What we
believe in
At Sprouts Collective, we believe in connecting the dots between peoples and actions. Our aim is to bridge perspectives, expertise and goodwill towards actionable, scalable and transformative solutions for equitable and sustainable seeds to food systems.
Seeds and Food are intrinsically linked. In a continuous cycle, we grow our food from seeds and we get our seeds from our food. Food connects us all – regardless of age, gender, cultural identities, economic status and professions – we all have to eat. Food nourishes our bodies and our well-being. Food shapes social ties with our families, friends and communities.
So do seeds. A single seed encapsules rich genetic diversity, knowledge and social ties. Perhaps we may take it for granted, but as people, our lives are interconnected with food and seeds. As peoples, we are globally inter-dependent on plant genetic diversity, which is the basis of our seeds and our food.
In a world of inequality, poverty and changing climate, it may be increasingly hard to value this inter-connectedness. The dominant ways in which we produce, consume and waste food are severely damaging our planet, eroding biodiversity and causing poverty. Yet at the same time, for decades, a great diversity of farmers and indigenous communities, scientists, entrepreneurs, policy makers, civil society organizations, cooks, consumers and many others have been constantly developing and establishing innovative and inclusive solutions.
Many of these innovations were lost in translation and scaled out for a variety of reasons. And it’s complicated: there is no silver bullet, nor does a single institution hold all the solutions. Hence, it makes more sense for diverse stakeholders to reach out to pool and complement resources and expertise. However, and to say it frankly, there seems to be much talk but a lot less listening and learning. A contributing factor to the impasse are the increasingly polarised discussions.
At Sprouts Collective, we believe it’s time to connect the dots between actors, ideas, innovations and actions.
Our
Principles
While we focus on seeds for food, we value not just biodiversity, but also diversity in people’s perspectives. We embrace differences and respect conflicts in positions. We deliberately take the decision to engage, seek common grounds and act jointly, or at least in complementarity. To do so, we engage with individuals and institutions who share these principles as basis of our partnerships:
- Seeds and food systems should cater to the highly diverse peoples, agro-ecologies, production and food systems.
- Acknowledging that access to seed diversity is a crucial basis for dietary diversity.
- Farmers’ agency is central for the integrated and dynamic management of agro-biodiversity on- farm and in the wild; and in their role of co-developing solutions in breeding and adaptation for both traditional and modern varieties.
- Acknowledging the role of a vibrant seed sector for food and nutrition security and economic growth.
- Facilitate the conservation through use; and the access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
- We support rewarding innovation and technology development for which the agenda-setting and knowledge generation need to be socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable.
What we
value
We uphold
Farmers’ Rights and the Right
to Food
We nurture
gender and social inclusion
We foster
youth engagement in all facets of development
We promote
operating within planetary boundaries
What
we do
- We organize multi-stakeholder dialogues and events. Instead of pack- jammed programmes with little space for open discussion, we design and moderate dialogues with the objective to learn, find complementarities and define actions.
- We build bridges between institutions and programmes and design models for effective partnerships and cross-pollination of ideas and innovations.
- We mediate to find common grounds in polarized discussions and conflict.
- We develop strategies to incorporate ‘inclusive seed system development’ in existing programmes and policies.
- We provide technical support and assistance for well-functioning and inclusive seed policy and legislation.
Who we are
The founders of Sprouts are Andrew Mushita, Gigi Manicad and Hedwig de Coo. Within our respective organizations, and as individuals, we share a dynamic history of close collaboration. Recently, for the United Nations Food Systems Summit, we organised a series of seven dialogues from local, national and regional to global levels. The dialogue series included farmers, civil societies, African and European governments, universities, national and international research organizations, UN entities, private seed and banking sectors, chefs and youth movements. The dialogues, with small-holder farmers as key stakeholders, raised awareness and led to specific action points that link seeds to food and nutrition security. As a result, we are part of the initiators – along with the Netherlands, the International Seed Federation and Plantum NL – of a coalition that works on joint solutions and actions for inclusive seed systems. Part of the mission is to draw in more institutions and countries.
Andrew Mushita
Andrew Mushita is the executive director of Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT) and is an agriculturist. He has been active in rural development for over three decades. He has participated in national, regional and international policy dialogues that focused on agricultural biodiversity, food and nutrition security, environment, international trade, farmers rights, farmer seed systems and the implications of intellectual property rights on smallholder farmers. Andrew advocates for community development, empowering and strengthening farmer centric seed sector development, food and nutrition security and climate-resilient and ecological agricultural practices. Andrew is a Food Champion for the United Nation’s Food Systems Summit.
Gigi Manicad has over 30 years of in-depth field and policy experience in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe in biodiversity management for sustainable food systems and climate resilience. She has worked for both research and civil society organizations. She has led and established successful and scaled- up multi-stakeholder programmes that bridge agricultural research with bottom-up development agenda. Gigi currently works as an independent consultant, leading the evaluations and development of programmes and strategies.
Gigi Manicad
Hedwig de Coo
Hedwig de Coo works as communications specialist in the field of agro-biodiversity for climate resilience. The communications that she produces are targeted at balancing knowledge management and outreach: training people in audio-visual storytelling, so they can capture their own stories, experiences and insights and make these accessible for in- and outsider audiences. She has worked for diverse entities in private and public sectors; and for intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.