Five ways to improve global food systems

United Nations (UN) leaders have stated five main focuses for next year’s Food Systems Summit.

The conference, which was announced on World Food Day last October as a part of the Decade of Action for delivery on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, will include the following “action tracks”:

1. Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all
2. Shifting to sustainable consumption patterns
3. Boosting nature-positive production at scale
4. Advancing equitable livelihoods
5. Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress.

The hope is that these goals with help to transform worldwide food systems for the better.

“The need is urgent, and our ambition is high,” said UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed. “For this reason, this must not be ‘just another conference’. We must act together.

“The Food Systems Summit should be thought of as both a ‘people’s summit’ and a ‘solutions summit’, recognising that food systems touch all of society and all stakeholders. Every Government, organisation and individual needs to do more.”

The action tracks will be led by both internal and external experts who will gather evidence and devise solutions to help make food systems more resilient and inclusive.  

Each track has been designed to address synergies and possible trade-offs with other tracks, and to identify bold new actions, innovative solutions and strategies that can deliver benefits across all of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In her opening remarks, UN Special Envoy Kalibata said they will be exploring how key levers of change such as governance, finance, data, culture, and innovation can cut across all areas, including a strong focus on the empowerment of women and young people.

Young people must be at the heart of the engagement, she stressed, as they will be the ones “sitting with the decisions we make today”.

The Summit will be guided by an Advisory Committee representing every region and an independent Scientific Group, which met virtually for the first time in July.

Member States will have until the end of September to express their interest in engaging around the five action tracks before work gets fully under way.