Diving deep with a 360 view
By: Undp Innovation
Tags: Systems Thinking, Cities, Sustainable Development, Zimbabwe, Complexity

In order to explore the many drivers of urban hunger in Harare, we treated the three core parts as 3D problem space in which we could explore the challenge of urban hunger. This approach helped us visualize how the three parts were interconnected and the effect they had on urban hunger. We were able to navigate the space iteratively, exploring which dynamics among the three parts could teach us the most about urban hunger and how to fight it. We unpacked each of these parts through the lenses that we found most relevant, for us to understand where to intervene in the system and that generate both negative and positive dynamics that can be calibrated to achieve development effects. This approach led us to an iterative learning process during which we questioned our understanding of urban food systems from different lenses/perspectives. Take for example information about the food systems, who are the key value chain players generating information? What information is being generated and how is it being shared? Can answers to these questions help us understand infrastructure gaps within the urban food systems?

Once we understood where we wanted to intervene in the system, we often asked ourselves the following questions;

● How do we test our assumptions and hypotheses about how your system works so that we can learn and adapt effectively?

● How can we highlight the interactions between the elements to generate insights we were unaware of?

● How can we design a balanced portfolio of experiments that tackles all three perspectives — affordability, accessibility and sustainability of urban food?

With these questions continuously running through our mind, we designed a portfolio of experiments which would allow us to learn from three very distinct areas. Primarily learning about the complete food supply chain from production to consumption, and the human dynamics that govern market forces determine the efficiency of the processes. Additionally, we aimed for a portfolio of experiments where each experiment can be deployed independently, but at the same time interact with the others in a way that helps us learn about and tackle the challenge.

The interaction of the three experiments is based on how we can modify the relationships people have with informal and formal systems in urban areas in relation to food, markets and price to build resilience. Through these experiments we want to gain new insights on ways to create equitable access to food and markets amid shocks challenging urban systems in Zimbabwe. The three experiments were designed to ensure that they are interlinked to fight urban hunger by tackling major bottlenecks along the whole urban food value chain. Experiment one is looking at the relationship between food production and innovation finance methods, whereas experiment two focuses more on data relationships. The third experiment explores the relationship between value chain players. This means the portfolio is taking both a quantitative and qualitative approach, to closing gaps along urban food systems and reducing hunger. The linkages between the experiments are also from a risk sharing perspective.