‘Relationships really have become more equal’

I grew up on an arable farm in Zeeuws- Vlaanderen on the border with Belgium,’ says Hedwig Bruggeman, who has been business unit manager of Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (WCDI) – WUR’s international institution for research and knowledge exchange – since 2015. ‘I always wanted to do more with my life than just earn my keep. An uncle of mine was a missionary in Africa, and I wanted to go to Africa too.’

She went there for the first time in 1983, overland: she and her husband, who had been a fellow student she met when studying tropical livestock production fin Deventer, travelled by boat up the Nile and on to Zimbabwe by bus, train, and hitch-hiking. ‘Zimbabwe had just gained independence, a lot of white Zimbabweans had left and the ministry of Agriculture was emptying out. They welcomed us as agricultural advisors. We were politically engaged 25-year-olds, and we wanted to help build the new Zimbabwe.’

After three years in Zimbabwe, she returned to the Netherlands to study tropical livestock production in Wageningen, and went on to work for 20 years as an agricultural advisor and manager in development cooperation in African countries including Chad, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. In 2004, she came back to the Netherlands – now with three sons – to head the network organization AgriProFocus, and she was one of the founders of the Netherlands Food Partnership, a platform for international knowledge exchange on agriculture and food, with which AgriProFocus merged in 2020.

If she has learned anything since her first visit to Africa 40 years ago, it is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to providing enough healthy food for all on the planet without harming the environment and the climate. ‘We can’t just flick a switch in the food system. We have to take a fresh look at every situation to see what is needed and what is lacking. And we must research and tackle that together with all stakeholders.’

And that is how Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation works in various countries in the global South. It means, for example, ensuring that farmers in Uganda get access to good seeds so they get better harvests, or improving horticulture entrepreneurship in West Africa so that urban populations can buy healthy vegetables, as well as organizing the transfer of knowledge and expertise for lasting impact.

Has development cooperation really changed in the past few decades?

‘It used to be all about food production and preventing hunger; now a liveable planet and social justice are at the forefront. That can be about a living income for farmers, and about maintaining biodiversity and dealing with climate change. We still have a long way to go, and that goes for the Netherlands as much as anywhere else. We don’t have all the answers. We collaborate with national governments, research and educational institutions, as well as with civil society and farmers' organizations on an in­creasingly equal basis, whereas in the past, WCDI implemented projects itself. Recently, our role has become that of a knowledge partner. We do research and develop innovative approaches – to consultations between different stakeholders, for instance – together with our partner organizations, who then implement the new approach independently.’

In the past, did we too often think we knew best?

‘We certainly did. Dutch researchers and companies have often promoted the Dutch agricultural model abroad, based on the idea that our form of agriculture is the best. That was the wrong way of thinking. Different kinds of agriculture are needed, depending on the situation. The intensive agriculture practised in the Netherlands is reaching its limits. We can learn from that, in order to prevent it happening elsewhere. We should work with people in the countries to identify what is desirable and feasible, and how different food systems complement each other. WCDI advises governments in various countries on that, as do other WUR institutes that work internationally. In exactly the same way as WUR advises the Dutch government, actually.

‘The idea that the Netherlands should feed the world is mistaken, incidentally. There are a lot of good initiatives in Africa aiming at growing the local dairy sector, but those farmers can’t compete with cheap imported milk powder from the Netherlands. Or take chicken farmers in Ghana or onion growers in Senegal, who are faced with cheap imports from Europe. Years of liberal trade policies have been detrimental to the development of national, regional and local food systems. There are still big imbalances in political clout. And we didn’t manage to address that sufficiently over the past few decades.’

Do you think the relationship between the Netherlands and partners in the South has become more equal?

‘Something has definitely shifted. Horrible as the Covid-19 pandemic was, it did catalyse change. Before that, if there was a project in Rwanda, our staff used to go there. During the pandemic that wasn’t possible and our partners in Africa took on more responsibility for managing and implementing projects. And it has continued that way since the pandemic. In retrospect, you think: we could have done that much sooner. And of course, all the possibilities offered by ICT help tremendously. Every day, I consult people in Ethiopia, Uganda, or wherever from my office. But we also think about it differently now.

‘We are partly funded by the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs, our chief financier, and we have to report on how we spend that funding. The next step is to make a change there. The Swedish government is already doing that: it makes funding available to organizations in the countries where the projects are. The Netherlands wants to do the same, according to the government’s latest Africa strategy paper.’

That brings us to the question that is as old as development aid itself: what role will be left for us then?

‘We are indeed doing some soul-searching. Where does our added value lie? The important thing is that our attitude is the same whether we are working with a university in the UK or in Kenya. That is also why our role has become more that of knowledge partner, and involves less project implementation. WCDI used to run a project in Uganda aiming at improving the seed sector, with an in-country Dutch programme leader. The former project team established themselves as an independent organization and now they do the implementing and they hire us if they have a need for particular expertise.’

Have you seen changes in education too?

‘Long ago, the International Agriculture Centre, WCDI’s predecessor, provided three-month courses for professionals from all around the world. Gradually we went over to lifelong learning, with shorter courses. And since Covid-19, we give blended courses, partly online and partly taught by a trainer who runs the in-person part of the course in Africa or Asia in collaboration with a national institute. One example of that is our leadership programme, the African Food Fellowship, in which future African leaders learn and exchange knowledge about food systems.

‘When it comes to university education, the business model has got to change. Wageningen currently still recruits international students abroad. Whereas we could also invest more in collaboration with educational institutes in the South and have our best professors teach their students online.’

A right-wing cabinet is being formed that aims to cut back on development aid. Will WCDI be affected?

‘The Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of our main partners and financiers. We also get some funding from international organizations, but we shall have to diversify further. WCDI is going to merge with Wageningen Economic Research to form one resilient socio-economic research institute. That is appropriate nowadays, given that the same problems affect the Netherlands and the South, and food systems are all interlinked. The staff of the new institute will continue to do the same work, but the divide between national and international will be less pronounced and the collective knowledge will be more effectively valorised.’

Is there still a place for international development at WUR?

‘I see it as noblesse oblige. We are a world-renowned institute, so it is our moral duty to care about the rest of the world. Especially fragile states. Soon, the majority of the world’s population will be living in countries that are vulnerable due to conflict, political instability, or climate change. We must apply our knowledge and expertise there too, however hard that may be, and not take the path of least resistance.’  

Hedwig Bruggeman 

Hedwig Bruggeman studied tropical livestock production in Deventer and Wageningen (1982-1988) and worked in several African countries for governments and development organizations. After 20 years in Africa, she became director of the network organization AgriProFocus in the Netherlands, and went on to become director of Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, WUR’s research institute focusing on international development.