The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Solutions Forum

30-31 August 2021. The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Solutions Forum  enhance information exchange to facilitate development. It gathered Heads of Governments, UN agencies, and representatives from a wide spectrum of farmers organizations, NGOs, civil society and innovators to incubate, promote and scale-up home-grown and imported solutions to accelerate the achievement of the agriculture, food and nutrition related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in SIDS. The SIDS Solutions Forum is co-hosted by the Government of Fiji and organized by FAO in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

To support the ongoing flow of innovative solutions, a SIDS Solutions Platform was launched in the Pacific in 2021, and will gradually expand to all other SIDS in the Africa, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and South China Sea (AIMS); and the Caribbean regions.

Speakers and Panelists

Extracts of the Programme

SESSION 3. INNOVATIONS AND DIGITALIZATION AT WORK IN THE AGRICULTURE, FOOD, NUTRITION, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH SECTORS IN THE SIDS - SIDS Innovators 

• TraSeable Farms - Mr. Kenneth Katafono, Fiji
• MyKana App - Ms. Ateca Kama and Ms. Irene Yee Chief, USP, Fiji
• Maua App - Mr. Faasootauloa Sam Saili, Samoa
• AgriTech - Mrs. Temarama Anguna, Cook Islands
• PACfarmer - Mr. Vipin Narendran, Fiji
• JEDOM Organic Fruits Ltd - Mr. Doni Keli, Solomon Islands
• Plant Health - Mr. Mani Mua, Fiji
• Vaoala Vanilla - Ms. Shelley Burich, Samoa
• Tupaia MediTrak - Mr. Michael Nunan, Vanuatu
• CookSafe+ - Ms. Eve Hayden, Chief Executive Officer, Cook Islands
• PRESS (Plastic Recycling) - Mr. Andrew Pedrana, Samoa

SESSION 4 : KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AND SOUTH-SOUTH TRIANGULAR CO-OPERATION

• Facilitated by Ms. Ismahane Elouafi, Chief Scientist, FAO
• Mr. Joseph Cox, Assistant Secretary-General, Trade and Economic Integration, Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
• Dr. Stuart Minchin, Director General, Pacific Community (SPC)
• Mr. Anping Ye, Director, South-South Cooperation, FAO
• Mr. Kosi Latu, Director General, Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP)
• Dr. Manumatavai Tupou - Roosen, Director General, Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA)
• Mr. Kyle Stice, Managing Director, Pacific Islands Farmers Organization Network (PIFON)
• Ms. Marsha Boldeau, Programme Manager, Grenada Community Development Agency

SESSION 5: Scaling up SIDS Solutions through partnerships and investments

• Facilitated by Ms. Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director General, FAO
• H. E. Mr. Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Civil Service and Communications, Fiji
• H. E. Mr. Floyd Green, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Jamaica
• Ms. Dina Umali-Deininger, Agriculture and Food Practice Manager for the East Asia and Pacific Region of the World Bank
• Mr. Donal Brown Associate Vice President, International Fund for Agriculture Development
• Mr. Leonard Mizzi, Head, Sustainable Agri-Food Systems and Fisheries Unit, European Union
• Dr. Qingfeng Zhang, Chief of Rural Development, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
• Ms. Simona Marinescu, Resident Co-ordinator of the UN multi-country office, Samoa

REPORT: Halve Humanity’s Footprint on Nature to Safeguard our Future

WWF (2021) Halve Humanity’s Footprint on Nature to Safeguard our Future 25 p.

19 August 2021. As United Nations biodiversity negotiations begin next week, a new report commissioned by WWF reveals that 39 million jobs could be created if governments reallocated just one year’s worth of subsidies that harm biodiversity to a nature-positive stimulus instead.

The Halve Humanity’s Footprint on Nature to Safeguard our Future report includes modelling which shows such jobs could be created if the $500 billion governments spend on harmful subsidies every year was diverted into employment which is nature-positive, meaning that it improves the state of nature.

“It is the imperative of our times to avert ecosystem collapse and the climate crisis but governments currently spend at least US$500 billion a year on subsidies for activities such as unsustainable agriculture or overfishing which damage nature, with disastrous consequences for society, the economy and our wellbeing. Not only would

reallocating this spending towards sustainable practices help to reduce the impact on biodiversity, it would also help us transition towards a nature-positive economy, and reform our current unsustainable production and consumption model. By re-directing these resources – and the world has shown through its response to the COVID-19 crisis that significant financial shifts are possible – we could set off a virtuous circle towards creating US$10 trillion in annual business value and 400 million jobs for the new nature-positive economy.” Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International. 

In 2020, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Nature and Business Report projected that ‘nature-positive’ solutions could create 395 million jobs by 2030 and $10.1 trillion in business opportunity. Several countries have already embarked upon just transitions towards a nature-positive economy which offer valuable lessons and inspiration.

WWF’s new report, produced by Dalberg Advisors, predicts that distributing this stimulus between countries equitably – that is, according to population, not economic strength – would create almost twice as many jobs as vice versa (39 million vs. 20 million). An equitable stimulus would thus also protect more biodiversity and help create green growth trajectories for less developed producer countries.

UNFSS 2021: CFS / Multilateral Policy Convergence for Food Systems Transformation

26 July 2021. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) - UN’s foremost inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all, supports the achievement of global food security and nutrition targets by driving global policy convergence work in an inclusive, evidence-based model of consensus-building. 

The session showcased how CFS is working to drive progress on SDG 2, including through our recently-endorsed Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition and Policy Recommendations on Agroecological and Other Innovative Approaches. It promoted CFS’s multi-stakeholder model and its products especially the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition (VGFSN) and their use in global, regional, and national food systems transformation processes. It featured the unique science-policy interface and expert reports of the CFS High-Level Panel of Experts (CFS HLPE); and it explored the role of CFS in the Food Systems Summit and follow-up, and promote use of the CFS VGFSN and other policy products.

• Moderator: Chris Hegadorn, CFS Secretary.
• Thanawat Tiensin, CFS Chairperson and Permanent Representative of Thailand to FAO, IFAD and WFP - Statement;
• Martin Cole, CFS HLPE Steering Committee Chairperson - Statement;
• H.E. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka - Video;
• Hans Hoogeveen, Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to FAO, IFAD and WFP;
  He reminded the importance to use The CFS Voluntary Guidelines On Food Systems and Nutrition at national level
• H.E. Gabriel Mbairobe, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cameroon - Statement / Video;
• Naoko Yamamoto, Chairperson, UN Nutrition, to underline the role of the UN in the promotion and implementation of the VGFSN - Statement;
• Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on Right to Food, to highlight how the VGFSN can help to address human rights issues - Statement;
• Rick White, Representative of CFS Private Sector Mechanism (PSM), to focus on what trasformative actions are needed from the private sector to promote sustainable food systems that deliver healthy diets - Statement;
• Cornelia Berns, Deputy Director General, Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture, Germany;
• Gabriel Ferrero, Ambassador at Largel Global Food Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Spain.

