He has a Turkish father and a Dutch mother, and works as a Senior Coalition Builder at the Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP). The NFP helps people and organizations collaborate to create more inclusive food systems, generate new ideas, and find solutions to major challenges.
In the second episode of Debunking Notions, reshaping mindsets, Cissy Nalumansi speaks with Ibrahim Palaz.
When he did an internship in Tanzania in 2007, Palaz thought his Turkish background would give him an advantage — that he would be seen as one of the boys. But things turned out differently. “When I told the first taxi driver I met that my father was Turkish, he looked at me puzzled and said: ‘You’re white, man — really white.’”
Palaz believes that both Western and African knowledge are essential to build inclusive food systems, but he also sees a clear shift taking place. “We need all parties to co-create solutions together. For a long time, we mainly exported knowledge developed in the Netherlands — knowledge that helped us become a world leader in agriculture. But now we see a growing movement towards more sustainable farming. Interestingly, the discussion around this is often much more advanced in Africa than in the Netherlands. That’s partly because the effects of the climate crisis are felt more strongly there, which in turn drives innovation. In the field of agroecology, for example, we can learn a great deal from African countries.”
On October 16, NFP will once again host its annual World Food Day Event. Click here for more information:
