Syrian food futures: Visioning for the future of food security in Northwest Syria. (English)

This study formed part of the GCRF-funded Syrian Food Futures project conducted by the One Health FIELD Network (https://www.onehealthfieldnetwork.org/). Our aim was to facilitate a platform for dialogue between academics, decisionmakers and practitioners to improve integration of local knowledge, cultural and scientific expertise into decision-making and strategy development for long-term and highly uncertain futures. A scenario planning workshop was conducted to explore uncertainties associated with long-term drivers of change: displacement, natural resource management, changeable security situation, disruption of economy, external involvement, human-made and natural hazards and agricultural policy, in order to articulate a vision for the future of food security in Northwest Syria in the next 5 years. Participants stressed the importance of harmonising and centralising data curation, and management and information sharing to ensure a coordinated approach in the region and proposed a number of affordable, accessible and acceptable locally led interventions to improve agriculture and food security from production to consumption.