HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

UN Food Systems Summit opened the floor to governments, farmers, youth, women and indigenous groups, scientists and civil society to uncover innovations to transform food systems.

On April 1, 2021, the UN Food Systems Summit announced that more than 1,200 ideas and propositions to transform food systems were presented in just six months of public engagement.

Family chicken farm.: Photograph by IFAD.

Since September, the Summit has hosted regular online meetings, public fora and surveys organised around five priority objectives for more equitable and sustainable food systems.

More than 400 of the submissions during the preparatory process for the Summit, which takes place in September, came from farmer and producer groups, indigenous communities and civil society, while academics shared 200 of their ideas.

Around 250 suggestions came from the private sector and 123 were submitted by UN Member States, tackling a range of local, regional and global issues by offering voluntary solutions to help shape national commitments to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“I’m delighted to see so many ideas put forward to set us off on our journey towards delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Dr. Agnes Kalibata, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Food Systems Summit.

“Achieving the 2030 Agenda in the next 10 years is within reach if we act swiftly and with strong ambition. It also is a huge opportunity to come through on more inclusive food systems that deliver for everyone.”

In the past month, the Summit leadership assessed the 1,200 ideas against three criteria: impact at scale, actionability and sustainability.

The submissions were then consolidated into 107 emerging propositions across the five Action Tracks. These include a wide range of ideas such as making social protection programs more nutrition-sensitive to address hunger and malnutrition at the same time; scaling out agro-ecological production systems, and mechanisms like securing land tenure and property rights to strengthen the agency of many of the world’s most marginalized people.

Ahead of the next phase of engagement, the Summit leadership has called for additional ideas before it begins to prioritize the final path towards the Summit.

“The Action Track leaders and members have spent an enormous amount of time and assessed what we have heard so far, and the process is at its beginnings,” Dr. Kalibata added.

“We need the broadest possible range of perspectives from Member States, citizens, private sector, civil society, producers, indigenous peoples, and youth, especially as dialogues take root globally now with more than 80 countries committed to the process, and nearly 200 independent dialogues happening.

“We want to make sure that everybody who has a stake in any part of the food system gets an opportunity to make their voices are heard. We want to make sure they get a chance to get involved.”

The Summit leadership will consult with all stakeholders throughout April. They will invite feedback on submitted ideas, but they will also be taking new ideas on-board that may help close gaps and/or raise ambition towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.

All stakeholders are encouraged to engage in several ways, including:

The Summit Community platform – please join the discussion with Action Track teams and stakeholders all around the world by commenting in the community platform and sharing your ideas and proposed solutions directly.

• Action Track 1
• Action Track 2
• Action Track 3
• Action Track 4
• Action Track 5

Public surveys – please share your ideas for game-changing solutions via the following links:

• Action Track 1
• Action Track 2
• Action Track 3
• Action Track 4
• Action Track 5

Open forums – public forums to present ideas and get input will continue through the process and will be announced soon on all Summit social media channels and the website.

The Summit Secretariat will close the next round of surveys and feedback on May 1. After that all submissions will be evaluated and consolidated ahead of the Pre-Summit in July.

It is anticipated that other ideas will continue to come in after the May timeframe. These will continue to be used to strengthen the outcomes from the consolidation process.

The Action Track process with input from of an independent group of scientists will culminate in all these ideas being aligned, consolidated, weighted against each other and a set of criteria to come up with a clear set of high-level measurable outcomes for the summit and a menu of solutions that stakeholders from different walks of life can chose and pick based on their needs.

About the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit

The UN Food Systems Summit was announced by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, on World Food Day last October as a part of the Decade of Action for delivery on the SDGs by 2030. The aim of the Summit is to deliver progress on all 17 of the SDGs through a food systems approach, leveraging the interconnectedness of food systems to global challenges such as hunger, climate change, poverty and inequality. More information about the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit and list of Advisory Committee and Scientific Group members can be found online: https://www.un.org/foodsystemssummit

Link to IFAD:

International Fund for Agricultural Development