Overview

Prepared by (Name of the experimenter)

Betty Chemier

On date (Day/Month/Year)

14/02/2024

What portfolio does this activity correspond to? If any

Circular Economy / Iniciativa Mercado Basura Cero (Zero Waste Market Initiative)

What is the frontier challenge does this activity responds to?

Circular Economy - Solid Waste Management

What is the learning question(from your action learning plan) is this activity related to?

Promoting recipes and products based of food surpluses drives the waste reduction in public food markets?

Please list the names of partners mentioned in the previous question:

Municipio de Panama (MUPA) - Markets direction Mercado San Felipe Neri Fundacion Rescate de Alimentos

Design

What is the specific learning intent of the activity?

Promoting recipes and products based of food surpluses drives the waste reduction in public food markets?

What is your hypothesis? IF... THEN....

If recipes and products based on of food surpluses from of the market and promoted, then the market reduces the volume of food surpluses that end up in the landfill and then new public-private alliances will be promoted.

Describe which actions will you take to test your hypothesis:

• Creation of a rescue foods alliance which includes the creation of recipes or signature products made based on food surpluses coming from the market in collaboration with chefs and professionals from the gastronomic sector. • Logistical tests will be carried out to the transfer of surplus foods from the market to a community kitchen to be processed, establishing a proof of concept for the use of surpluses. • As a next step, the communication of recipes and selling of products through posters in the market and social networks.

What is the unit of analysis of this experimental activity?

Volume and composition of waste, number of recipes and flagship products produced, number of alliances with professionals from gastronomic sector,  number of professionals from the market trained.

Please describe the data collection technique proposed

Characterization of waste and quantitative evaluation from surveys

What is the timeline of the experimental activity? (Months/Days)

6 months

Please upload any supporting images or visuals for this experiment.

Please upload any supporting links

What are the estimated non- monetary resources required for this experiment? (time allocation from team, external resources, etc) If any.

Results

Was the original hypothesis (If.. then) proven or disproven?

TBD

Do you have observations about the methodology chosen for the experiment? What would you change?

The initial proposal was to carry out characterizations of waste to measure how much the rescue of aliments reduces market food surplus. However, the costs of the characterizations exceeded the amounts available to develop this pilot. We have proposed to measure the economic benefit that could represent for tenants the sale of rescued products, through surveys and calculations made considering the distribution of these products in the sales stands of tenants.

From design to results, how long did this activity take? (Time in months)

6 months, not yet finished.

What were the actual monetary resources invested in this activity? (Amount in USD)

$9,975.00

Does this activity have a follow up or a next stage? Please explain

Continuing with the alliance with the Food Rescue Foundation and possibly expand the model once proven to other public markets in the city.

Is this experiment planned to scale? How? With whom?

Possibility of scaling to other public markets in the Municipality of Panama.

Please add any supporting links that describe the planning, implementation, results of learning of this activity? For example a tweet, a blog, or a report. 

Learning

What do you know now about the action plan learning question that you did not know before? What were your main learnings during this experiment?

Relationship with tenants 1. Relationship with people tenants requires understanding the market reality. Through active listening exercises, it was evident that applicant for sale on the market, the limited time they have the people who dedicate themselves to it and the long journey they have to travel to get from their homes to their workplace, given that a large part resides on the outskirts of Panama City, which adds to the task's domestic duties, which fall mostly on women. Nevertheless, more than half of the participating tenants were women. 2. Through observation, listen and participation of tenants in the three courses, it was identified that the main limitation for a greater participation was time, and noted that it was necessary to find different moments that will work for different areas of the market, for example, for meat, the movement starts very early and drops shortly before noon, while, for the fondas, noon is the time of greatest demand. In both cases, tiredness after a few days that begin before dawn, diminish the participation in activities. Relationships with tenants require perseverance and presence in the market to generate and maintain confidence in the development of food rescue activities. 3. The economic activity of the tenants constitutes their maximum priority. The reduction of the food surplus is usually associated with the increase in sales (efficiency). However, the market tenants, when delivering their discards, they highlighted also the value of solidarity in redistribution of these foods that are still fit for human consumption and end up in the trash. Production of rescued food recipes 4. The creation of flagship products based on the main discards on the market can mean a challenge due to the bureaucracy involved in obtaining sanitary registration. Initially, it was considered produce several products, but each one of them requires going through this process. Therefore, it has been chosen for creating 3 flagship products: tomato paste, paprika coulis and tropical fruit jam, made from the main discards from the San Felipe Neri Market with greater utilization potential. 5. The logistics of collection were thought out, initially, considering that the rescued products would have to be transported to a center that the Food Rescue Foundation had in mind in the Santa Ana neighborhood. However, an alliance was achieved with the Mercado San Felipe Neri, who gave the foundation a space in the catering hall, so that the operation could be carried out in the very place where the waste and facilitate the work of relationships and collaboration with people tenants for the rescue of food beyond the reach of this pilot. 6. The definition of internal logistics separation and collection of food waste to take to the food warehouse has been a significant challenge in this process and required coordination from the beginning with the tenants of the market and administration. The definition of internal separation logistics is key, not only for an effective rescue of the waste, but for the incorporation of other types of waste not solids such as kitchen oils. 

What were the main obstacles and challenges you encountered during this activity?

Bureaucratic and administrative delays. Coordination of actors involved (NGO, municipality, etc). Defining the logistic of food waste collection and storage.

Who at UNDP might benefit from the results of this experimental activity? Why?

Teams involved in circular economy, food systems and public markets as conveyers of information and solutions.  

Who outside UNDP might benefit from the results of this experiment? and why?

Municipalities interested in tested and scaling solutions around food systems and organic waste management. 

Did this experiment require iterations? If so, how many and what did you change/adjust along the way? and why?

We had to change the measurement metric due to economic resources limitations. We are considering a follow up iteration where the portion of the food that could not be rescued is composted. 

What advice would you give someone wanting to replicate this experimental activity?

Finding the right partners and their champions. Both for the Municipality/Market you are to work with as well as the NGO or partner that will do the processing of the surplus food. Understand the incentive that can motivate tenants of the market to participate and create a strong communication to support it.

Can this experiment be replicated in another thematic area or other SDGs? If yes, what would need to be considered, if no, why not?

Yes, the same process could be used in other institutions such as public schools or detention centers.

How much the "sense" and "explore" phases of the learning cycle influenced/shaped this experiment? In hindsight, what would you have done differently with your fellow Solution Mapper and Explorer?

This experiment is one of 4 experiments part of the Basura Cero Initiative in the same public market, which are the result of a year-long process of sensing and exploring in the Waste Management systems.

What surprised you?

The interest of tenants and participants in the capacitation and the overall project. Despite time and ressources limitations people from the market are very interested in supporting the project.