WEBINAR: Creating products, services and enterprises that meet the needs and aspirations of rural households

24 August 2021. The CASA 4x4 is a collaboration with the Shell Foundation. It is sharing findings and insights from the Understanding Rural Pathway Transitions report. The report advocates mapping rural households’ economic and social circumstances to align support to meet the needs and aspirations of rural households.

The report was a collaboration between Shell Foundation and MasterCard Foundation’s Rural & Agricultural Finance Learning Lab, with support from Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). There are three 4x4 drivers this month. They share 4 insights on how a nuanced understanding of rural household needs can impact business performance.

• Dan Haglund, senior private sector adviser in FCDO Agriculture Research, shares an overview of the report. He explained why the Understanding Rural Pathway Transitions is important and what investors, and others can learn.
• Nidhi Pant transitions from a chemical engineer to a farmer and entrepreneur. She is co-founder from Science for Society (S4S) Technologies. She talked about how the rural pathways approach to segmentation helped define their business model. She also advocated how other enterprises and funders may maximize the benefits of the rural pathways model.
• Thomas Njeru is co-founder and co-CEO of Pula. As one of the youngest actuaries in Kenya, he is redefining the insurance offer for smallholder farmers in developing countries. He talked about the importance of partnerships and the difference between clients, beneficiaries, and customers.

Resource:

CASA (2021) Understanding Rural Pathway Transitions Insights from Kenya. 52 p. 

With interviews of 1,225 rural households in Kenya this report presents a dynamic understanding their different and evolving aspirations, livelihoods, and needs over an extended period. The research looks in detail at four pathways that play a vital role in rural economies: the vulnerable subsistence farmer, the traditional commercialising farmer, the small to medium (SME) agribusiness owner, and the micro-entrepreneur.

Different stakeholders in the development sector can apply the research to:

• Design better customer research to understand what customers might need today and tomorrow to design more tailored and sequenced products and services that can help rural households progress.
• Develop stronger and more thorough impact and investment theses with long-term horizons to get a more accurate assessment of the impact-return trade-off, and how this might change over time.
• Develop more effective collaboration between actors working in the rural livelihoods sector by using a common language about target beneficiaries, Pathway transitions, and how different actors fit into that journey. This will allow stakeholders to better collaborate based on aligned expectations.

Background:

Understanding how rural households and their needs might evolve over time is fundamental to providing better products and services to these clients—and to designing more inclusive rural economic development strategies. 

The introduction of the Rural Pathways Model in Pathways to Prosperity was an important step forward in thinking more dynamically about rural households.

• This model laid out seven different Pathways that rural households might take as they pursue different livelihood strategies and seek to increase their incomes, resilience, and agency. 
• Since the report was published in 2019, the Rural Pathways Model has been widely adopted by a diverse set of actors in the sector. 
• Donors and investors such as the European Union, Ceniarth and FCDO Nigeria have adopted the frameworks presented in Pathways to Prosperity to help rethink and structure future rural investment strategies and programming. 

Recording:

WEBINAR: Building Businesses with Nutrient Enriched Crops

24 August 2021. Building Businesses with Nutrient Enriched Crops; the case for SMEs in Biofortification

Nutrient Enriched Crops (NECs) are a proven agriculture-based strategy tailored to meet the nutritional needs of smallholder farming families and others dependent on staple foods, and this should be part of the food system transformation solutions. These are varieties of rice, wheat, maize, beans, and other common staples that have been conventionally bred to contain nutritionally significant levels of iron, zinc or vitamin A - all micronutrients that are essential for maintaining good health and ensuring proper mental and physical development in children. These crops are proven to improve nutrition and health outcomes when eaten regularly.

Small and Medium Enterprises - including seed producers, farmers, aggregators and processors - are critical actors in ensuring access to food and nutrition security particularly for the poorest consumers. They integrate markets thereby reducing poverty and hunger; create opportunities that improve equity; innovate and scale solutions for nutrition and sustainability.

This webinar of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and HarvestPlus focused on the opportunities for the adoption of biofortified crops by SMEs and experience sharing of some of the businesses associated with biofortification.

• Peter Goldstein, Head of Strategic Communications, HarvestPlus - moderator
• Arun Baral (CEO, HarvestPlus)
• Dr. Lawrence Haddad (Executive Director, GAIN)
• Ishank Gorla (Programme Lead, CBC - GAIN)
• Ravinder Grover (Programme Lead, CBC - HarvestPlus)
• Dr. Javed Ahmad (Chief Scientist, Wheat Research Institute, Faisalabad - Pakistan)
• Rose Mutuku (MD Smart Logistics Solutions - Kenya)
• Fortunatha Mmari (Managing Director and Founder, AFCO Investment - Tanzania)
• Mr. Shashank Kumar (Founder and CEO, DeHaat ‘- India)
• Rogers Mugambi (Commercial Lead, AgriScope Kenya)
• Aribisala Pelumi (CEO, Cato Foods - Nigeria)
• Md. Zakiul Haque (Senior Manager, Business Research Division, Supreme Seed Company Ltd., Bangladesh)

World Water Week 2021: Sessions on Agriculture and Food Security

23-27 August 2021- Online World Water Week 2021

World Water Week 2021 took place under the theme Building Resilience Faster. It will be held entirely online, in a new, digital format designed to ensure that people across the world can collaborate to find solutions to the world's greatest water-related challenges.

Watch the recording of all sessions: (271 sessions) World Water Week - YouTube

Opening ceremony

• Alok Jha, Science and technology correspondent,The Economist 
• Torgny Holmgren, Executive Director, SIWI Ministerial Conversation 
• Per Olsson Fridh, Minister for International Development Cooperation of Sweden 
• Jennifer Jun, Senior Manager of International Policy, SIWI Why do we need water to build resilience faster? 
• Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Introduction to World Water Week 
• Henrika Thomasson, Director of World Water Week and Communications, SIWI Setting the scene: Why is the climate crisis a water crisis? 
• Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research 
• Artistic Performance Arcadia Hugosson-Miller, artist Clara Hedås Schmidt, artist 

How do we achieve change? 

• Kumi Naidoo, Sanitation and Water for All, Global Leader; former Executive Director of Greenpeace International and Secretary-General of Amnesty International 
• Nicki Becker, Co-founder, Fridays for Future Argentina; Sanitation and Water for All, Youth Champion How do we achieve change? 
• Mark Feierstein, Principal Advisor to Administrator, USAID 
• Alok Jha, Science and technology correspondent, The Economist 
• Sandra Postel, 2021 Stockholm Water Prize laureate; Director of the Global Water Policy Project 
• Concluding Remarks Torgny Holmgren, Executive Director, SIWI

23/08 Efficiency Is Not Enough: Food Security Versus Water Resilience SDGs

23/08 SIWI Seminar: Water for inclusive health and food security (1/3)

24/08 SIWI Seminar: Water for inclusive health and food security (2/3)

By FAO, CRS

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25/08 SIWI Seminar: Water for inclusive health and food security (3/3)

23/08 Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area: Creating Value Chains for All

The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), the largest transfrontier conservation area in the world, spanning immense nature reserves and resources in southern Africa, is supporting the sustenance of critical value chains related to natural resources as well as governance structures across two major river basins and five states

23/08 The role of water in transforming Africa’s agricultural value chains. 

By CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
Using the World Bank-funded AICCRA (Accelerating the impact of the CGIAR’s climate research in Africa) project, this interactive session provided an opportunity for participants to unpack the role of water in food systems transformation in Africa. Guest speaker presentations, and a two-part panel discussion from research for development (R4D), private sector and development partners working in different African countries in various value chains provided an overview of how water is accessed, used, and managed in several food systems. Through breakout discussions, participants were able to discuss and unpack the value of a water systems approach in understanding agricultural value chains, and the value of a value chain approach and what a water lens provides.

23/08 Irrigation and socio-environmental resilience: Finding confluence between strategy and disaster 

By Feed the Future/USAID, IFPRI
The session presented new knowledge and tools that contribute to innovative small-scale irrigation approaches that can be developed without increasing risk to water and other natural resources.

24/08 24/08 Accelerating Food and Water Security: Role of the UNFSS

The WASAG Water-Nutrition Partnership advances progress toward international food and water goals through sharing research findings, practical tools, and policy dialogue. This session showcasesed new insights into the multiple and synergistic roles of water in food systems and for nutrition that were deliberated during the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit.

• Stineke Oenema, UN Nutrition
• Namukolo Covic, IFPRI, advisor to Ethiopia national UNFSS Strategy
• Sera Young and Joshua Miller, Northwestern University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Giriraj Amarnath, IWMI and CGIAR WLE
• Jennie Barron, Stockholm University of Agricultural Sciences
• Jan Lundqvist, Stockholm International Water Institute
• Moffat Ngugi, USAID and POC, Innovation Laboratory for Small-Scale Irrigation

24/08 Fish friendly irrigation: Enhancing production, livelihoods and health

24/08 Scaling up climate-resilient farming through solar technology 

By Practical Action

24/08 How Can Companies Help Regenerate the Water Cycle in Agriculture? 

By Nestle and SIWI

25/08 Building resilient water-energy efficient agriculture through regional innovation hubs. 

By European Union, USAID, GIZ

Water and Energy for Food works to sustainably scale water- and energy-efficient innovations operating in the water-energy-food nexus while increasing food production, reducing poverty and increasing incomes, improving gender equality, integrating the youth, and promoting climate and environmental resilience and­ biodiversity ­through ­the sustainable,­ holistic management of natural resources and ­ecosystems.

WE4F implements program activities through Regional Innovation Hubs (RIHs). RIHs scale localized solutions by providing grants, technical assistance, developing local and regional partnerships, improving enabling environments, using technical experts to disseminate local knowledge and lessons learned, and facilitating investment opportunities.

The panel featured experts from the WE4F Regional Innovation Hubs around the world - East Africa, West Africa, Southern and Central Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.

26/08 Back to the future: integrating rice-fish systems for building resilience 

By IRRI, World Fish. Integrated rice-fish approaches at farm and land-scape level, supported by a new set of decision support tools can help policy makers and investors in tailoring, targeting, and ultimately, in wide-scale investment in integrated systems, contributing to improved resilience to climate change and a sustainable and healthy food system.

26/08 From forecast to prevention: Acting on resource-related conflict risks 

By European Commission, GIZ, WRI

High-level panelists from the Sahel Region as well as the international 4D-community discussed what role early warning systems can play at which stages of the decision-making process and how they can facilitate truly preventive action. This will include discussions on how to design such systems in a way that ensures policy-uptake. The audience will be asked to actively contribute with their experience and engage in the discussion, ensuring a broad regional coverage and gathering the insights from various affected locations around the world. A specific emphasis was put on designing effective policy responses to water, food and energy insecurity related conflict risks, investigating what forecasting capacities and decision support policy makers need at different times in order to act.

• Susanne Schmeier, IHE Delft - moderator
• Opening Words - Hilde Hardeman, European Commission's Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI)
• Key Note - Kitty van der Heijden, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands
• Presenting the Global Early Warning Tool - Charles Iceland, WRI
• Sharon Burke, New America
• Abdou Moumouni Moussa, Niger Basin Authority
• Modibo Sacko, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Mali
• Nouradine Zakaria Toure, CRUBN
• Summary and wrap-up - Alexandre Mesnil, GIZ

26/08 Water tenure and governance: Keys to water and food security 

By FAO

26/08. Integrating Against Drought – the Southern Africa Drought Resilience Initiativ

27/08. Climate impacts antimicrobial resistance: A WASH and one health challenge. 

By SIANI

27/08. World Water Week Closing Plenary

• Cate Lamb, UNFCCC COP26 High-Level Climate Action Champions Lead - Water
• Ertharin Cousin, Fellow, Stanford University; former Executive Director of the World Food Programme and United States Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome
• Tom de Bruijn, Minister for International Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands
• Svenja Schulze, German Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety
• Usha Rao-Monari, Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the UNDP

WEBINAR: Joint rapid appraisal on strengthening agricultural innovation systems in Africa, Asia and Latin America

12 August 2021. Joint rapid appraisal on strengthening agricultural innovation systems in Africa, Asia and Latin America by regional research and extension organizations.

REPORT: the role of SMEs in providing Good Food for All

Wasafiriri (2021) A Small Business Agenda for the UN Food Systems Summit United Nations Food Systems Summit © 2021, 35 p.

Wasafiri hosted 11 regional and 2 global dialogues, which engaged over 1,200 participants in total. In parallel, we carried out a survey reaching 2,673 SMEs from 137 countries, asking, “How can we boost the role of SMEs in providing Good Food for All?” 

The dialogue outcomes and survey responses were central to the development of a final report, which was presented at the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit to raise awareness of the pathways to effectively supporting SMEs in their role as good food providers.

This UN Food Systems Pre-Summit session highlighted key learnings from the final report, supported by insights from SMEs and food systems leaders. The closure of the event was marked by the public launch of the SME Pledge. The session, report and SME Pledge received global media coverage.

• READ THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• READ THE FULL REPORT (ENGLISH ONLY)

Related:

27 July 2021. Rome. Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit. The Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit set the stage for the culminating global event in September. During the second day a panel discussed above mentioned report.

SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES PRIORITIES
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the quiet revolutionaries transforming our food systems. Their inspiring stories and needs for support must influence the Summit’s action planning. This session presented “A Small Business Agenda for the UN Food Systems Summit”, a report on behalf of food SMEs from around the world. 

The report synthesizes findings from 12 SME dialogues, a global survey of thousands of SMEs, and dozens of expert interviews. It presents their positive contributions, the constraints they face in expanding their impact, and offers recommended pathways to boost the contribution of SMEs in forging the future of food. Panel speakers included SMEs and food system leaders reflecting on the report’s findings and recommended actions.

