4SD Foundation

Invitation to celebrate the life and legacy of Sir David Nabarro

thuy — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 08:06:13 +0000

Join the family and 4SD Foundation to celebrate the life and legacy of

Sir David Nabarro

August 26, 1949 – July 25, 2025

With friends, colleagues and fellow advocates, we will celebrate David’s invaluable contributions to public health, the Sustainable Development Goals and the mission of the United Nations.
Friday, October 31, 2025, from 14:00 – 15:30 CET

Auditorium Ivan Pictet, Maison de la Paix
Geneva Graduate Institute, Chemin Eugène Rigot 2, Geneva.

A light reception will follow the event.

Please RSVP here.

Please do continue to share your messages, memories and mementos on this memorial page: https://www.online-tribute.com/DrDavidNabarro

With gratitude,

Florence, Tom, Oliver, Polly, Josie and Lucas.

Family Update: 30 July 2025

aziz.saadana — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 07:49:34 +0000

Family Update

We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of tributes to David, and for the kindness to all who mourn his passing. Across the fields of international development, especially public health, food systems transformation, nutrition and crisis response, we are proud to see how his legacy will continue through so many compassionate leaders working to shift systems from within.

A small, private funeral will be held with close family on Monday in France. In the weeks ahead, a number of memorial services will take place to enable those whose lives David has touched to pay their respects. We are grateful for the support and understanding as we coordinate these plans.

We kindly ask that you refrain from sending gifts at this time. We are taking a moment to identify meaningful ways for your generosity to advance David’s mission. In the meantime, we invite you to share your messages, memories and mementos on this memorial page: https://www.online-tribute.com/DrDavidNabarro

With gratitude,

Florence, Tom, Oliver, Polly, Josie and Lucas.

A difficult announcement

aziz.saadana — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 10:41:51 +0000

We are deeply saddened to announce the sudden passing of David Nabarro at his home on 25 July 2025.

David’s generosity and unwavering commitment to improve the lives of others will be sorely missed.

He leaves behind his beloved wife, Flo, his children, Tom, Ollie, Polly, Josie, Lucas and seven grandchildren.

The family is comforted by the support and compassion extended to them as they navigate this difficult time.

Further details will be shared in the coming days.

Media enquiries, Thuy Maryen: contact@4sd.org // +41 77 813 11 82

Dialoguing at scale – reflecting on experience

cheima.touir — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 16:30:07 +0000

Dialoguing at scale – reflecting on experience

This article was co-authored by John Atkinson, David Nabarro, Florence Lasbennes and Charlotte Dufour. It was first published at HeartOfTheArt.org on May 07, 2025.

Background

More than 1,600 multi-stakeholder dialogues were convened in preparation for the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021. These dialogues helped facilitate inclusive explorations of the complex challenges of transforming food systems and accelerate progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The context for the summit and the place of dialogues within it can be explored in more detail in an article published in ‘Nature Food’ here.

The dialogues were designed to help stakeholders in agriculture, food and sustainable development as together they made sense of and started to shape their own food systems. This document reflects some of the premises that guided the design roll-out and stewardship of the dialogues as a ‘systems intervention’ and suggests areas of learning. The term ‘systems intervention’ is used to mean a deliberate effort to prompt a shift in how a system functions among many entities with multiple interests. It is distinguished from delivering a programme of work in a specific single field or embarking on a process of organisational development within a single organisation.

In this regard, food systems share characteristics with other Human Systems. There are multiple over-lapping and inter-dependent networks, resulting in multiple sources of power and authority and multiple perspectives on an appropriate path forward. This creates an infinite number of different combinations which makes it hard to discern cause and effect clearly. Every action leads to multiple unintended consequences, only some of which are predictable. In short, systems interventions take place in a complex environment and rarely provide clear indications of cause and effect. Instead of trying to appreciate the origins of new ways of thinking and working, it can be more valuable to consider the conditions which favour their emergence and the benefits that will accrue as a result.

Why dialoguing

Dialogue has been a part of human activity for as long as there has been language. Groups of people converse together to determine how, or even if, they wish to move forward together. It is an everyday occurrence in many indigenous cultures that can manifest as informal, formal, and ritual interaction.

More recently in Western interpretation and particularly following the work of Bill Isaacs, David Bohm and others, dialogue has come to mean an open conversation with generative intent. What is of special interest is the features of a dialogue that enable it to generate promising new ways of thinking and working, particularly encouraging participants to suspend internal points of view and judgement. This makes it easier for them to listen to what others say, respect their viewpoints and build upon them when they intervene. They avoid the habitual reflex of jumping in with their own thoughts or judgements. The dialogue finds a flow that is creative and progressive.

This kind of dialogue provides a way of managing multiple non-aligned interests and power imbalances in pursuit of an ideal. However, those who do it successfully require a degree of self-discipline, comfort in the process, and experience of interacting in this way.

Dialogues and UN Food System Summit 2021

Global and National (and sub-National) Food Systems are characterised by tensions and power imbalances. Land ownership and use has in many cases been a source of conflict. Power is disproportionately held by governments and large corporations often to the disadvantage of smallholder farmers of which there may be some 500 million worldwide. Feeding a growing urban population is no simple matter. Feelings can run high.

It was important to ensure that a wide diversity of perspectives was both represented and able to speak and be heard. The dialogues needed to create an environment where young and old, women and men, small holders and indigenous peoples could sit alongside government officials, academics, and global businesses. This required skilful design, preparation, and facilitation and 4SD invested carefully in equipping people to do this.

For dialogues to be used as a successful approach for navigating such a system, and fostering novel ways of working, a specific architecture had to be created to hold the tensions in the system. A purist viewpoint would be unfeasible given the timescale and starting conditions, outwith areas where such approaches were already practised. 4SD evolved a structure and approach to dialoguing that provided the architecture for over 1600 dialogues. Governments were asked to identify individuals to perform the role of National Dialogue Convenor. They were nominated in 148 countries. Non-governmental organisations, civil society, academics and local authorities could also run their own dialogues nominating their own convenors. These led to 111 national Pathways to sustainable and equitable food systems, with 96 heads of state endorsing them at the UN Food Systems Summit. They link to national budgets, strategies and development plans.

The details of this structure, including handbooks and manuals needed to successfully run it, the feedback from each dialogue, the depth and breadth of participation and Synthesis Reports that tell the story of the dialogues are all available on the website summit dialogues.

This document does not seek to repeat or expand on what is a most thorough resource. Instead, it seeks to share key areas of learning from four specific aspects as follows.

The act of designing and evolving systems interventions
The art of accompanying people through a systems intervention
The experience of being involved in systems interventions
The mindsets that help us work this way.

A document that captures these learnings more fully, identifying qualities with descriptions and examples, is attached as an annex.

The act of designing and evolving systems interventions

To create the conditions in which 1600+ dialogues led to global discernible outputs required an architecture, a process and a system for orienting those using it. This needed to build on and acknowledge existing practice and find the line between providing enough structure to satisfy the aims of the summit whilst allowing sufficient flexibility to maximise local benefit. The guiding principle in dealing with National Dialogue Convenors was to use the momentum and impetus provided by the summit to further what is needed nationally rather than simply satisfying the needs of the summit itself.

To do this required a design for the dialogues which enabled local leaders to take on the process to address local challenges. Their actions were especially valuable if they reflected a set of critical guidelines.

The first was clarity on the intent of the dialogues. It provided a common language and identity, a sense that participants were doing something important for their communities and at the same time were contributing to a critical global movement.

The second was on participation: the need for attracting and enabling as diverse and inclusive a group of participants as possible – all stakeholders with an interest, with efforts to ensure that there were diverse participants from within each stakeholder group.

The third was to ensure that the approach was flexible enough to take account of local circumstances, including weather, elections, conflict and COVID-19.

The fourth was for the process to be able to evolve whilst maintaining the integrity of the work. 4SD did this by creating open spaces where everyone could learn from the participant experience.

The fifth was to land something meaningful by the time of the UN Food Systems Summit, the whole process taking place within a year and in a Covid restricted environment.

The act of designing and evolving the approach was one of constant attention to purpose, curiosity on how it could be realized, and feedback amongst the summit organizers. Not everything worked everywhere, and processes of regular reporting (on progress) communication (on engagement) and training (open to all with an interest) were built in. They enabled processes for design and rollout to be responsive and adaptive.

All this would not have happened without financial support from the Summit secretariat to national convenors. Organising and running dialogues requires an investment in time and incurs cost.

The art of accompanying people through a systems intervention

If the ‘act of designing’ provided an architecture for the dialogues, this would not have been sufficient without the ability to create a relational context within which the various elements could be found. Throughout the dialogues there was much attention given to creating and tending this relational space. It was referred to as the place where people were accompanied through the systems intervention’. The dialogue ‘convenors’ were identified as being essential catalysts and national governments were invited to place them at the heart of the process. The 4SD role was to serve them in relation to their role with the summit.

Throughout the dialogue period a great deal of emphasis was placed on the nature and quality of interaction among the National convenors and their communications with the Summit organisers. This has involved establishing a regular rhythm tempo and style of meetings, working weekly in multiple languages to ensure ease of comprehension and engagement. This was a two-way flow, convenors wanted to know how preparations for the summit were developing, how their work would feature, what would be valuable. The summit organizers needed to know how things were progressing, what was working and where barriers lay, what more convenors needed. 4SD oscillated between being catalyst for, and midwife to, the process

The success of the whole process depended on there being unequivocal trust between the convenors (and their governments) and the summit organizers (and the multilateral entities they represent). The 4SD investment included fostering a sense of common interest, as well as being visible, transparent, responsible, generous and inclusive. Carefully attending to these attributes and testing the validity and legitimacy of assumptions, gave 4SD the confidence to make bold advances without being reckless.

The experience of being involved in systems interventions

Systems are by their very nature complex and food systems are certainly no exception. What happens in these complex human environments is affected by how power is concentrated and used: indeed, politics are an inevitable and significant phenomenon within them. Where approaches and outcomes are contested, and power is dispersed, the individuals and groups who want to get things done seek the power that enables them to do so. That means that engaging in a food systems intervention is engaging in a political activity. It is a reality that is worth recognizing because it means paying constant attention to the political dynamics within food systems and how they shift over place and time. It also means that those involved in influencing how food systems behave need to be comfortable with operating in this sphere.

To do so with comfort means being able to manage paradox skilfully. Different views need not be opposites. Two or more elements that appear to be in conflict can both be valid. Those working with food systems are constantly involved in creating frames for conversations and activities that can hold multiple perspectives. Constant effort is needed to hold that frame firmly but lightly. In the case of the Food Systems Summit Dialogues the emphasis was on prioritizing the interests and needs of participants, and not on pursuing specific outcomes that might be desired by the summit organizers or by 4SD as their contractors. In this kind of working others expect to be asked to support, or oppose, a particular agenda. They can be disconcerted and even become critical when effort is invested in creating an agnostic platform for collective working. Yet it is vital for the catalyst to remain neutral and earn the authority to operate in challenging spaces.

All of this describes environments where passions run high, emotions are aroused and those involved may well find themselves caught in the energy of the moment. It would be naïve to request that you remain unaffected in such circumstances. It may be useful if you recognise the emotion of a situation, and its impact on yourself and on others.

The mindsets that help us work this way

The success of your efforts to work in this way will be determined by your mindset. There is no straightforward “mindset test” to apply. But a systems leadership mindset begins from curiosity, from questions like “What is going on here, how do we know, what might work?” Continuing to seek answers drives the desire to explore capacity for adaptation. As circumstances evolve, understanding shifts and new potential emerges. This creates opportunities for rethinking, redesigning and retuning.

Successfully stimulating meaningful changes takes energy. There is huge energy for changing and improving what is eaten and ways food is produced. Tapping into that energy and unleashing it requires widespread, high quality connections. Make a habit of investing in people – finding the time that is needed to meet them where they are, listen to them, understand what drives them and respect differences between them. Create the spaces in which they can get your measure and decide for themselves the amounts of their energies they will commit to the work. 4SD quickly realized the impossibility of mobilizing change in food systems in over a hundred countries around the world through personal drive alone. There were systematic efforts to tap into the goodwill, excitement and energy of others to foster a sense of movement and the potential for an exponential shift in outcome.

The expectations were high as dialogues were advanced, pathways emerged, and the Summit date approached. But anxiety ran throughout. In each dialogue, participants asked what they had to give up moving forward? Are they going in the right direction? Anxiety is inevitable when new ways of thinking and working are starting to emerge. That is because we move from the comfort and security of the known into the transformative realm that is as yet unknown. This anxiety is vital but it can be crippling. This means that the environment, validity and readiness for new approaches is constantly being tested. Embracing anxiety is hard: 4SD’s close-knit and committed team made a habit of regularly connecting on the morning of each working day to help ensure that this vital element of mindset was not disregarded.

Going further

The summit dialogues website summit dialogues website provides a huge resource on a unique global process. The learning here is applicable to other global events, national or sub-national events and for commercial corporations. If you wish to explore any element further, please contact the authors contact@4SD.org.

Annex: Detailed Learnings Document

The 4-page document mentioned above is embedded below.
If the PDF does not display, you can download it here.

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Acknowledgement

The 4SD team extends its sincere gratitude to the United Nations for the confidence placed in us and for the opportunity to support the preparatory process for the UN Food Systems Summit. We also wish to express our profound appreciation to all partners, collaborators, and participants for their invaluable engagement and contributions throughout this significant initiative.

Disclaimer

The views, interpretations, and lessons presented in this paper are solely those of the 4SD team, reflecting their experiences and reflections. They do not necessarily represent or reflect the official views, policies, positions, or endorsements of the United Nations, its affiliated agencies, or its Member States. Responsibility for the content and conclusions herein rests exclusively with 4SD.

Navigating difference

cheima.touir — Mon, 05 May 2025 12:19:55 +0000

Navigating difference

This article was co-authored by John Atkinson and David Nabarro. It was first published on 29 April 2025 on HeartOfTheArt.org.

Leadership requires the capacity to navigate difference. Good leaders help groups of people achieve greater impact through enabling them to make sense of their different perspectives. This is vital if those involved share an interest but do not have a clear agreement on how to move forward. They may disagree on what needs to be done. Even basic facts might be contested. Leadership helps them to navigate through their differences and find the best ways to move forward.
The leader does not begin by insisting that differences must first be resolved.

Leading for greater impact

A capacity to work with human systems is essential when making sense of complex issues like disease outbreaks, changing weather or food shortages. Systems leaders help the groups working on these issues to expand their ambition and achieve greater impact, despite their different perspectives. They help articulate a story and direction that makes sense to all and encourage others to explore this direction through their own life lenses. Thus, they make room for others to advance in ways that are inspiring and meaningful.

Seeing difference as a strength

Systems leaders see different perspectives as assets and not as problems. They know that inevitably there are competing points of view on any issue that matters, and that those who hold them believe they are correct. Good systems leaders can hold different points of view lightly, without favor or prejudice, whether in open or private exchanges. If they can hold many different perspectives at the same time, and can model this behavior to others, they demonstrate what is needed to help divergent groups navigate difference.

Taking care re simplifying

Where there are multiple perspectives on what to do there are often calls for the leader to help. To clarify, simplify and offer concrete direction. Be careful if this leads to stark choices between competing options: seductive, simple, either-or choices. Often in the Western dialectic tradition, a dispute is answered through debate between opposite positions. However, simplification and debate often lead to the emergence of competing factions. Each has their backers, positions become entrenched, and winners (and losers) emerge. In the most volatile environments this can lead to deepening resentment and generations of conflict. Ballot victories are hollow if the issue festers as an unhealed wound. The divergence is exacerbated, and the leader’s role becomes harder.

Seductively stark choices are unreal

It is a seductive but false notion that you can address divergence by breaking down complex issues into stark either-or choices. Real life is rarely straightforward. Complexity fares badly when simplified into two competing viewpoints because there are invariably many options and are seldom opposites. In setting up a choice between two options the leader must omit some perspectives, prioritize selected data over others, and so present an incomplete picture that misinforms and may even be seen as manipulative. The leader who handles divergence by taking sides may end up facing even more intractable challenges.

Holding divergence skillfully

A systems leader who holds divergence skillfully succeeds by expanding the frame for thought, pointing towards a collective ‘better’ (not necessarily the ‘best’), and holding that direction lightly. The leader enables people to see how the collective better helps them fulfil their needs. Exploring this gives people the room they need to invest in a bigger and broader cause.

Holding differences as necessary paradoxes

Systems leaders who can hold competing perspectives over time, without taking sides, enable new relationships to form. They encourage the emergence of wonderful new ways of being and doing. They do not need bigger brains or more processing power to do this. But even in the face of the most complex and contested challenges they do need one basic skill. That is their ability to hold differences, lightly and long enough to live with them as necessary tensions. When they can do it for themselves, they can help others do it too.

Practical implications for the leader

1. Hold multiple competing viewpoints together and treat them all as valid even when they appear to contradict.
2. Avoid boiling difficult issues down to stark either-or choices in the name of keeping things simple.
3. Avoid contributing to the deliberate spread of misinformation: you will not be trusted if this surfaces.
4. Be aware there always will be unintended consequences in any approach – that they will occur again and again, evolving over time and space, often in unpredictable ways. Look out for them and build them into your strategy, adapting to new circumstance as you learn more about the space in which you are operating.

Handling one’s own uncertainty

If leaders are to help others hold differences, they need to be able to hold differences for themselves. As they juggle with many points of view, they must also handle their own uncertainties. They have to accept that there may be no solution to the challenges they face. They need to be conscious of, and then park, their own biases. They learn to stop trying to find answers to unanswerable questions. And they do not need to propose solutions to be seen, noticed and affirmed.

Leading in living webs

Systems leadership is part of a living web of human activity. It is best described using ecological metaphors. Human systems are dynamic and generative, with inbuilt vitality. They are complex, diverse and symbiotic. They are living systems. Those who lead in them find that seemingly insignificant connections can profoundly influence outcomes and that novel phenomena emerge from new relationships. Leadership should be seen as tending to this living web, leaders are not mechanics tuning a large machine to make it more efficient.

A rich resource for the collective good

Unresolved differences within groups of people can paralyze them when they try to tackle complex challenges together. Paralyzing conflicts occur in many settings, including parliaments, governments, institutions, organizations, communities and even families. Systems leaders who can help groups to navigate their differences have much to offer. They enable new relationships to form where people can hold onto and make good use of their differences – as they may well contain what is needed to enable everyone to move forward together.

Food Systems Transformation through Dialogues

info — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 09:48:33 +0000

By David Nabarro, Strategic Director, 4SD Foundation

The Nutrition Dialogues enable people at risk of hunger and malnutrition to share experiences and explore actions which they believe will have the greatest impact. The proposed method for Nutrition Dialogues builds on 4SD’s experience of using facilitated, multistakeholder dialogues to address complex and contested issues, enabling people with diverse perspectives to align for impactful action. The method is designed to encourage stakeholder alignment despite the complexity and variability of nutrition challenges in our world.

The background is that in 2018, five partners invited 4SD to curate Food Systems Dialogues. They were designed for diverse stakeholders to explore priorities for the future of food systems despite their different interests and perspectives.

The dialogue method was adopted by Dr Agnes Kalibata, the UN’s Special Envoy for the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, as part of the preparatory process. Each national government was invited to nominate a National Convenor to organize inclusive multi-stakeholder Food Systems Dialogues. There were also opportunities for the independent organization of dialogues. By the time of the Summit, 110 000 participants were involved in at least 1650 dialogue events. National Convenors were nominated in over 140 countries. 120 strategic pathways for future national food systems had emerged.

On 22 October 2024 a Comment was published in the journal Nature Food titled Food Systems Transformation through Dialogues. It is a three-page article authored by Agnes Kalibata and me. We reflect on the extraordinary degree of popular engagement in the Food Systems Summit through the use of dialogues. We offer some lessons that could be applied in other large-scale dialogue-based processes. It is our hope that what is in the article will resonate with Convenors of Nutrition Dialogues as well as with organizers of other dialogue events around the world.

The Comment is available here

4SD Foundation is an Initiating Partner of the Nutrition Dialogues.

Elevating Local Voices to Global Heights through Nutrition Dialogues

info — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 22:43:45 +0000

By David Nabarro, Strategic Director of 4SD Foundation and Dan Irvine, Global Director, Health and Nutrition, World Vision International.

The 2024 analysis of the State of Food Insecurity and malnutrition in our world was released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization on July 24th. Arriving less than a year before the end of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition and the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris, March 2025, it offers a disturbing series of messages. One in 11 people in our world are hungry. Far too many of them are children. The level has stayed high for three successive years. The proportion is one out of every five in Africa, where hunger is also on the rise. The urgency to address nutrition challenges has never been greater.

That is why World Vision International and the 4SD Foundation have introduced the Nutrition Dialogues programme – an initiative aimed at amplifying the voices of those most at risk of malnutrition and elevating them to the highest levels in time for the Paris Summit.

While preparations are underway with global stakeholders for the next wave of critical nutrition policies and investments, the Nutrition Dialogues will enable investors to make decisions from the perspective of a mother with an undernourished family struggling to achieve nutrition in her own community. Building on the experience of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit Dialogues, the Nutrition Dialogues programme is designed to bring the lived experiences and perspectives of at-risk communities to the forefront – a human-centered approach to investment prioritization. The programme features two main event types:

Stakeholder Dialogues: These events explore local nutritional contexts, identifying impactful interventions and prioritising actions to improve nutrition. Participants from various backgrounds come together to share their insights and propose solutions tailored to their unique environments. These dialogues will reach diverse participants, such as mothers, farmers, entrepreneurs and faith actors.
Children’s Workshops: Aimed at young people aged 12 to 18, these workshops provide a platform for children to focus on nourishment and exchange ideas on how to enhance nutrition in their communities. The Nutrition Dialogues will raise the profile of good nutrition. They will connect people around the world, expose their concerns, distil their ideas, carry their messages and stimulate action with accountability.

The Nutrition Dialogues will bring the concerns and recommendations of mothers and children to policymakers and practitioners. Their voices will be aggregated amongst thousands to provide a collective call to action in specific alignment with their own needs and wants. Women, youth and children, in particular, will be empowered as our next-generation nutrition champions.

The programme will include at least 200 events worldwide during 2024, across 50 countries and engaging at least 6,000 participants. That number could be increased greatly as additional partners become involved.

The Dialogues are facilitated to give them depth and focus. The success of this initiative rests on the broadest possible partner mobilization, stakeholder convening, and community engagement. The outcomes are powerful stimuli for change that draw on lived experiences of those most at risk. They are adapted to local realities while reflecting common principles – including acceptance of, and respect for, different perspectives.

We call on all Partners to help elevate the voices of those experiencing or at risk of malnutrition so they reach the highest levels of national and global decision-making. All interested are encouraged to join the Nutrition Dialogues programme to identify Convenors and organise meaningful events. The Nutrition Dialogues will impact decisions that make a lasting difference in the nutrition landscape, empower thousands to lead the next generation of nutrition championship in their communities and countries, and foster well-nourished futures for all.

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Original article: https://nutritiondialogues.org/elevating-local-voices-to-global-heights-through-nutrition-dialogues/

Learn more at the Nutrition Dialogues Portal: nutritiondialogues.org

Organisations wanting to become Mobilising Partners are invited to contact the Nutrition Dialogues team at info@nutritiondialogues.org.

Catalysing Systems Shifts in Global Food Systems from Dublin, Ireland

info — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 14:29:29 +0000

In late February 2024, our Strategic Director David Nabarro and colleagues visited Dublin, Ireland, participating in a number of meetings with leaders in food systems, including at Irish Aid and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine. These discussions were particularly insightful as Ireland has long been at the front and centre of the global movement on food systems and nutrition. Domestically as well, Food Vision 2030, is Ireland’s 10-year strategy for the agri-food sector which takes an ambitious food systems approach.

A feature of the visit was a public lecture at the Institute for International and European Affairs where David reflected on his current experiences with catalysing shifts in systems at a time of accelerating climate change, deepening inequalities, intense geopolitical tensions and social fragility. He set out why he remains inspired and optimistic by ongoing efforts to achieve equity, sustainability and resilience through people-centered systems transformation.

David shared his hopes for coming years, focused on local and national priorities with regard to climate action and sustainable development, and what these might mean for multilateral processes, for national governments, and for different groups of stakeholders. He noted that Ireland is already playing a leading role and could perhaps do even more – through sharing experiences more widely, as a trusted partner on the multilateral stage.

During the visit, he also found time to sit down for an interview with Claire Byrne, on RTÉ Radio 1 (listen here) with whom he had many interactions with throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They delved into a discussion about food systems, reflected on the COVID-19 pandemic response as well as more personal aspects about David’s life and achievements alongside the current events of the day.

The team returned to Geneva stimulated by the conversations, but more importantly by the people they met and their dedication to domestic and international food systems transformation. The team were also particularly encouraged by the broad appreciation of dialogue-based approaches when responding to complex systemic challenges such as food systems transformation.

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Watch the public lecture:

Listen to the public lecture on SoundCloud:

IIEA · Advancing Food Systems Transformations: A Personal View

Climate change provokes urgent action on food systems everywhere

info — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:41:14 +0000

It can no longer be a case of ‘business as usual’ when it comes to food production.

A “comment” by Agnes Kalibata and David Nabarro, featured in The Telegraph on 22 December 2023. Click here to view the original article.

CREDIT: boezie/E+

As 2023 draws to a close, with the world hotter than ever and on track to exceed 1.5 degrees warming, world leaders are increasingly concerned and strive ever harder to agree on ambitious climate action. They have focused on an increasingly pressing issue: food.

The interactions between food and climate had surfaced around the UN’s Food Systems Summit in 2021, where it became clear that climate change threatens agricultural productivity, disrupts food supply chains, reduces resilience, erodes the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food workers, and threatens food and nutrition security (especially for women and children).  The impact of these interactions on people has been exacerbated by the impacts of Covid-19, increased levels of conflict, and increases in the cost-of-living.

At the Cop28 annual climate meeting, in Dubai, the governments of 154 countries endorsed the groundbreaking Cop28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action. They committed to address both food system vulnerabilities to climate change and the impacts of food systems on climate and nature. This is an important first, and a sign of the concerns being felt everywhere.

In Europe the concerns are felt in higher food prices, and strained household budgets as a result of income poverty (which threatens more than 20 per cent of the population). In Sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers whose communities depend on agriculture are bearing the brunt of record high temperatures and extreme weather events.

In addition, modern food systems drive 90 per cent of deforestation and 60 per cent of biodiversity loss, and account for 70 per cent of the world’s use of fresh water.  They are also reliant on fossil fuels which are used for production of pesticides; synthetic fertilisers and plastics; and in processing, transport, distribution and cooking. Overall, food systems contribute over one third of global greenhouse gas emissions.

A global collaboration

Cop28 has provided a remarkable opportunity for accelerating the transformation of food systems in ways that align with intentions for climate action, protecting nature, improving nutrition and safeguarding rural livelihoods.

Everyone has a role: rethinking and innovating on how food is produced, stored, packed, processed, traded, distributed, marketed, consumed and disposed of. At Cop28, it was evident that farmers seek to be partners in the transformation — which should be informed by evidence and experience, and involve marginalised and vulnerable groups. Traditional agricultural approaches, which have produced food in harmony with nature for millennia, should also inform this process.

Improved weather forecasting is one example of a technology available today, with the potential to benefit 260-305 million farmers in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Multiple studies have shown that farmers across these regions adjust their behavior and investment decisions based on these highly specific forecasts, and the payoff is clear. In Benin, for example, farmers who received SMS forecasts earned $104-$356 more per year than farmers who did not.

Implementing transformation is not easy and will require a significant financial commitment. At Cop28, we saw some progress. Representatives of the half billion small-scale farmers and fisherfolk, many from the communities most vulnerable to climate impacts, pointed out during the Cop that they need support as they struggle to adapt to a warming world. Notably, several financial pledges were announced while others are in the making.

Government representatives described their plans to incorporate action on climate and biodiversity within efforts to transform national food and water systems in ways that contribute to food and nutrition security for all and encourage the reliance of farmer livelihoods. Representatives of international organisations described how they will intensify collaboration to ensure intensified support for these national efforts. New multi-stakeholder partnerships for research, innovation and collective are being developed.

Government involvement in transforming food systems is crucial since governments provide the enabling conditions for producers and consumers to make healthier and more sustainable food choices. School meal programs, for example, feed over 400 million children worldwide, providing a huge, predictable market for food. Large-scale public programs such as these offer a unique opportunity for governments to procure food that is nutritious and sustainably sourced, impacting food systems and improving diets on a national scale.

The potential prize is great. We are witnessing innovative solutions that help address food and nutrition insecurity while contributing to action on climate and biodiversity crises, but these solutions need to be adopted and deployed globally. This must be done in close collaboration with farmers, businesses, civil society, local authorities, national governments, and international processes. It is anticipated that the UAE will encourage a constellation of convergent support during 2024, the year of its Cop presidency.

Left as they are, food systems will continue to accelerate climate breakdown and biodiversity decline, fail to nourish people and leave them exposed to future shocks. With concerted attention they can provide food that is healthy, affordable and nutritious, help halt and reverse biodiversity collapse, and insulate humanity from future climate shocks that are inevitable for the coming decades.

For humanity, everywhere, usual food business is no longer an option.

Agnes Kalibata is President of AGRA and former UN Special Envoy for the UN Food Systems Summit; David Nabarro is Strategic Director of 4SD Foundation and adviser to Cop28.

Africa: beyond food security

info — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 16:19:46 +0000

Ad Spijkers worked as a representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and is now part of a group of Wageningen development veterans with extensive experience in Africa and Asia. This article is a revision and english translation of a column, pictured below, which was published in the December 2023 issue of the Dutch magazine Vork (https://www.vork.org).

A prosperous Africa has a lot to offer Europe. Stable food production and food security are the basic conditions for prosperity for our southern neighbors. An attractive, resilient economy in Africa is also essential for Europe.

Africa has a plethora of assets: half of the population is under 25 years old, the continent has a quarter of global farmland and its gigantic rainforests act as the world’s ‘green lung’. The continent has traditionally maintained good relations in food production and trade with many European countries and universities.

African science is flourishing and several countries have acquired robust research capacities, also in the agricultural domain. For instance, institutions such as Kenya’s ICIPE (insect research) and transnational research bodies such as the CGIAR lead the way in sustainable crop protection and biological control. Their activities not only benefit Africa, but are also pertinent for the envisioned pesticide phasedown within Europe’s Green Deal.

Securing a thriving agricultural sector and a stable food supply in Africa is not easy. The big cities beckon and exert a relentless attraction for young, dynamic workers. The global climate crisis and the increase (food) price volatility and production shortfalls all highlight how vital a close cooperation with Africa is for sustainable growth, stability, peace and security. Europe can play a pioneering role, provided that African countries are at the helm.

The days of charitable funding are long gone but are still reflected in the attitudes of many European countries. Partly because of this, Europe has wasted influence and goodwill on the continent. Recent military coups signal how Africa’s youth are rejecting colonialism. Colonial thinking is firmly rejected by all ages and ‘handouts’ are no longer appropriate.

Thanks to education, technological advancements and social media, today’s Africans know better. They also prefer to define their own future. A new paradigm is emerging in which African leadership, mutual respect, equality and shared perspectives must form the basis of international cooperation.According to a recent interview with the President of the African Development Bank; “the highway to wealth is through global value chains”. “One needs to add value to everything you have, from oil to metal ore and food.” However, Africa would be hampered in its sustainable development, if too much emphasis is placed on the next outflow of primary raw materials.

In contrast, value-added manufacturing can absorb young workers and lift the continent out of poverty. In close cooperation with the Netherlands and the EU, Africa can invest strategically in food, agriculture and growth-promoting chains/sectors.

Although starting points differ, important lessons can be drawn from Asian countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and others. Over a span of decades, these countries lifted large shares of their population out of poverty and managed to achieve steady economic growth. Much can be gained through South-South cooperation and Europe could play a pivotal role in orchestrating such knowledge exchange or mutually beneficial ‘cross-pollination’.

Europe must also realize that its relationship with the countries in Africa has changed dramatically. For example, the African Union recently became a member of the G20. It is taking on the role within the multipolar and multilateral world order that it envisioned when the organization was founded in 1999 (Sirte Declaration).

The advisory letter ‘Urgency of a new Dutch Africa Strategy’ from the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) can – given geopolitical changes – serve as a starting point to bring about a paradigm shift in the attitude of the Netherlands and other countries in Europe. Yet, these are not easy messages.

Other positive signals could be sent. For instance, Europe can point out even more emphatically to African countries that they have the right to end food imports from Europe at ‘dumped prices’. During this consultation, agreements can also be made about the use of natural resources and investments in the processing of natural raw materials. This contributes to ironing out bilateral issues regarding mutual access to the EU market and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

It takes two to tango. The mutual interests of both Africa and Europe are best served by developing agriculture. Doing so can end hunger and poverty and provide much needed stimulus for sustainable economic growth. If Europe does not step to the fore and assume its role, it might lose more than a mere supplier of cheap raw materials.

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