As part of their master’s Applied Research Project (ARP), four masters students researched how food and agricultural interventions can contribute to addressing climate security risks and sustaining peace for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
For their project on “Food for Peace: Reducing Climate Security Risks and Sustaining Peace through Food Security and Agricultural Interventions”, India Belgharbi, Amelia Giancarlo, Ambra Al Keylani and Martin Szoke conducted literature reviews, collected expert interviews and reviewed case studies on specific FAO interventions in places like Colombia and the Karamoja region in Uganda.
“Because FAO is an international UN agency, we had the great privilege of learning from colleagues from across the world, including Switzerland, Italy, Kenya, Uganda, Chile, Colombia and Yemen”, said members of the team. “This allowed us to broaden the scope and global relevance of our report and recommendations”.
Once the students finished their research, they were invited to present the key insights of their ARP to FAO’s headquarters, where some of the attendees had also participated in the student interviews during the project’s research phase.
“We were able to benefit from very diverse perspectives, allowing us to grapple with the complexity of the topic while issuing simple answers and implementable recommendations to our partner organisation”, further explained the students. “It was a great experience that taught us a lot”.
Upon finishing their project, the research was used as part of a more in-depth report to address the question, there was also a podcast recorded during Geneva Peace Week, where the students interviewed FAO, CGIAR, Interpeace and Geneva Water Hub experts. In addition to their presentation at FAO headquarters, the students also had a presentation ata Youth Dialogue at the World Food Forum.
The students were grateful for the “help and engagement of and the many opportunities offered to us by our partners, Patrick Jacqueson and Fiona Arnone, and would also like to thank the organizer of the Youth Dialogue, Ei Hnin Hlaing, the Geneva Graduate Institute’s teaching team, Denis Ruysschaert, Emanuele Zavanella, and Amal Shahid, and all staff from FAO and partner organisations that kindly participated in our interviews”.
Photo: presentation of the project at the FAO headquarters on 19 January 2023.
Pictured: centre, from left to right: India Belgharbi, Ambra Al Keylani, Martin Szoke; on the screen top left corner: Amelia Giancarlo.