• Moderator Ms. Cherrie Atilano, Founding Farmer, CEO and President of AGREA Agricultural Systems International, Inc
• Moderator Ms. Bonolo Monthe, Managing Director, Maungo Craft
• Keynote Remarks – Mr. José Andres, Chef and Founder, World Central Kitchen
• Framing Remarks – The Latest Evidence Mr. Ian Randall, Director, Wasafiri
• Moderated Panel Discussions with Other Constituencies about the Framing 

Part 1 - Food SMEs to share how their lived experience as entrepreneurs correspond to the report’s findings.
Part 2 - Food system leaders to reflect on the importance of including SMEs in the design and governance of the coalitions for action that they are leading.

• Mr. Jian Yi – Founder of China Action Hub. Champion of SMEs and a shift to sustainable consumption, Independent film maker
• Ms. Erin Fitzgerald, CEO, US Farmers and Ranchers in Action
• Ms. Vanessa Adams, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, AGRA
• Dr. Manuel Otero, Director General of Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Related: 

Fifty small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) around the world have been announced as the Best Small Businesses of the “Good Food for All” competition, held in conjunction with the UN Food Systems Summit.

Selected from nearly 2,000 applications from 135 countries, the 50 winners all showcase inspiring, diverse, and impactful solutions in improving access to healthy, sustainable food.

Each winner will be celebrated as a “Best Small Business: Good Food for All” and share US$100,000 in cash prizes. At the UNFSS event to announce the winners, a short video will be shared to showcase their stories and highlight SMEs’ vital work in sustainably nourishing families all around the world.

Each winner was selected for how their business contributes to healthier, more sustainable and equitable food for the communities they serve; the strength of their vision for the future; and how well they communicate the current and future impact of their business.

REPORT: Climate Change 2021 The Physical Science Basis

9 August 2021. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report underlies the urgency of taking global action to halt climate change and deal with its unstoppable effects. The report, warns that without immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, it will be impossible to limit warming close to 1.5°C or even 2°C. 

Established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is mandated to help the world avoid the dangerous trajectory highlighted by the IPCC Report by financing climate action in developing countries. GCF bases its activities as the world’s largest dedicated climate fund on the latest scientific evidence.

The IPCC AR6 Summary for Policymakers provides the strongest evidence yet that human activities are causing climate change and making extreme weather events more frequent and more severe in every part of the world.

Resources:

IPCC (2021) Climate Change 2021The Physical Science Basis

The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, and global and regional climate simulations.

• SUMMARY FOR POLICYMAKERS (SPM)
• TECHNICAL SUMMARY (TS)
• FULL REPORT
• INTERACTIVE ATLAS
• FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)
• REGIONAL FACT SHEETSDATA ACCESS
• OUTREACH MATERIALS

Extracts:

A stronger than global-average warming over land, combined with changing precipitation patterns, and/or increased aridity in some regions (like the Mediterranean) can severely affect land ecosystems and species distributions, the terrestrial carbon cycle and food production systems. (page 215)

Together with less oxygen in upper ocean waters and increasingly widespread oxygen minimum zones and in addition to ocean warming, this poses adaptation challenges for coastal and marine ecosystems and their services, including seafood supply.  (page 216)

Understanding water cycle changes over land, including seasonality, variability and extremes, and their uncertainties, is important to estimate a broad range of climate impacts and adaptation, including food production, water supply and ecosystem functioning. (page 219)

The rolling work programme of IPBES up to 2030 will address interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health. This assessment will use a nexus approach to examine interlinkages between biodiversity and the above-mentioned issues, including climate change mitigation and adaptation. Furthermore, IPBES and IPCC will directly collaborate on biodiversity and climate change under the rolling work programme. (page 222)

These large gross fluxes show the relevance of land management such as harvesting or rotational agriculture and the large potential to reduce emissions by halting deforestation and degradation.  (page 1173)

In the agriculture and waste sectors, livestock production has the largest emission source dominated by enteric fermentation by about 90%. Methane is formed during the storage of manure, when anoxic conditions are developed (page 1188)

According to the Special Report on Climate Change and Land assessment, agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) is a significant net source of GHG emissions (high confidence), with more than half of these emissions attributed to non-CO2 GHGs from agriculture. (...) For present day emissions, agriculture is the 2nd largest contributor to warming on short time scales (...) Aerosols produced from agricultural emissions, released after nitrogen fertilizer application and from animal husbandry, influence surface air quality and make an important contribution to surface particulate matter in many densely populated areas. (page 1488)

Pressures on this ‘food-energy-water nexus’ are further compounded by increasing globalization, which can transfer large-scale water demands to other regions of the world, raising serious concerns about local food and water security in regions that are highly dependent on agricultural exports or imports. (...) Changes in the quantity and seasonality of water due to climate change have long been recognized by IPCC and global development  agencies as heavily influencing the food security and economic prosperity of many countries, particularly in the arid and semi-arid areas of the world including Asia, Africa, Australia, Latin America, the Mediterranean, and small island developing states (page 1880)

Press conference:

UNFSS. Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit: Day 3

26 - 28 July 2021. Rome. Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit. The Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit set the stage for the culminating global event in September by bringing together diverse actors from around the world to leverage the power of food systems to deliver progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

29 July 2021. Pre-summit affiliated event: Launching a Coalition to strengthen accountability mechanisms for the food industry

The Food Foundation and World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), organised an affiliated event for Civil Society Organisations, funders and policymakers working internationally and in their own countries. 

This event described the work towards a common “national benchmarking” methodology for measuring progress in the food industry towards healthy, just and sustainable food systems. This session included:

• An overview of World Benchmarking Alliance’s Food & Agriculture Benchmark. 
• An example of a successfully aligned ‘national spotlight’ benchmarking initiative from the UK. 
• Input from other countries on the need for benchmarks in different regions. 
• The opportunity to be part of the collation to help shape a toolkit for national benchmarks across the globe.

28 July 2021. CITY AND LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS

• Opening Dialogue – Cities’ Commitments Hon. Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan (Italy), Chair of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) 
• Mr. Mateusz Ciasnocha, CEO, European Carbon Farmers 
• Keynote Remarks Ms. Pamela Escobar Vargas, Youth Activist 

Panel Discussions – Vertical Integration 

To Maximize Results This panel presented the case for more vertical integration in areas where the local and the national levels have both authority as well as distinct roles to play but where there is still room to improve coordination to maximize results.

