In late 2023 and early 2025, UNDP convened two informal dialogues with policymakers working across food systems at national and global levels to explore the inner capacities that underpin effective, inclusive, and transformative policymaking. These sessions, held under Chatham House Rules and in multiple languages, created a space for open, honest reflection on the human dimensions of governance: “the invisible yet essential ingredients of transformative food policies and governance.”
Across both dialogues, it was affirmed that collaboration is at the heart of meaningful policy reform - yet collaboration is not a technical outcome. It is built with trust, humility, authenticity, and deep listening, among other qualities. These human qualities, often unspoken or under-acknowledged, are fundamental to navigating the complex and often polarised policy environment, that is shaped by competing worldviews, institutional silos, and shifting political and economic pressures.
The report highlights three core areas of inner capacity:
- building trusting relationships and networks,
- understanding complexity and systems thinking,
- and acting with conviction, authenticity and persistence.
From working across ministries with unequal power to engaging communities with different worldviews, participants shared how values such as self-awareness, reciprocity, and vulnerability are not just personal traits - they are strategic enablers for inclusive governance.
Ultimately, the dialogues revealed that policy is not only a process of decision-making, but a process of relationship-building. Making the “invisible” visible, and naming these inner capacities, opens a new frontier for how we support and strengthen transformative policymaking.
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