The food security needs and priorities in the ten countries of Southeast Asia are based on a complex set of interrelated dynamics. We designed meeting formats and trained in-house facilitators to run consultation meetings around this topic in Southeast Asia.
Our client was the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), one of the partners of CGIAR, a global non-government organisation with a remit around food security. The consulted parties ranged from farmers and farmer associations to researchers, industry leaders and government officials.
Over the space of several weeks, we worked closely with the teams at IRRI and CGIAR to unearth the questions that needed to be answered and ensured that the meeting design would deliver those outcomes. The nature of these meetings meant that initial workshop structures needed to flexibly adapt to given circumstances at very short notice. We trained IRRI’s team of experienced facilitators in the open dialogue style that encourages broad ranging ideas to be generated, and guided them in best practices around large, diverse group facilitation.
We were rewarded by a rich set of results, which our team analysed and wrote into a full report. In summary, we were able to identify six priority areas for collaborative initiatives across Southeast Asia that would enable a more resilient and secure agri-food system for the region.
“It was great working with you. We are using [your words] as our project strap line!” – IRRI’s Regional Representative for South Asia
“The report looks great and will definitely be very useful” – IRRI’s Strategic Partnerships Senior Manager
“Thank you, I really learned a lot.” – Lead facilitator at IRRI