In March 2026, the Czech Globe 🔗 team (constituted by Julia Leventon, Lenka Sucha, Aneta Stoker, Vojtech Gerlich and Abhigya) successfully concluded a large-scale Horizon project researching food systems transformations with a special emphasis on achieving One Health objectives – FoSTA Health (Food Systems Transformation in Southern Africa for One Health). In this blog post, I discuss the role of Czech Globe partners in steering the objectives of the project and describe some of the key outputs that we brought forth.
Digital Food Systems Map
A key output that our team worked consistently towards the course of the FoSTA Health was the digital food systems maps platform. We used the participatory tool, food systems mapping to produce a collection of country, regional and institutional level food systems maps with participants from different geographies and contexts. Food system(s) mapping represents an approach used to identify all stakeholders, institutions, goods and activities (including losses and waste), food flow levels and rates, along with policy, economic (e.g., value addition, food safety and quality, food diversity, poverty reduction, etc.), and environmental characteristics, to record the “status quo” and “dynamic change” of any food system. It is a method of understanding systems change that can help in understanding how food systems can best be configured to support sustainable diets, health, and livelihoods is complex. It requires the consideration of processes that shape food systems, the relationships among them, and their outcomes and impacts of ongoing or proposed.
We are hosting the outcomes of the participatory food systems mapping exercises on the FoSTA-Health website. The maps are classified under different tabs, namely, country maps and regional maps. The website also introduces the user to the underlying systems approach and leverage point thinking. We encourage viewers to use the maps to explore how FoSTA-Health has understood food systems, and systems change, within the four countries we have been working. For researchers, we hope this will be useful in identifying where their research fits into a holistic systems understanding, and what part it already plays (or could play) in informing systems change. For practitioners, we hope it is useful in navigating the evidence base generated by FoSTA-Health, and in considering points to create change; perhaps informing the interventions and policies being designed. At the least, it might help to identify the systems drivers that are shaping the successes and challenges of existing interventions.
Handbook of power dynamics in participatory food systems research
The second key output that we steered is called the ‘Handbook of power dynamics in participatory food systems research’. This is a collection of short pieces that we refer to as briefing notes. We requested researchers conducting different case studies related to food systems transformations, to observe and document the key challenges related to power dynamics that they encountered. These observations are rooted in the methodological and conceptual repertoire of formative accompanying research on power and participation. Along with the inputs from the researchers, we explored how these challenges shaped the processes and outcomes of the FoSTA-Health project, and implications for food systems research more broadly.
The researchers offer a succinct description of challenges faced while implementing the participatory components in case studies, and coordination efforts in different case study contexts. These problems could arise due to reasons like (and not limited to) – practical constraints, different disciplinary trainings, gendered nature of engagements, mismatch in timelines. We also presented recommendations and actionable steps for future collaborative and interdisciplinary projects.
We hope that these outputs will help support future research that tries to interrogate how power dynamics shape processes of participation and interdisciplinarity, particularly in the domain of food systems transformations. We also hope researchers interested in questions of environmental justice, political ecology and systems transformations in general may find these to be of interest.
SustainableCZ 
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