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PlaSa Colombia: A data-based systemic approach for transforming food systems

The Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT, Colombia

Abstract

Food systems in Colombia, like in many countries around the world, face multiple challenges, such as climate risk, production inefficiencies, obesity, hunger, foreign dependency, food loss, and waste, food insecurity, climate shocks, inefficiencies in supply logistics, and overall, a lack of understanding of their interconnections, interdependencies, and trade-offs. Paradoxically, Colombia has abundant data on some of the main elements of its food systems (production, supply, marketing, transportation, nutritional status, among others); however, these data are often not easily accessible, not integrated, nor analysed together, limiting their usefulness in decision-making processes, planning, and the design of programmes and strategies. This document explores how a systemic approach can transform decision-making using data tools such as the food systems platform PlaSA Colombia, created by the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT. This platform integrates and simplifies scattered data, facilitating public access and understanding and promoting informed decision-making. PlaSA aims to provoke debates about the type of food system desired and to influence public policies with information structured through multidimensional data, facilitating the construction of narratives, based on secondary data from public sources, that simplify complex data into clear images. Information gaps have motivated the scientific and academic community, now united in a Community of Practice on Food Systems (first in the country), to mobilise efforts and create collaborative networks to develop joint solutions. Collaborative exercises that have been carried out at the national level through PlaSA Colombia have made it possible to understand the impacts generated by roadblocks on GHG emissions and food supply, the cost of diets, and their affordability for major cities, and the Agro-climatic factors that affect productivity, among others, which are often overlooked in more fragmented approaches. In conclusion, improving collaboration is crucial to influencing decisions and promoting political and sectoral reforms. This study highlights the need for tools like PlaSA Colombia for a detailed and ongoing analysis, inviting regional, national, and local stakeholders to adopt similar approaches to enhance the resilience and sustainability of food systems.

Keywords: Challenges, climate change, collaboration, food security, food system, PlaSA Colombia, sustainability

Contact Address: Johana Marcela Castillo Rivera, The Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT, Performance, Innovation and Strategic Analysis for Impact, Av 2 hn #54-05, Cali, Colombia, e-mail: j.castillocgiar.org