 

Topic 1 – Social Protection and Resilience 

• Hon. Asher Craig, Deputy Mayor, Bristol (UK) 
• Dr. Jane Battersby, Faculty Member, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, South Africa 

Topic 2 – Waste 

• Ms. Yvette Cabrera, Director, Food Waste, Healthy People and Thriving Communities Program, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) 
• Ms. Emma Chow, Lead, Food Initiative, Ellen McArthur Foundation 
• Hon. Ricardo Nunes, Mayor, São Paulo, Brazil 

Topic 3 – School Meals 

• Ms. Betina Bergmann Madsen, Chief Procurement Officer, City of Copenhagen, Denmark 
• Ms. Meti Tamrat, School Health and Nutrition Adviser to the Mayor of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Mr. Piercristiano Brazzale, President, International Dairy Federation 
• Mr. Kim Dae Young, Seoul Municipal Agency for School Meals, Korea

Topic 4 – Food Environment 

• Hon. Joy Belmonte, Mayor of Quezon City, Philippines 
• Ms. Nancy Roman, CEO, Partnership for a Healthier America 
• Mr. Jeff Risom, Partner, Chief Innovation Officer, Gehl Hon. 
• Manuel de Araujo, Mayor of Quelimane, Mozambique 

Governance: Towards an Emerging Coalition 

• Ms. Christine Gould, Founder and CEO, Thought for Food 
• Mr. Peter de Franceschi, Global food program coordinator, ICLEI 
• Hon. Mustafa Tunç Soyer, Mayor of Izmir, Turkey 
• H.E. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister for Food and Agriculture, Ghana

28 July 2021. SCHOOL MEALS COALITION

The emerging School Meals Coalition organized a Ministerial session focused on school meals programs as drivers of food system transformation, while simultaneously improving education systems, child health and nutrition. Programs that provide nutritious food and are linked to local purchase and other health services, can transform local agriculture, increase resilience and sustainability. Scaling up these integrated programs will support pandemic recovery and serve as a powerful tool to accelerate action on the SDGs. Leading Ministers and partners discussed how build and contribute to this new collaboration before its official launch in fall 2021. 

• Moderator Ms. Carmen Burbano, Director School-based Programmes, WFP 
• Ms. Valerie Guarnieri, Assistant Executive Director, WFP 
• H.E. Ville Skinnari, Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Finland 
• Video on School Meals Coalition 
  

Panel Discussion - “More than a Meal: School Meals as a transformational intervention for the entire food system” 

• Ms. Bibi Giyose, Senior Advisor food and nutrition security, African Union Development Agency NEPAD 
• H.E. Moussa Balde, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Infrastructure, Senegal 
• H. E. Zoila Cruz, Minister of Development and Inclusion, Honduras 
• H.E. Dr. Jewel H. Bronaugh, USA Deputy Secretary of Agriculture 
• H.E. Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture and Food, France 
• H.E. José Ángel López Camposeco, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, Guatemala 
• Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO, African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) 
• Video – Showcasing the impact of school meals on the full food system. 
• Closing Remarks: Mr. David Beasley, Executive Director, WFP 

28 July 2021. FULL INTEGRATION OF BLUE FOODS FOR HEALTH

Emerging research reveals: (a) the critical role aquatic foods already play in filling specific nutrient niches, protein and overall nutrition, and their untapped potential, and (b) the vast ‘hidden harvest’ of blue foods sustaining millions of poor and vulnerable people with income and food security. This session built on the evidence to support key policy, finance, and engagement convergence points, to assist food policy makers to join value chain actors, to ‘add fish to the recipe’ for food security, improved nutrition, and nature-positive production while encouraging and securing dignified livelihoods for a diversity of actors. 

• Moderator - Mr. Jim Leape, William & Eva Price Senior Fellow and Co-Director, Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions 
• H.E. Ine Eriksen Søreide, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway 
• Mr. Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for Oceans 
• Dr. Agnes Kalibata, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit 
• H.E. Maria Do Céu Antunes, Minister for Agriculture, Portugal 
• Dr. Shakuntala Thilsted, WorldFish, World Food Prize Winner 2021 
• H.E. Nasser Kamel, Secretary General, Union for the Mediterranean 
• Ms. Barkha Mossae, Global Shaper, Port Louis Hub 
• Ms. Sanda Ojiambo, Executive Director, UN Compact Statement of Support H.E. Frank Bainimarama, Prime Minister, Fiji

28 July 2021 - MINISTERIAL ROUNDTABLE ON UNFSS

The UN Secretary-General has called on world leaders to take part in the Food Systems Summit to help establish the future direction for food systems and accelerate collective action to that end. With food systems both contributing to and being impacted by climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss, the outcomes of the Summit provide an opportunity to further build synergies between the three Rio conventions on these issues and their respective Conferences of the Parties. This session explored how these Rio Conventions can support transformations of the food systems while strengthening linkages and impacts of these agreements. 

• Moderator - Dr. Martin Frick, Deputy to the Special Envoy, Food Systems Summit Secretariat 
• H.E. Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, France
• H.E. Ms. Teresa Ribera Rodriguez, Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Spain 
• H.E. Christian Hofer, General-Director of the Federal Office for Agriculture, Switzerland 
• H.E. Lord Zac Goldsmith, Minister for Pacific and the Environment Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), United Kingdom 
• H.E. Joseph Séka Seka, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Cote d’Ivoire
• H.E. Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Ministry of Environment, Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Egypt 
• H.E. Prakash Javadekar, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, India 
• H.E. St Clair Prince, Minister of Health, Wellness and the Environment, St Vincent 
• Ms. Marije Beens, Vice Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Netherlands

Perspectives of the three Rio Convention Principals 

• Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) 
• Ms. Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity CBD
• Ms. Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 
• Dr. Inger Andersen, Chair, UN Task Force and Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 

28 July 2021. Synthesis plenary

Panel: Featured Themes from the Pre-Summit 

• Moderator - Dr. Martin Frick, Deputy to the Special Envoy, Food Systems Summit Secretariat 
• Ms. Tamisha Lee, President, Jamaica Network for Rural Women Producers 
• Ms. Aili Keskitalo, President of the Sami Parliament, Norway 
• Ms. Marie Claire Graf, Vice Chair for Youth, Champions Network and Real Food Systems 
• Dr. Wai-Chan Chan, Managing Director, Consumer Goods Forum 

Panel Discussion – Moving Forward through Country Leadership: Ministerial Feedback and Highlights  

• Moderator: Dr. David Nabarro, Senior Advisor, Food Systems Summit Dialogues 
• H.E. Mahendra Reddy, Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Waterways, Fiji 
• H.E. Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture, European Commission

Insights from Critical Voices – Counter Summit 

• Representative of the Civil Society Mechanism of the Committee on World Food Security 

Panel Discussion – Moving Forward 

• Dr. João Campari, Global Leader, Food Practice, WWF International and Chair of Action Track 3 
• Prof. Michael Quinn Patton, Author, Blue Marble Evaluation 
• Dr. Claudia Sadoff, Managing Director, Research Delivery and Impact of the CGIAR System Organization (CGIAR) 
• Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Custodian, Gender and Women’s Empowerment Lever of Change and Director, Africa, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 

28 July 2021. Closing plenary

This session culminated the three-day Pre-Summit by reinforcing the urgency of the moment and featuring additional tone-setting leadership by Member States and multi-stakeholder constituencies that can lead the way forward to the Food Systems Summit in September.

