News & Insights

What do sustainable food systems mean to us, here at Rikolto? Why did we decide to make it our overarching programmatic framework?

Intensive agriculture has spread to the Amazon highlands in Peru. Agroforestry systems in cocoa and coffee can regenerate these areas. Rikolto has been supporting the APROCAM cooperative since 2020 to roll out agroforestry systems, promoting the conservation of forest species such as capirona, oak, cedar and mahogany.

For our shared office in Leuven, we're looking for a cleaning help.

On February 7th and 8th, a group of 30 teachers and civil servants from cities in Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Belgium came together to see how we can further develop healthy, sustainable and accessible food in schools across Europe. This was all part of the European SchoolFood4Change project.

Developing recognition, respect and understanding of the socio-cultural differences of indigenous peoples is a necessary component of fulfilling the right to food for indigenous communities. This approach is known as 'cultural relevance' or ‘fit to culture'.

This is why, since 2023, a group of 15 public and private actors have been coordinating solutions in line with the community agreement and indigenous beliefs, as well as the Guatemalan Municipal Food and Nutrition Security Policy (SAN).

According to 2021 data, Vietnamese children are rapidly becoming overweight and obese due to unbalanced daily diets with too much processed food and too little fruit and vegetables. This global pattern has many consequences, including an increased risk of disease. To change this, Rikolto has embarked on a journey with two secondary schools in Hanoi. The aim is to make healthy and sustainable food the new normal for students. Read more about this approach to bringing good food to Hanoi schools.

FoodScienceClass, an EIT-funded project, provides students with the knowledge and tools they need to make healthy food choices. These ready-to-use tools have now been released for teachers to use in English, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, Finnish and Hebrew.

Gender inclusion is more than a global trend. Actions to "close the gap" have, in many companies, moved from being social responsibility campaigns to policies. In the cocoa world, women are already part of the business and different companies around the world are reviewing women’s contributions to the chain, investing progressively in programmes to help them develop their potential.

Agriculture and food are at the crossroads of the biggest challenges of our time: climate, environment and poverty. But the polarising way the discussion is conducted does not reflect this, says Jelle Goossens; spokesperson and communications officer for Rikolto in Belgium. He launches a call for fewer debates and more conversations.

Rikolto is taking up the challenge to guarantee everyone access to healthy, sustainable and affordable food.

We're looking for an energetic and team player monitoring, evaluation and learning officer who wants to grow in an international network organisation! Apply by 20th of February 2023.

What is a living income? How is it calculated? Why has it become important for governments, aid agencies and companies in the last few decades? Stephanie, member of the International Board of Directors at Rikolto, shares with us the current status of work on living income, and the solutions, investment, and synergies she has gathered from stakeholders in Peru and in the world. 

How easy do supermarkets in Belgium make it for us to eat sustainably? A comparative study by the Questionmark Foundation, with the support of Rikolto and Test Aankoop, and in collaboration with BOS+, IEW, FoodWIN and Bond Beter Leefmilieu, sought an answer to this question. Following these research results and recommendations from Superlist, Rikolto organised a meeting on 8 December 2022 with key players in retail and sustainability, in the form of a panel discussion called the 'SuperDialogue'.

The VOICE network, a broad coalition of civil society organisations, has just launched the Cocoa Barometer 2022, renewing its plea for a systemic change by taking simultaneous action on three separate dimensions: good agricultural practices; good governance policies; and good purchasing practices. In this article, we unpack how these actions look in our programme.

The Flemish Minister of Agriculture and Food, Jo Brouns, presented the text of the Flemish Food Strategy at November 30 during the Food Summit in Roeselare. Rikolto contributed to the development of the strategy, but also takes a critical look at the result and the follow-up.

At Rikolto, we have defined 10 principles of regenerative agriculture to guide our projects and collaborations, in this article Lola Pochet explains what this means for the organisation moving forward.

Thanks to the implementation of the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) – a safe and traceable production system promoted by Rikolto and the Hanoi PPD – around 3,200 households (of which 65% are women) are now participating in more than 1,900 hectares of safe vegetable production, accounting for 14% of Hanoi's vegetable production area.

Rikolto launched its cocoa and coffee programme in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. It has secured funding from the DGD to work with 13,000 cocoa farmers, governments and other stakeholders in the cocoa sector to ensure a living income for the producers.

What are supermarkets doing to promote plant-based and sustainably produced food, and to combat deforestation and food waste? A study on the supermarkets Colruyt, Delhaize, Carrefour, Aldi and Lidl shows that their impact on Belgium's ecological footprint is significant.

In spite of what the title might suggest, we’re not going to tell you the story of a Walt Disney princess who found the prince of her dreams. Our heroine is Merab, a sweet and charismatic young woman from Uganda. Our featured adventure is her Generation Food journey and her metamorphosis into a successful businesswoman, and beyond. Let’s start from the beginning.

Hope Dina is about to launch her own organic pesticide and fertiliser. The Generation Food programme in Uganda gave her a push to make her business idea come true. She hopes her story inspires government and private companies to create an environment that supports young entrepreneurs to flourish.

Rice is critical to Vietnam's socio-economic development, whereas rice cultivation is severely impacted by climate change. By applying the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard, rice farmers can now significantly reduce inputs and costs.

Deo runs Eastern Coffee, a coffee-roasting company in Mbale, Uganda. He is involved in Rikolto's Generation Food programme in Uganda. Learn about the values that guide him as a young agrifood entrepreneur, something he is eager to share with other young people on the same path.

In this podcast episode, Jelle talks with our colleague Robinson Nakwasa from Rikolto in Uganda and with Piloya Innocent. She is one of the promising entrepreneurs shaping the future of Uganda's food economy through the Generation Food-project.

Bui Thi Ngoc Duyen, a young woman, has successfully been applying the knowledge and skills she gained during a training course in her agricultural business. Her dream: becoming a safe agricultural product distributor.

As of 2021, a participatory guarantee system or PGS has been adopted by 43 vegetable cooperatives in the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. PGS is now recognised as a certification system for safe vegetables in Hanoi as well as in Vinh Phuc, Ha Nam, and Da Nang. How has this been achieved, and what does it mean for access to healthy and safe food in Vietnam? In this article, we tell you all about it.

In collaboration with Rikolto and the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems, FAO released on 29th July 2022 the Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Sourcebook – From Production to Food Systems.

Together with ILVO, Inagro, three producers of chickpeas, three processors (Greenyard, Deldiche and Abinda), supermarket chain Delhaize and the NGO Rikolto, Arteveldehogeschool will investigate for two years how the chickpea grown in Flanders can become economically viable.

Awa watched her son leave 7 years ago from Burkina Faso to pursue better economic opportunities. When the 28-year-old Adama was forced to return, he found that members of the farmers' cooperative of his community were calling on him to join. What opportunities did mother and son find in collaborating for a more professional farmers' organisation?

Tuy Loan is a vegetable cooperative in Vietnam that, after 5 years of working to professionalise its operations and improve access to markets, has succeeded in increasing the income of its farmers and the quality of its vegetables. From supplying only one food store, it now supplies high-quality vegetables to several supermarkets and stores in Da Nang, Vietnam. In this article, our colleague Nguyen Thi Den tells us how they did it.