October 8, 2025
By Dr Yanti N Muflikh (IPB University - Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Agribusiness)

​The MyINDAH Diet Project, funded by KONEKSI and led by the University of Queensland (UQ), recently completed its first round of Group Model Building (GMB 1) workshops across peri-urban Java. Sessions were held on 27 July 2025 in Yogyakarta Raya, 22 August 2025 in Bogor – Jakarta Raya, 15 September 2025 in Bandung Raya, and 5 October 2025 in Gresik–Surabaya Raya. The GMB activities were facilitated by IPB University with support from UGM, UMY, UM, and BRIN, focusing on process learning while results and policy options continue to be developed.

Each workshop followed a structured facilitation flow centered on “Strengthening Sustainable Livelihoods in Food Systems.” Discussions introduced the five livelihood capitals—human, social, natural, physical, and financial—and invited participants to connect these with everyday realities in production, markets, nutrition, and exposure to shocks. Facilitators used plain language, sticky notes, and flipcharts to collect ideas, then synthesized them into causal loop diagrams (CLDs) that visualize cause–effect links and feedbacks within the system.

To ensure inclusive dialogue, participants worked in separate men’s and women’s groups before reconvening to synthesize insights. This design enabled open sharing of different roles and responsibilities—production strategies, labor, and input access often surfaced in men’s discussions, while household well-being, budgeting, and nutrition literacy were emphasized by women—without privileging one perspective over another. As GMB 1 sessions concluded, and before the reflection segment, a representative from each group presented their simple CLD to the full room. This step helped make the reasoning transparent and built shared ownership of the emerging system maps, demonstrating how quickly participants translated lived experience into clear feedback structures. Farmers showed themselves to be fast learners, grasping polarity and feedback concepts and communicating them confidently in their brief presentations.
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Reflections gathered at the end of each workshop emphasized the quality of the process. Participants described the sessions as open, engaging, and transparent, noted that GMB improved whole-system understanding, and valued the chance to share knowledge across roles. Many highlighted that CLDs simplified complex issues by making feedback loops and causal polarities visible, and expressed willingness to join future GMBs or apply similar methods to community challenges. These reflections align with the project’s emphasis in GMB 1 on co-learning and conceptual clarity rather than final outcomes.
Looking ahead, the CLDs and insights from GMB 1 will inform ongoing analysis and modeling in subsequent phases, guiding co-designed interventions to strengthen sustainable livelihoods and promote healthy diets in peri-urban food systems. By combining a clear facilitation framework with gender-responsive participation and reflective feedback, the team is building a shared foundation for systems thinking that bridges community knowledge, research, and policy as the project advances.