It laid out the areas of convergence that will guide the work forward in the Summit process and see the launch of several systemic and transformative coalitions of action that help deliver on the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

• Moderator – Mr. Jeff Koinange
• Special Envoy Remarks – Dr. Agnes Kalibata, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit 
• His Royal Highness Prince Charles of Wales Strengthening National and Regional Pathways for Food Systems Transformation, UK
• H.E. Mariam Al Mheiri, Minister of State for Food and Water Security, United Arab Emirates 
• H.E. Olusola O. Idowu, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and National Planning, Nigeria, and National Convenor 

Constituency Commitments 

• Ms. Anne Nuorgam, Chair, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 
• Massimo Bottura, Chef and Food Systems Activist, Global Goodwill Ambassador
• Youth representative Private Sector representative Producers’ representative

Panel Discussion and Launch of Systemic, Transformative Coalitions of Action 

• Representatives from up to 5 coalitions of action 

Closing Panel – What It Will Take to Rise to Our Ambition for 2030

• H.E. QU Dongyu, Director-General, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 
• H.E. Gilbert Houngbo, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) 
• H.E. David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP) 

Concluding Remarks – Strengthening Food Systems Leadership 

• H.E. Luigi Di Maio, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Italy
• H.E. Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations 

UNFSS. Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit: Day 2

27 July 2021. Rome. Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit

BETTER FINANCE BETTER FOOD - How to Scale Finance for Sustainable Food Systems

The Finance for Sustainable Food Systems panel event brought together public and private actors from across food and finance systems to explore opportunities to tackle barriers to investment in sustainable food systems and to build an ambitious shared vision of financial systems that underpin sustainable food outcomes. This session

• positioned food as a key solution to deliver on critical issues (including COVID recovery, economic growth, climate action, restoration of nature & human health); 
• informed an emerging shared vision for a food finance architecture that delivers on sustainable food outcomes (including the shifts that need to occur to build this); 
• shared best practice between finance and food system stakeholders, identifying successes to replicate and scale. 

Speakers:

• Moderator Mr. Jeremy Oppenheim, Founder & Managing Partner, SystemIQ High Level Remarks 
• H.E. Sri Mulyani, Finance Minister, Indonesia 
• Dr. Vera Songwe, UN Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary, ECA Panel Discussion 
• Mr. Wiebe Draijer, CEO, Rabobank 
• Mr. Rodger Voorhies, President, Global Growth and Opportunity, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 
• H.E. Zainab Ahmed, Finance Minister, Nigeria 
• Ms. Pramisha Thapaliya, Focal Point, Major Group for Children and Youth, Real Food Systems 
• Ms. Tanja Havemann, Co-Founder & Director, Clarmondial 
• Ms. Ma. Estrella Penunia, Secretary-General, Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) 
• Mr. Vineet Rai, Founder and Chairman, Aavishkaar Group 
• Closing Remarks Ms. Geeta Sethi, Advisor and Global Lead for Food Systems, World Bank

BOLD ACTIONS FOR GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN FOOD SYSTEMS

This session presented and discussed priority investments for achieving gender equality in food systems. It brought together leaders to commit to bold actions for addressing gender equality and supporting women’s empowerment across food systems. This will consolidate a multi-stakeholder coalition of actors to lead actions around gender equality and food systems. It presented commitments from Member States and other stakeholders to help mobilize more resources, initiatives and action to achieve gender equality and empower women in food systems.

• Moderator Ms. Kawinzi Muiu, Director, Gender office, WFP 
• Framing Remarks Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Custodian, Gender and Women’s Empowerment Lever of Change and Director, Africa, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 
• High Level Remarks Mrs. Sabrina Dhowre Elba, IFAD Goodwill Ambassador 
• Ms. Asa Regner, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women 
• H.E. Thoko Didiza, Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, South Africa 
• Mr. Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank 
• Dr. Beth Dunford, Vice President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development African Development Bank 
• Ms. Lucy Muchoki, CEO, Pan African Agribusiness and Agro Industry Consortium (PANAAC)
• Mr. Rick White, Chair, International Agri-Food Network & Representative of CFS Private Sector Mechanism (PSM) 
• Ms. Maria Beronice Sanchez Losada, President, Assembly of Indigenous Peoples for Food Sovereignty 
• Ms. Jessica Vega Ortega, Co-President of the Global Caucus of Indigenous Youth and member of the LAC Indigenous Youth Network, and Food Systems Champion 
• Closing Remarks Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Custodian, Gender and Women’s Empowerment Lever of Change and Director, Africa, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 

CATALYZING COUNTRY LED INNOVATION TO TRANSFORM FOOD SYSTEMS

From digitization and blockchain-enabled traceability, to societal, science, indigenous knowledge, and business model innovation, all collectively present an unprecedented opportunity to transform food systems by 2030. The innovation lever for the Food Systems Summit engages public, private and social sectors together with farmer, consumer, and innovator communities and experts, all committed to making innovation a significant enabling factor  for food systems transformation, both in the  lead into the Summit and in alignment with the 2030 Agenda. Focus areas and solution clusters for joint action include data and digital, knowledge and technological, national and regional ecosystems, as well as societal and institutional innovation. 

• Moderator and Opening Remarks Mr. Sean de Cleene, Member of Executive Committee, World Economic Forum (WEF) 
• H.E. Phạm Bình Minh, Deputy Prime Minister, Vietnam 
• H.E. Oumer Hussein Oba, Minister of Agriculture, Ethiopia
• H.E. Kotaro Nogami, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan 
• H.E. Mariam Al Mheiri, Minister of State for Food and Water Security, United Arab Emirates 
• H.E. Ing. Luis Basterra, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Argentina 
• Ms. Marije Beens, Vice Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Netherlands 
• Mr. Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President, Rockefeller Foundation 
• Ms. Hanneke Faber, President, Foods & Refreshment, Unilever 

HUMAN RIGHTS A UNIFIED FRAMEWORK FOR FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION

Human rights are the foundation upon which equitable and healthy food systems are realizable. A human rights-based approach prioritizes the most vulnerable in food systems and calls for strengthening agency, particularly of women, youth, and indigenous peoples, and eradicating all discrimination related to the access to land, territories, natural resources, and inheritance. The denial of rights and entitlements, through formal and informal institutions and laws, is central to the problem of inequity. Therefore, rights-holders need to be aware and exercise their rights so that they are respected, protected, and fulfilled by the duty-bearers. This session will highlight the importance of human rights and law to play a central role in all Summit outcomes.

• Moderator Mr. Olivier de Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, and member, AT3, OHCHR 
• Framing Remarks Mr. Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food 
• Keynote Remarks Ms. Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 
• Ms. Cristina Timponi Cambiaghi, Thematic and Global Policy Senior Specialist, International Land Coalition ILC
• Mr. Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization (ILO) 
• Mr. Francesco Rocca, President, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) 
• Prof. Wenche Barth Eide, Assoc. Professor Emerita, University of Oslo 
• Ms. Hilal Elver, Former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food 
• Dr. Jan Beagle, Director General, International Development Law Organization (IDLO) 

UNLEASHING THE POWER OF THE PLATE - for the health of people and planet

Unhealthy diets have become a leading cause of ill-health and premature deaths around the world and contribute significantly to global environmental degradation. In addition, one third of the food we produce is lost or wasted. A different world is possible, one where we unleash the power of food to heal people, animals, and the planet. This event showcased the essential actions for a healthy and sustainable future and propositions for change which have been developed and sourced during the Food System Summit Dialogues and the work of the Action Track 2. During this session, key stakeholders  reflected on a menu of propositions and bring these to life with concrete examples. The event explored opportunities for key actors to come together to shift towards healthy and sustainable consumption patterns to deliver on the SDGs and Paris Agreement. 

