What our midterm evaluations reveal about food system change: insights from our global Belgian Development Cooperation funded programme

Achievements we're proud of

Our food systems strategy is structured around 3 pillars: sustainable production, inclusive markets, and enabling environments. The results of the midterm evaluation show that this approach, linking changes in farm-level practices with market incentives and policy influence, is indeed creating opportunities for food system transformation. There are clear successes:

• The midterm evaluation demonstrates that regenerative agriculture practices promoted as part of our programme can significantly improve yields, farmer incomes, and resilience, even as climate shocks continue to create challenges.
• It also confirmed that we played a crucial role in fostering more transparent and inclusive trade relationships. Formal contracts, institutional procurement, and innovative finance models have helped farmer organisations secure markets and improve their bargaining position, although low demand, small price premiums, and governance issues still limit progress.
• The evaluation also clearly showed how farmer organisations and cooperatives have emerged as critical vehicles of resilience and income generation. With Rikolto's support in governance, financial management, and technical capacity, many farmer organisations have strengthened their ability to aggregate, negotiate, and engage effectively with both markets and policymakers.
• Lastly, we have also built a solid reputation as a neutral connector and facilitator, convening farmer organisations, government agencies, private sector actors, interprofessional organisations, and civil society to work on shared sustainability goals. This role as a bridge and trust builder adds value in fragmented food systems.

What did we learn?

Halfway through our 2022-2026 programmes funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD), we took a moment to check how things are going. These evaluations also reminded us that progress is fragile. Climate shocks, thin price premiums, weak farmer organisation governance, and donor-dependent platforms can still undermine results. To ensure results last, we need systemic incentives, viable financing models that make sustainability affordable, policies that reward climate-smart practices, consumer demand that values sustainable food, and farmer organisations that can deliver consistently. It's these things that continue to guide our work as we are entering the last year of this programme cycle.

At the same time, we've been able to gather some insights as to which aspects of our work we can further prioritise as we are working on our new strategy and programmes starting from 2027 onwards. Particularly, we want to strengthen our focus on advocacy to drive systemic policy shifts at national levels and further deepen partnerships and engagements with private sector partners, to move to structured, long-term co-investment models. Without clear business cases and risk-sharing arrangements, private sector actors are less likely to embed sustainability into their core strategies.