provinces of Rewa, Tailevu, and Naitasiri.
The research is funded by the UK’s National Institute of Health Research using UK aid from the UK Government to support global health research.
About GCFaH
The agroecological approach is becoming a more widely recognized approach that benefits human health and well-being, as well as ecosystem health, which promotes environmental, social, and economic benefits.
The University of Exeter is leading this collaborative project worth approximately €2.9 million euros.
The leading research partners in Fiji are the University of the South Pacific and the Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises & Development (FRIEND).