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Project Topic
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The project aims at informing private and public resilience strategies through new evidence-based knowledge that is created,
systematized and spread on external stressors and shocks deriving from cereal global value chains (GVCs) on the MENA region
and on the feasible local solutions to address them, with a specific focus on Morocco and Egypt.
The proposal answers the Section 1-Call, Topic 1.3.1-2023 (RIA) “Increasing agri-food supply chain (cereal) resilience in the
MENA region” and addresses the challenge by contributing to increase the resilience of Mediterranean and MENA food systems
to the economic instability deriving from international food markets. Stability is a pillar of food security which does not only
require food to be available, accessible and well utilized but also that these conditions are stable and predictable, stressing the
centrality of information. Stability is put at risk by several domestic and external factors and policymakers, supported by
researchers and international organizations, have made big efforts to understand and track the main factors of risk for the
domestic production of food. Instead, there is less understanding and systematized knowledge about which external shocks and
stressors may derive from international markets, how they can be transmitted domestically to the actors and authorities along
the cereal supply chains, and what solutions such actors have to react. MENA countries are particularly exposed to international
shock in cereals’ markets because they largely rely on import to feed their population and food self-sufficiency is not an option
for them, due to water scarcity. A deep understanding of such external shocks and stressors and of the coping strategies is
fundamental for: a) private actors to promptly react and adjust their plans accordingly; b) public actors to design resilience
policies and strategies. Transparent information, collective learning and policy coordination in international cereal markets are
indeed essential to prevent unexpected shortages and to foster countries’ food security. Available market information
platforms, however, focus on single agricultural commodities disregarding the value chain, which ranges from agricultural inputs
to cereal transformation, storage and distribution. Policymakers and economic actors need a better understanding of their own
vulnerabilities to specific changes at each stage of the chain, as linkages in the GVCs represent powerful conductors of shocks
and stressors across countries; moreover, they need a menu of solutions that they can implemented when shocks occur. The
project strategy answers these needs and it also makes the solutions available to policymakers and economic actors through
digital technologies and decision support tools, in order to improve their preparedness and resilience. More formally, the
specific objectives are:
1. To generate a better understanding, targeted on governments and economic actors involved in the cereal value chain in the
MENA region, of the external stressors and shocks that derive from GVCs and threaten local cereal supply chain and food
security.
2. To develop innovative solutions and evidence-based recommendations for strategies, action plans and best practices that
governments and economic actors of the MENA food systems along the cereal value chain can use to enhance the resilience of
the systems and ensure food security.
3. To improve preparedness of governments and economic actors along the cereal value chain and in the food systems to
anticipate and cope with external stressors and shocks by integrating new knowledge and data from available platforms into a
Decision Support System (DSS) to guide adoption of solutions, recommendations and practices identified by the project.
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