Thanks to Food Tank: The Food Think Tank for publishing my guest blog coauthored with Tara Moreau of UBC Botanical Garden on the role of botanical gardens in food security. Much of this is due to Norbert Steinhaus inviting me to become involved in the EU-funded “Big Picnic” project. You can access the article here.
It was a privilege to lead a research project over the past nine months for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada on the topic of micro, small and medium enterprises in the agri-food sector in the Philippines, Vietnam and Peru as part of the Global Affairs Canada funded APEC-Canada Growing Business Partnership. The report was published on March 23rd, 2018 and is available open-access for downloading at: https://apfcanada-msme.ca/research/micro-small-and-medium-enterprises-agri-food-study-philippines-vietnam-and-peru. My thanks to the Foundation as well as co-authors from Vietnam Silicon Valley and Dr. Roslyn Kunin as well as the support of research assistants Nathaniel Candelaria and Deyvi Danny Machacuay Saez and numerous key informants and interviewees without whom this research report would not have been possible.
Dernièrement, ce fut un plaisir de reprendre mon travail comme chroniqueuse à Radio-Canada. J’avais une chronique en français à « Rendez-vous » de Radio-Canada, Vancouver de 2000 à 03 sur le thème des communautés asiatiques en Colombie-Britannique qui a été repris par la suite pendant quelques années en anglais avec l’émission « BC Almanac ». J’ai récemment été offerte une autre chronique à l’émission intitulée « Les samedis du monde », diffusée dans toutes les provinces le l’Ouest canadien. La première chronique – inspirée par notre projet récent pour la Fondation Asie Pacifique du Canada – porte sur les micro, petites et moyennes entreprises agroalimentaires aux Philippines, au Vietnam et au Pérou avec des liens aux communautés originaires de ces pays dans le Ouest canadien. La chronique a été diffusée le 9 décembre 2017. Voici le lien à la bande sonore: http://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/les-samedis-du-monde/segments/chronique/50649/micro-entreprise-agroalimentaire-transformation-pays-emergents
Micro, small and medium enterprises, or MSMEs, are backbones of the economy in both wealthy and low and middle income countries (LMICs). The agri-food sector in particular is of fundamental importance in terms of livelihoods, food-security and meeting growing domestic and international demand for food, including value-added comestibles. If one includes informal enterprises and activities, the size and importance of the agri-food MSME sector takes on even more importance in both North and South.
Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at attending a workshop organized by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada (APFC) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ho Chi Minh City organized on the eve of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting taking place there. In case you missed it, the event was live streamed and recorded on the APFC’s Facebook page, and the session I participated in on September 11th is available here. Vilupti Christina Lok Barrineau, newly minted Vice-President of Operations of APFC, and I also published an op-ed in the Hill Times the next day on the role of agri-food MSMEs available here. The op-ed was also picked up in Vietnam and translated into Vietnamese.
My thanks to Vilupti and the team at APFC for this opportunity. Over the past few years, it has been a privilege to reconnect with the Foundation, with which I was very involved in the 1990s as their first intern in 1995/96 and subsequently as a consultant producing educational materials on the Asia Pacific as well as having the honour of being involved in the exciting Asia Connects Youth Conference that was part of Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific in 1997. Our research report on agri-food MSMEs in the Philippines, Vietnam and Peru is being produced in collaboration with Dr. Roslyn Kunin and Vietnam Silicon Valley, with the assistance of Nathaniel Candelaria and Deyvi Danny Machacuay Saez and will be available this fall.
It was a pleasure being approached by design writer Anne Quito in April to provide media commentary on the ostensible banning of street food in Bangkok because of my work in this area over the years. As a result, the following article was published by Quartz on April 24th 2017 and can be viewed here. While the situation facing street vendors in Bangkok remains a bit uncertain, it was refreshing to see the global outpouring of support, particularly for the city’s lively street food sector, which provides important livelihood opportunities as well as delicious, affordable food for both locals and tourists alike.
English follows…
Ma nouvelle publication avec Narumol Nirathron – “La vente dans l’espace public : le cas de Bangkok” publication In F. Zogning et. al. (eds) L’économie informelle, l’entrepreneuriat et l’emploi – Publié par JFD Éditions à Montréal en avril 2017 suite au Colloque sur l’économie informelle à l’ACFAS en mai 2016. Ce texte est une traduction raccourci et légèrement mis-à-jour d’une publication qui a paru en anglais en mai 2014. Malheureusement, la situation à Bangkok a détérioré depuis quelques années, mettant les vendeurs et vendeuses de la rue en péril. Voici le lien pour plus d’informations: http://www.editionsjfd.com/fr/products/view/l-economie-informelle-l-entrepreneuriat-et-l-emploi/
My new publication with Narumol Nirathron – “La vente dans l’espace public : le cas de Bangkok” publication In F. Zogning et. al. (eds) \L’économie informelle, l’entrepreneuriat et l’emploi – Published by JFD editions in Montréal in april 2017 following the Colloque sur l’économie formula at ACFAS in May 2016. This text is an abbreviated translation with minor updates of a policy brief published in May 2014. Unfortunately, the situation in Bangkok has deteriorated in the last few years, putting many street vendors in peril. Here is the link for more information: http://www.editionsjfd.com/fr/products/view/l-economie-informelle-l-entrepreneuriat-et-l-emploi/
I’m delighted to have been invited to speak at the Commonwealth People’s Forum in Malta taking place from November 23-26. This civil society gathering – organized by the Commonwealth Foundation – is a precursor to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) taking place from November 27-29th. I will be chairing an exciting panel on food challenges as well as speaking at a plenary session on the theme of: Equity and Resilience: Access to critical resources and services for all. I look forward to meeting and interacting with approximately 300 delegates from across the Commonwealth’s 53 member states.
As I was invited to contribute a blog entry in advance of the forum, here is the link below to my remarks:
http://cpf.commonwealthfoundation.com/societal-resilience-food-security-and-social-protection/
I welcome your comments!
In 2002, I had the privilege of being invited by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to do some work on a forum in Addis Ababa entitled “Feeding Cities in the Horn of Africa”. A report of the workshop involving local authorities, researchers and representatives from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors is available for downloading here. The workshop was based on some earlier work in a report produced in the year 2000 available here. Furthermore, a CD-Rom was produced with various other documents including, for example, some wonderful photographs taken by Olivio Argenti of FAO, some of which I have uploaded below. Visiting the ancient land of Abyssinia and birthplace of our species was a dream come true and I hope to go back to visit again some day.
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Here’s my new op-ed published in iPolitics on November 28, 2014. Feeding the world has been one of my preoccupations for the past 30 years. This article is based in part on my remarks at a food-security workshop in Kitchener-Waterloo in June 2014. The full text is available here.
Voici mon nouvel article (en anglais) publié par iPolitics. Nourrir le monde a été une de mes préoccupations depuis 30 ans. L’article est basée en partie sur une allocution que j’ai fait au mois de juin 2014 à Kitchener-Waterloo dans le cadre d’un atelier sur la sécurité alimentaire. Le texte est disponible ici.
My co-author Narumol Nirathron of Thammasat University and I are delighted that WIEGO has published our new multimedia policy brief entitled “Vending in Public Space: The Case of Bangkok”. This brief, replete with embedded videos, is based mostly on previous research by both of us supplemented by excellent updates by Narumol. The full publication can be downloaded here. Our thanks to Martha Chen of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and founder of WIEGO for making this opportunity possible for us and to the WIEGO team for their excellent feedback and support. Our hope is that this brief will be used for policy development, research, teaching and community organizing.