4th global conference of the Sustainable Food Systems Programme

Humankind is confronted with multiple deeply rooted and interlinked crises, including in relation to climate, biodiversity, conflict, energy, consumer prices, food insecurity, malnutrition and health.

Global food systems challenges call for a profound and swift transformation of how we produce, process, retail, and consume food and dispose organic waste.

The UN Secretary-General’s Food Systems Summit (UN FSS) in September 2021 created important momentum for this transformation.

Contributing to the 2023 Stock-Taking Moment of the UN FSS follow-up process, this conference will look at how food systems need to be transformed to overcome these crises in order to minimize the risk of global collapse and achieve the SDGs.

Based on concrete examples, the conference will look at main barriers and bottlenecks in relation to food systems transformation, discuss solutions and release a series of actionable recommendations with a focus on the following five key levers:

• Global, regional, national, sub-national inclusive governance to set the foundations for applying a holistic/integrated approach towards sustainable food systems.
• Collaborative, multisectoral, integrated policy actions based on a holistic approach to materialize the transformation we need: shifting consumption and production patterns in our food systems.
• Mobilizing means of implementation, including financing.
• Metrics and accountability frameworks to measure transformation.
• Mission-oriented research and innovation, in collaboration with the private sector.

To do so, the conference will provide a space for countries, coalitions, the Food Systems Coordination Hub’s “ecosystem of support” and other food systems actors to present transformational actions, tools and initiatives linked to the implementation of National Pathways for Food Systems Transformation that have emerged since the UN FSS and discuss how such actions can be further scaled up to ensure that we collectively attain our sustainable food systems pathways by 2030.

In addition, the conference will discuss how progress on shaping sustainable, resilient, healthy and inclusive food systems in the context of the UN FSS follow-up process can be properly measured in view of the UN FSS 2023 Stock-Taking Moment and beyond.