What happened in our Q2, 2026 Community Call? A mid-year check in and engagement opportunities.

Insights and updates from the community

We kicked off the session with community updates, creating a space for members to share ongoing work, exchange ideas, and explore opportunities for collaboration. This time, we had the opportunity to hear from four inspiring women, who work at the intersection of biodiversity and food systems across different scales: from local community action and youth engagement to research, policy, and global awareness initiatives.

Anita Owiti – Save the Future Initiative

Anita Owiti shared insights from the Ambassador-led pumpkin and African Leafy Vegetables (ALVs project), which empowers community champions in the promotion of agroforestry and watershed protection in Homabay County, Kenya. The initiative has reached over 340 beneficiaries, improving local biodiversity and ecosystems, increasing on-farm crop diversity, and enhancing household dietary diversity. Anita also reflected on some barriers faced throughout the initiative, and strategies for stronger community engagement.

Famke Gerritsen – Dutch National Youth Council

Famke shared insights from her work as the Dutch UN Youth Representative for Biodiversity and Food. She reflected on opportunities for youth engagement in biodiversity and food systems policy, while also looking for experience from the community about existing spaces and/or fora that would provide an opportunity to more effectively engage in the development of food systems policies.

Silvia Araujo de Lima – Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT

Silvia shared about the global Photo with a Story contest, an initiative that invites different stakeholders to bring agrobiodiversity to life through images and narratives. The contest aims to highlight the role of agrobiodiversity in food systems and showcase stories from different contexts around the world. Here you can learn more about the photocontest and register to participate!

Diane Bosch – Bosch 4 Sustainable & Healthy Diets

Diane Bosch shared key insights from the recent report Assessment of the Effects of National Financial and Fiscal Resources on Biodiversity. You can find the full report here (only available in dutch).

These updates once again highlighted the diversity of experiences, perspectives, and initiatives within the community. They also served as a reminder of the value of continued exchange and collaboration as the Partnership moves forward!

Our mid-year check in

A mid-year check was discussed with the community and focused on the 4 core activities of the partnership in our shared agenda for 2026, reflecting on the different achievements across the activities.

1. Our membership model and facilitation

2. The bundle series of use cases

3. Capacity and network building

4. The incubator process to strengthen biodiversity-food systems synergies in action.

1. Our membership model and facilitation

Looking back at the launch of our online community platform, we reflected on the interactions taking place within it, the exchange of reflections and updates, and the role of this safe space in strengthening connections among the already more than 90 members of the community!

On the other hand, as the partnership is ongoing during its second year, we took a pause to reflect on the question: What would need to be in place for this CoP to continue creating value without NFP in a leading role? This marked an initial step towards exploring long-term sustainability and NFP exit strategies for the Partnership.

2. The bundle series of use cases

After a successful launch of the Use cases bundle and the Conversation Starter Toolkit, we are now involved in exciting opportunities to build on these resources, including their continued use and outreach. Further, we are eager to continue learning about the use of these resources in practice in and beyond our community and will explore ways that can facilitate sharing of other examples in the future.

3. Capacity and network building

It has been almost a month since the launch of the co-created community Shared Messages aimed at creating common ground across different sectors, actors, and scales. Since their launch, we have seen the messages spreading across community members' networks.

During the call, Ogwang Robert Rapsy, Programme Advisor at the Rural Agroecology Network, shared insights from his involvement in the Shared Messages working group and reflected on the energy, collaboration, and sense of shared purpose that emerged throughout the process.

Building on this momentum, we also took a pause to encourage further engagement with the Shared Messages: whether by becoming a supporter, sharing them across community networks, and contributing stories of progress. In case you missed it, here you can learn how to keep engaging with the shared messages. We are now moving into the Phase 2 of the Shared Messages, where we will continue collaboration within the partnership to further support amplification, uptake, further translation and collaborative learning.

We also shared an overview of key upcoming events (e.g. Africa Food Systems Forum, World Food Day, and UN COP17) as opportunities to connect with other members who may be attending, and use these spaces to coordinate joint activities to put biodiversity-food system linkages on the agenda, as well as support other activities of the Partnership and of our partners themselves.

4. The incubator process to strengthen biodiversity-food systems synergies in action

On May 7th we held our round table together with Wasafiri and Impact Hub Amsterdam to co-create a biodiversity pilot program for youth food systems innovators in Kenya, and during this community call, Fausto Kinyua, Program Lead at FAMA program  shared his reflections as one of the youth programmes involved in the roundtable.

In addition to highlighting how the FAMA Program is integrating biodiversity to support thriving communities through sustainable livelihoods, circular economy approaches, agroecology, and regenerative agriculture practices, Fausto shared several key insights from the discussion:

• Kenya’s youth are central to shaping future food systems, and that there is strong interest among young people in connecting biodiversity with business opportunities, particularly when clear livelihood, income, and market benefits are present.

• While many youth programmes focus on enterprise development, biodiversity is often not explicitly integrated into their activities.

• Biodiversity is increasingly being recognized as a critical component of resilient food systems.

Building on the insights from the Roundtable, we are further co-creating the next steps for the incubator.

Opportunities to engage on what lies ahead

As the activities of the partnership advance, more opportunities for engagement and collaboration within the community arise. Members can contribute in different ways, from strengthening collaboration through our online platform, to co-developing sustainability strategies for the partnership . There are also opportunities to contribute to shared and joint learning around use cases, support the amplification and uptake of the Shared Messages, and engage in the planning and implementation of the incubator process.

Whether you are already actively involved or looking for new ways to engage, we encourage you to join the conversation and help shape the next steps of the Partnership!

Are you interested in contributing to this growing community working toward connecting food systems and biodiversity? Join the community.