• Moderator Ms. Lana Weidgenant, Vice-Chair of Shifting to Sustainable Consumption Patterns, UN Food Systems Summit 
• Dr. Gunhild Stordalen, Founder & Executive Chair, EAT Foundation Framing Remarks - Science Perspective 
• Dr. Mario Herrero Acosta, Chief Research Scientist, Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) 
• Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director General, World Health Organization (WHO) 
• Ms. Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Environmental Activist, and Co-ordinator, Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT) 
• H.E. Stefano Patuanelli, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forest Policies of Italy and current Presidency of the G20 
• H.R.H. Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, Princess of Thailand 

Panel Discussion 1 - What are the outstanding lock-ins and potential solutions to shift consumption towards healthy and sustainable dietary patterns, to eliminate food loss and waste and to reduce the risk of anti-microbial resistance (AMR) and zoonotic spillover/new pandemics? 

• Moderator - Ms. Gerda Verburg, Coordinator, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement 
• Ms. Claire Bury, Deputy Director General in DG SANTE, European Commission 
• Ms. Zoleka Mandela, Writer, Activist, NCD lived experience, South Africa 
• Prof. Cass Sunstein, Founder and Director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy, Harvard Law School, USA
• Prof. Gabriele Riccardi, Director of Unit for Diabetology and Metabolic Diseases, University of Naples Federico II, Italy 
• Ms. Helena Leurent, Director General, Consumers International 
• Mr. Sunny Verghese, Co-Founder and Group CEO, Olam International

Panel Discussion 2 - What are examples of concrete solutions and actions that will unleash the “power of the plate” on the road to 2030 and beyond? Examples of action through policies, the right business practices, the right shifts in behavior. 

• Moderator Ms. Ertharin Cousin, Founder and CEO, Food Systems for the Future & Fellow, Chicago Council on Global Affairs 
• H.E. Lia Tadesse, Minister of Health, Ethiopia 
• H.E. Frank Anthony, Minister of Health, Guyana 
• Ms. Jette Michelsen, Counsellor, Deputy Permanent Representative of Denmark to FAO, WFP and IFAD, Danish Embassy Rome, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Head of Delegation, Denmark 
• Ms. Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Deputy Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) 
• Mr. Michael Ade Elegbede, Chef and Founder, Abori 
• Dr. Wai-Chan Chan, Managing Director, Consumer Goods Forum 
• Mr. Guido Barilla, CEO, Barilla 
• Closing Remarks Ms. Lana Weidgenant, Vice-Chair of Shifting to Sustainable Consumption Patterns, UN Food Systems Summit 

ENSURING NO ONE IS LEFT BEHIND

Action Track 4 aims to improve agency and equity at every level of food systems to advance equitable livelihoods. Too often, the ones who produce food and perform key functions across our food systems are the first to go hungry. This reality is no truer than for women who are key – yet often invisible – actors in food systems. This session brought together policy makers, farmers and farmer organizations, the private sector, youth and Indigenous Peoples, and others to discuss and share solutions on rebalancing agency within food systems, eliminating worker exploitation and ensuring decent work, localizing food systems and more, to ensure our food systems “leave no one behind”. 

• Moderator Mrs. Michelle Nunn, CEO and President, CARE USA, and Chair of AT4 
• Video Introduction Ms. Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon, Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Africa, International Labour Organization (ILO) 
• Framing Remarks - Science Perspective Dr. Lynnette Neufeld, Director, Knowledge Leadership, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) 

Panel 1 - Action tracks, What Solutions are Possible? 

Dr. Phrang Roy, Coordinator, Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty Dr. Vasanthi Venkatesh, Assistant Professor in Law, Land, and Local Economies at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law Dr. Florence Egal, Food Security and Nutrition Expert Dr. Kostas Stamoulis, Senior Advisor and Former Assistant Director, General Economic and Social Development Department, FAO

Fireside Chat 

• Mr. Ramon Laguarta, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo 
• Ms. Polina Shulbaeva, Coordinator for IIFB, CBD process 
• Ms. Beatrice Gakuba, Executive Director, AWAN-AFRIKA 

Panel 2 - Discussion with Member States and Constituencies 

• H.E. Ing. Luis Basterra, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Argentina 
• Ms. Aylin Çağlayan Özcan, Director General for European Union and Foreign Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Republic of Turkey and National Dialogue Convenor 
• H.E. Lobin Lowe, Minister of Agriculture, Malawi 
• Chef Yohannis, Ethiopia, Chef 
• Dr. Kundhavi Kadiresan, Managing Director, Global Engagement and Innovation, CGIAR System Organization CGIAR 
• Mr. Ajay Vir Jakhar, Chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj (Farmers’ Forum India) 
• Closing remarks Ms. Marie Haga, Associate VP, External Relations and Governance Department, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

BUILDING RESILIENCE TO VULNERABILITIES, SHOCKS AND STRESSES

New and challenging risks are emerging in the already complex global food systems, as evidenced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts of which are skewed towards the world’s most vulnerable populations. In addition, there are many other ongoing challenges including changing climate, conflict, instability, pandemics, economic shocks etc, that require solutions to build greater resilience within the current food system, from production to consumption. 

To address this, Action Track 5 (AT5) – building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses – is proposing actions to ensure that food systems can maintain functionality, recover from the effects of harmful events, and improve to a better state. These actions include a focus on “productive disruption” in the context of global crises, such as pandemics, biodiversity loss and the global climate emergency. AT5 focuses on integrated and cross-cutting system and nexus approaches to enhance resilience and reduce vulnerability to compounded risks, structural fragility and systemic causes, on risk reduction, and on multi-risk and crisis management across and within food systems. 

• Moderator Ms. Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Co-President of the Club of Rome, and Co-chair of Action Track 5 Framing Remarks - Action Track Perspective 
• Prof. Saleemul Huq, Director, International Center for Climate Change and Development and Co-chair of Action Track 5 
• Science Perspective Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, Chief Scientist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and member of the Food Systems Summit Scientific Group 
• Building Resilience to Vulnerabilities, Shocks & Stresses H.E. Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC 
• H.E. Preeti Sinha, Executive Secretary, UNCDF

High-Level Panel – Country Insights and Perspectives on Food Systems Resilience 

• H.E. Sadhan Chandra Majumder, Minister of Food, Bangladesh 
• H.E. Mamadou Tangara, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gambia 
• H.E. Gabriel Ferrero, Ambassador at large for Food Systems, Spain 
• H.E. Damien O’Connor, Minister of Agriculture, for Biosecurity, and for Rural Communities, New Zealand 

Panel Unpacking Resilience Through Inspirational Messages & Science Messages with Key Resilience Champions. Showcase of Areas of Collective Action for Resilience 

• Dr. Naoko Yamamoto, Assistant Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO) Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO, AUDA-NEPAD 
• Mr. Gram Shimray, Director, Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) 
• Prof. Dr. Patrick Verkooijen, CEO, Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) 
• Ms. Geeta Sethi, Advisor and Global Lead for Food Systems, World Bank 
• Ms. Sheela Patel, Founder, Slum Dwellers International, India 
• Ms. Sharan Burrow, General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation 
• Mr. Amir Mahmoud Abdulla, Deputy-Executive Director, WFP 
• Closing Remarks Mr. Gonzalo Munoz, High-Level Climate Action Champion for UN Climate Action

PRIVATE SECTOR PRIORITIES AT THE UNFSS

To provide an overview of the process undertaken by the Private Sector Guiding Group (PSGG) to mobilize private sector engagement and to share key updates on private sector ambitions and actions through coalition building efforts and collaborations. 

