IFPRI at UNFSS 2021 Blog Landing Page

The upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is an important moment to garner political and financial attention to address the most pressing issues facing food systems, including food security, diet quality, and environmental sustainability.

On July 28, local governments were given center stage at the United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit dialogues to discuss how to tackle food insecurity and nutrition.

Somewhere in rural South Asia, a very enterprising woman toils for about 18 hours a day to feed and care for her family. However, despite working to the point of endangering her own health, she only gets a fraction of her labor. The bulk of her returns go to the landowner.

Effective food systems innovations—defined as policies, technologies, and/or institutional innovations that trigger changes in food systems dynamics and outcomes—can help produce healthier, more sustainable outcomes, and are essential to confront our current global challenges, which are formidable.

As much as one third of all food produced is lost or wasted.

Accelerating the development of sustainable groundwater use in Africa could be pivotal in the transformation of the continent’s food security and prosperity.

According to the OECD’s recently released 2021 Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation Report, the governments of 54 countries (including all OECD members and the European Union as a whole, plus key emerging economies) provided transfers to agriculture of around $720 billion per year durin

The commons (natural resources held and used collectively) support food systems through direct production and provision of water, food, fuel, fodder, pollination, and other key ecosystem services, and are also important sources of resilience for communities. They thus contribute to nature-positive solutions and advance equitable livelihoods.

Over the past eight months we—in our capacity as Action Track Chairs for the UN Food Systems Summit—have received well over 2,000 written submissions from around the world on how to transform food systems so that they can deliver access to safe and nutritious foods for all, in ways that deliver sustainable consumption, use approaches that are positive and regenerative for nature, generate livel

The need to innovate in agriculture is more urgent than ever. The rising global population will require 60% more food by 2050. Increasing urbanization in Africa and Asia and the impacts of climate change demand we produce this food with fewer inputs. While much of the world struggles with the threat of food insecurity, the cost of nutritious foods in the developing world are not affordable.

Food systems at the global level and in many countries and regions are still failing to end hunger and malnutrition. With COVID-19 disproportionately impacting poor and food-insecure populations, levels of undernourishment continue to rise. Many food systems are based on production and distribution systems that are not sustainable.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed both the vulnerability and the resilience of food supply chains. Supply chains from farm to retail have been disrupted, primarily by government-imposed lockdowns and other restrictions affecting labor supply, input provisioning, logistics, wholesale, retailing, and food service.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major shock to food supply chains, as lockdowns and restrictions affecting labor supply, input provisioning, logistics, and distribution channels severely compromised poor consumers’ access to food. Yet it could have been worse; food systems have also shown resilience and innovative capacity to adjust.

Water is vital for all life and integral to the functioning and productivity of Earth’s ecosystems. Water is also central to food systems—as a basic component of food and drink, and in production, processing, and preparation of food. Another use of water, WASH (water supply, sanitation, and hygiene), is essential for human health and nutrition.

Food systems must function well in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The operation of food systems affects incomes and employment; poverty and food security; diets, health, and nutrition; energy sources and uses; climate change, environmental sustainability, biodiversity, and ecosystems; and even aspects of peace and governance.

The number of people who go to bed hungry was rising steadily prior to the COVID-19 pandemic due to stresses related to climate, inequality and conflict, and now stands at 690 million. The pandemic has supercharged these trends.

A large volume of research has been produced in the last few decades on the roles that women play in food systems, the constraints they face, and how they can play a key role in agricultural transformation.

While urbanization is shrinking rural populations in many parts of the world, rural areas, particularly in Africa south of the Sahara, will continue to be home to substantial numbers of people—and the livelihoods of many of them depend on small farms.

One of the central aims of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is focusing global attention on how transforming our food systems can contribute to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals—particularly Goal 2 and its key component of eliminating hunge

Women play critical roles in food systems—as producers, processors, traders, consumers, scientists, and policy makers. Women represent on average 43% of the agricultural labor force globally and are essential agents of change in ensuring the shift to more efficient and climate-resilient food systems.

The upcoming UN Food Systems Summit in September will launch bold new actions to deliver progress on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).