News & Insights

What do a smoothie on a home trainer, a bar of Nicaraguan chocolate, a seasonal vegetable challenge and a sandwich with seaweed pesto have to do with a food smart city? Everything, if you ask Michèle, Beate, Philippe, Hannelore and Marieke. They took us along for a trip through the heart of Leuven.

In December last year, Rikolto co-signed the Beyond Chocolate charter: the joint ambition of the Belgian chocolate and retail sector, civil society, social impact investors and universities to make Belgian chocolate more sustainable. This industry-wide commitment aims to tackle child labour, combat deforestation and ensure a viable income for local cocoa producers.

On November 9th, 110 participants from the Netherlands and Flanders gathered in Leiden for the second urban agriculture day. Our colleague Gert Engelen was present and shared our experience with the Leuven food strategy, which we helped to develop.

Are we romanticizing the economic potential of smallholder farmers? Does working on the inclusion of smallholder farmers in food chains increase the dominance of big business? These were the guiding questions in an exchange between Belgian funded NGOs, together with farmer organisations, researchers, national commodity associations and local governmental agencies in Arusha area, northern Tanzania.

We are looking for a manager in charge of coordinating finances and the quality of operations and processes throughout the organisation. This is an interesting position where you're responsible for ensuring that Rikolto‘s financial system is top of sector and the organisation has the best working environment and processes in place. You have the power to make Rikolto and its personnel – much happier. New deadline for application: 21/01/2019

How do you unlock the – often hidden – potential of rural and urban youth? In three workshops, young people from Peru, Tanzania and Indonesia were challenged to dream about their future food system. Read more about the methodology that was used and the insights of the workshop leaders.

Fast rewind to October-November 2017. With a series of launch events spanning four continents, from Belgium to Africa and from Latin America to Asia, Rikolto was introduced to the world. Rikolto!? Is that the name of a soap opera? A boy band? Is it a type of cheese? Or… just good food?

We are looking for an energetic and friendly management assistant who wants to grow in a support role with great variety of tasks and who can gradually take on more responsibility and autonomy. Our international team is looking forward to welcoming you in a warm environment! Deadline for application: 2/12

Are we romanticizing the economic potential of smallholder farmers? Does working on the inclusion of smallholder farmers in food chains increase the dominance of big business? These were the guiding questions in an exchange between Belgian funded NGOs, together with farmer organisations, researchers, national commodity associations and local governmental agencies in Arusha area, northern Tanzania.

On 2 October 2018, Quito, the capital of Ecuador, became one of the very few cities in Latin America to have signed a food charter. The charter's sustainable vision builds on the effort of a wide range of actors - including Rikolto - who contributed to Quito's multistakeholder "Food Pact" group. Learn about our contribution here!

For the past five years, our colleague Paola Mercado has coordinated a programme for sustainable and inclusive development of the coffee sector in Peru. Today, Paola is leaving Rikolto. But not before she takes time to share the lessons she has learned and make some recommendations. A farewell interview over a cup of coffee!

An earthquake, tsunami and mudslides affected 3 districts and 1 city in Central Sulawesi. 1,200 people confirmed died, 18,000 people in the emergency camps and thousands people are still missing. Rikolto supports cocoa organisations on this island. Read how our colleagues experienced the past days.

For the past three years, the project Wanted: Food for the Future fuelled the debate on sustainable food in Belgium. The partners and the researchers that took part in the project collected their insights. To inspire companies, public authorities, knowledge institutions, NGOs and other organisations to face the complex challenges of our society together.

In November 2017, Rikolto in DR Congo used the Inclusive Business Scan to collect stories from members of the Kawa Kanzururu Arabica coffee cooperative in North Kivu. The aim was to understand what the members think about having access to the coffee micro-washing station and about the relationship between members, micro-washing station and the cooperative.

We are recruiting an International Cocoa Program Coordinator to tests and harvests new solutions to make the cocoa sector more sustainable and resilient. The deadline to apply is November 28 2018.

Since April 18 of this year, Nicaragua faces a deep socio-political crisis. Rikolto works in the cocoa, vegetable and coffee sector. Due to general insecurity and protesters’ barricades (until July), there was generally less mobility and trade, which affected the functioning of the cooperatives and the livelihoods of the farmers.

The complex environments in which we sail demand that we invest more in evidence-based strategy reflection. What do we learn from our own monitoring data? What does feedback from our stakeholders teach us? But especially: how and when does it feed into our strategic planning? Time to update the project management cycle that underpins our work!

On 30 July, Vietnam National University of Agriculture and Rikolto organised the workshop “10 years of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) in Vietnam: Sharing lessons and introducing a new PGS training toolbox”. The event concluded a one-year project funded by the Agroecology Learning Alliance in Southeast Asia to capitalise PGS experiences in Vietnam for upscaling and institutionalisation.

How do we feed the world with zero land expansion and ocean depletion? What is good food? How can we end malnutrition? How can new technology save our food system? These were just some of the questions raised during the EAT Food Forum 2018. Chris Claes, Executive Co-Director of Rikolto, attended the event, which was held in Stockholm, Sweden, on 11 and 12 June.

A glimpse into the future of the current food system shows massive challenges ahead for the 7.6 billion people currently inhabiting the planet. Based on that concern, Rikolto is picking up its pace in securing food for the future through the involvement of consumers, especially young people. Why young people?

Is food a priority in Latin American city policies? And how do cities address food-related issues? These were the main questions raised during the seminar “Developing sustainable food systems in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean”, organised by the FAO. Rikolto took part in the event.

For the last two years, Rikolto has been implementing a big project in Uganda, called Food Trade. The project linked smallholder staple food surpluses to regional markets. At the end of the project we noticed that farmers received 12% better prices for their commodities relative to the prevailing market prices.

How can private companies connect the SDGs with their smallholder supply chains – and what is the business case for doing so? These were the central questions of the Innovation Forum in London three weeks ago. Liesbeth Van Meulder attended the conference and shares her insights.

Better for the environment! Better for your health! Better for people and animals! Supermarkets and food companies in Belgium are constantly launching initiatives on sustainability. Time to assess the situation. In what areas are supermarkets heading in the right direction with their sustainability policy? And where are the sticking points?

We are looking for a new colleague to develop instruments, methodologies and processes to support the organisational Monitoring and Evaluation system in view of achieving Rikolto’s vision and mission. Deadline for applications: February 25th.

In this four-part article series, we’ll dive into some key insights and building blocks that can help your organisation to take learning to the next level and share some of our own experience.

Between 29 January and 4 February 2018, representatives from 6 Regional Offices and Rikolto’s International Office met to design Rikolto’s International Food Smart Cities programme for the next four years.

On 30 November 2017, NICAFES, the Nicaraguan platform for sustainable coffee, was launched. The initiative brings together more than 25 unions, exporters, service providers, educational institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations supporting Nicaragua's coffee sector.

Since 2016, over 3,180 Vietnamese tea farmers have been trained by Rikolto (previously VECO) on sustainable land management practices as part of The Rainforest Alliance’s project “Mainstreaming Sustainable Management of Tea Production Landscapes”. Initial results show that farmers’ income has increased by an average of 30% due to a reduction in chemical use and higher prices for quality tea leaves.

In this four-part article series, we’ll dive into some key insights and building blocks that can help your organisation to take learning to the next level and share some of our own experience.