Moderator Mr. Peter Bakker, President and CEO, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) 

Corporate Leadership and Collective Commitment towards key priority areas Hunger and Malnutrition: 

• Mr. Ramon Laguarta, CEO, PepsiCo 
• H.E. Gerda Verburg, Global Coordinator, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement 

Soil Health: 

• Dr. João Campari, Global Leader, Food Practice, WWF International and Chair of Action Track 3 
• Mr. Mark Schneider, CEO, Nestlé Mr. Wiebe Draijer, Chairman of the Managing Board, Rabobank 

Living Income 

• Ms. Hanneke Faber, President of Foods & Refreshment, Unilever 
• Mr. Dann Wensing, Chief Executive Officer, IDH 

Resilience: 

• Ms. Cherrie Atilano, Founding Farmer, CEO and President of AGREA Agricultural Systems International, Inc 

Closing Remarks 

• H.E. Gilbert F. Houngbo, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) 
• Mr. Rick White, Chair, International Agri-Food Network and Representative of CFS Private Sector Mechanism (PSM)

SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES PRIORITIES

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the quiet revolutionaries transforming our food systems. Their inspiring stories and needs for support must influence the Summit’s action planning. This session presents “A Small Business Agenda for the UN Food Systems Summit”, a report on behalf of food SMEs from around the world. The report synthesizes findings from 12 SME dialogues, a global survey of thousands of SMEs, and dozens of expert interviews. It presents their positive contributions, the constraints they face in expanding their impact, and offers recommended pathways to boost the contribution of SMEs in forging the future of food. Panel speakers included SMEs and food system leaders reflecting on the report’s findings and recommended actions. 

• Moderator Ms. Cherrie Atilano, Founding Farmer, CEO and President of AGREA Agricultural Systems International, Inc 
• Moderator Ms. Bonolo Monthe, Managing Director, Maungo Craft 
• Keynote Remarks – Mr. José Andres, Chef and Founder, World Central Kitchen 
• Framing Remarks – The Latest Evidence Mr. Ian Randall, Director, Wasafiri 

Moderated Panel Discussions with Other Constituencies about the Framing 

Part 1 - Food SMEs to share how their lived experience as entrepreneurs correspond to the report’s findings. 

Part 2 - Food system leaders to reflect on the importance of including SMEs in the design and governance of the coalitions for action that they are leading. 

• Mr. Jian Yi – Founder of China Action Hub. Champion of SMEs and a shift to sustainable consumption, Independent film maker 
• Ms. Erin Fitzgerald, CEO, US Farmers and Ranchers in Action 
• Ms. Vanessa Adams, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, AGRA 
• Dr. Manuel Otero, Director General of Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

FROM THE G20 MATERA TO THE UNFSS

The Italian Presidency of G20 held successful Ministerial Meetings on 29 June 2021, in Matera, Italy. For the first time, G20 Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Development jointly discussed the importance and centrality of Food Security for all. This comes at a time were the world is at a critical juncture, very different to where it was six years ago when it committed to ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030. 

The situation has worsened and the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to expose fragilities in our food system, which actively threaten the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, particularly the most vulnerable and those living in fragile contexts. As a way to support the agri-food system transformation needed, and to overcome more significant challenges of ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition, a call to action in the time of COVID-19 pandemic and beyond was also declared by G20 Ministers and United Nations Agencies through the Matera Declaration. All partners committed to deliver on food security priorities by enhancing efforts in ensuring safe and adequate nutrition for all, ending all forms of malnutrition, preserving agrobiodiversity, as well as relying on science, innovation, advanced business practices and responsible behaviour complementing traditional knowledge, local food culture and best practices in order to achieve SDG 2 targets. 

Based on G20 previous commitments, the Matera Declaration has prioritized a number of priority areas of work for the countries to advance on, with focus on; implementing effective actions for the empowerment of women and youth in the rural-urban continuum; social protection measures; catalytic investment; adapting agri-food systems to climate change; keeping international food trade open and One Health approach. The G20 Ministerial Meetings have paved the way and created an excellent opportunity towards The United Nations Food Systems Summit (September 2021), where political commitments will be translated to Actions on the ground. 

• Opening Remarks – H.E. QU Dongyu, Director-General, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 
• Keynote Remarks H.E. Luigi Di Maio, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Italy 
• From G20 Matera Declaration to UN Food Systems Summit Dr. Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 

High-Level Round Table Discussion

• Chair – H.E. Marina Sereni, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Italy 
• H.E. Josefa Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission 
• H.E. Dr. Syahrul Yasin Limpo, Minister of Agriculture of Indonesia, next Presidency of G20 
• H.E. Gerd Müller, Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany 
• H.E. Victor Villalobos, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mexico 
• Mr. Ettore Prandini, President, Coldiretti,  Italy
• Closing Remarks H.E. Marina Sereni, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Italy

MOBILIZING TRILLIONS FOR FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION

Building on the momentum in the lead-up to the Second Finance in Common Summit of Public Development Banks (PDBs) 2021, the session will hear from leaders from the public sector, PDBs, private investors, farmers’ organizations, and others to discuss how PDBs – responsible for over two thirds of formal financing for agriculture – can catalyse more green and inclusive investments in food and agriculture, and channel more financing towards small-scale producers. PDBs have the potential in particular to unlock significant funds, including by better enabling and de-risking private investments. It will also serve to showcase and launch commitments from actors and leaders around the world to scale-up green and inclusive investments across the sector through better, more coordinated action, including to benefit the small-scale producers and agri-food entrepreneurs that produce, transform, and market the majority of the food consumed in low and middle-income countries.

• Moderator - Ms. Helene Papper, Director, Communications Division, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) 
• H.E. Gilbert F. Houngbo, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) 
• H.E. Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, Canada 
• H.E. Daniele Franco, Minister of Finance, Italy 
• H.E. Mr. Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, Minister of Finance, Thailand 

Panel Discussion - PDBs as Accelerators of Food System Progress 

• Ms. Elisabeth Nsimadala, President, Pan African Farmers Organization (PAFO) 
• Mr. Gustavo Montezano, Managing Director, Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES)  
• Dr. Beth Dunford, Vice-President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development, African Development Bank (AfDB) 
• Mr. Jeremy Coller, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner, Coller Capital  

Call to Action & Final Discussion 

• Mr. Gilbert F. Houngbo, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) 
• Mr. Rémy Rioux, CEO, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) 
• Ms. Antonella Baldino, Chief International Finance Officer, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP)