Food Systems Transformation

4SD Foundation is proud to work with partners to support efforts aligned to food systems transformation.

Food Systems Transformation

Food systems play a crucial role in human existence and have a significant impact on our health, environment, economy, and culture. They have the power to bring people together but also to cause complex challenges that affect climate, environment, education, health, human rights, peace, and security. The term “food systems” encompasses everyone involved in producing, distributing, and disposing of food, from farmers to compost facilities.

Food systems are facing unprecedented pressure and are both a cause of and possible solution to the destruction of biodiversity, with land drying up, forests being cut, and oceans being depleted. Achieving regenerative food systems requires a significant and systemic change.

COVID-19 has highlighted the fragility and inequity of food systems globally, with disruptions leading to job losses, hunger, and malnutrition, disproportionately affecting people who are already struggling. These issues are both complex and urgent and stakeholders have differing perspectives on how food systems challenges are best analysed and tackled.

4SD Foundation is proud to work with partners on food systems transformation in countries, through the Food Systems Dialogues and working with governments in preparation for and follow-up from the 2021 Food Systems Summit.

UN Food Systems Summit Continuation

As a continuation of efforts that began in 2020 to support the United Nations’s Secretary-General’s Food Systems Summit with the Summit Dialogues, 4SD is supporting the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub for fruitful Food Systems National Convenors Engagement in the 2023 Stocktaking Moment and successful leveraging of the Sustainable Development Goals Summit and Climate COP28.

This collaboration enables us at 4SD Foundation to build on our extensive experience of accompanying countries in the design of dialogues and accompanying countries in the steering of national multisectoral, multistakeholder and multilevel efforts towards transformative outcomes.

For more information about the Food Systems Coordination Hub and the 2023 Stocktaking Moment, visit https://www.unfoodsystemshub.org/en

2021 UN Food Systems Summit Dialogues

4SD made use of Living Systems Leadership in developing the Food Systems Summit Dialogues that were undertaken in advance of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit within more than 148 countries: the Dialogues led to the production of more than 113 national strategic documents which describe the pathway to food systems of the future.

Early syntheses of the Dialogues and pathways reveal how they contributed to novel patterns of thought and action around food systems. The pathways are used to guide national food systems transformation efforts and take stock of progress in the run up to the post-Summit stocktaking moment in July 2023.

For the latest information about national pathways and Summit follow-up, visit the Food Systems Coordination Hub.

For more details about the 2021 Summit, visit UN Food Systems Summit.

For more details about the Summit Dialogues process, visit the Summit Dialogues Gateway.

The Super convener @FoodSystems Summit @AminaJMohammed with national conveners from across the world. We are grateful @FoodDialogues @davidnabarro for all the effort to get us this far and beyond. @FAO @IFAD @WFP pic.twitter.com/9wPoz3kXII

— Agnes M. Kalibata (@Agnes_Kalibata) September 24, 2021

Food Systems Dialogues

Since 2018, 4SD has advocated for, and supported the use of, multi-stakeholder dialogues to build consensus around and encourage convergence on options for advancing changes in food systems through a programme of Food Systems Dialogues.

The World Economic Forum (WEF), the EAT Foundation (EAT), the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) and the Global Alliance to Improve Nutrition (GAIN) partnered to support the first series of Food Systems Dialogues between mid-2018 and early 2020. 4SD was invited to curate the Dialogues. The Secretariat was initially with EAT and – in 2019 – was taken on by 4SD.

Thanks to this support over 18 months, methods for the conduct of Dialogues and for reporting were developed, and at least 20 Dialogue events were convened with over 2,000 participants. There was clear convergence around a limited number of themes, though design and implementation of joint actions was locally specific. It was these methods that were adapted for expanded use from mid-2020 in preparation for the September 2021 UN Food Systems Summit.

For more information, visit the Food Systems Dialogues website.

Good Food Dialogues

In partnership with Food Systems for the Future, Good Food Dialogues was established in preparation of the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition & Health. The process led to the submission of more than 700 Local Dialogues and Local Voices to the White House ahead of the Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on September 28, 2022, to inform the policy conversations taking place in Washington D.C.

All the themes, identified barriers, and proposed solutions are synthesized in the Good Food Dialogues Report, Amplifying Stories of Food Access and Affordability to Shape Equitable Food Policy. The report memorializes the thoughts and recommendations from a diverse group of stakeholders who are invested in reducing food insecurity and the rate of diet-related diseases in the United States.

Good Food Dialogues continues as an effort to elevate the voices and perspectives of stakeholders of all backgrounds who believe in a multisector approach to equitably and sustainably addressing the hunger, nutrition, and diet-related disease needs of underserved and low-income communities and provides opportunities to participate in food systems change.

Visit Goodfooddialogues.com.

Partner with us

To partner with us on efforts related to food systems transformation, reach out to us via the contact page and we will come back to you asap!

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Featured activities

16 October 2020, the launch of the UN Food Systems Summit process was marked by a 24-hr Global Relay Conversation including our event, “AN APPETIZER FOR THE FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT DIALOGUES “.

11 November 2020, the Open Public Briefing provided people with information on how preparations for the Food Systems Summit are progressing, how to deliver different types of Dialogue and how Dialogues will help shape pathways to sustainable food systems.

In June 2022, we joined up with the Good Food Dialogues team to run a training and orientation session for people interested in holding a Good Food Dialogue in the lead up to the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health.