Call for experts on Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems

The HLPE-FSN is looking for ad hoc experts to draft the report on “Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems”, to be launched in July 2026.

Send your application to become an HLPE-FSN expert using this link

All applications will be treated confidentially. 

Deadline: 16 December 2024 

The selected experts will be responsible for contributing, according to the agreed division of responsibilities and disciplinary background as guided by the team leader, to the preparation of the report and the submission of its successive drafts and deliverables, in close collaboration with the HLPE-FSN Steering Committee, made up of 15 world-renowned scientists in a variety of food security and nutrition-related fields, and in coordination with the HLPE-FSN Secretariat. 

Selected experts will have the opportunity to serve as co-authors of the HLPE-FSN flagship report and actively participate in the CFS public debate, as integral members of the HLPE-FSN initiative. Additionally, they may engage in various public events and publications, providing opportunities for broader dissemination of their expertise and insights, should they desire and circumstances allow. 

Selected experts will participate in the work of the HLPE-FSN in their individual capacities, not as representatives of their respective governments, institutions or organizations. 

The HLPE-FSN Steering Committee will ensure that the final composition of the report's drafting team ensures diversity of required scientific competencies, as well as the best possible age, gender and geographical representation balance, as well as a compact and functional team. The competencies available within the team will be complemented by those available within the HLPE-FSN Steering Committee. It is expected that two face-to-face or hybrid meetings of three days each will be organized during the elaboration of the report, complemented by weekly or bi-weekly virtual meetings. Assignments are unremunerated, although all related expenses will be covered by the HLPE-FSN Secretariat. 

Among the specific responsibilities of selected experts are the following: 

• participate in virtual and face-to-face project team meetings; 
• provide timely written inputs and other contributions to the successive drafts of the HLPE-FSN report; 
• contribute to addressing comments received at different stages of the report preparation and undertake revisions of the report as directed by the Team Leader; 
• contribute to the presentation of the report in different events and fora and contribute to further outreach and dissemination; and 
• follow the guidelines of the HLPE-FSN working processes, which ensure legitimacy among stakeholders and a high degree of scientific quality, involving broad stakeholder consultations and the incorporation of different forms of knowledge and expertise, as well as a rigorous scientific peer-review process. 

For more detailed information on the HLPE-FSN report process, please consult the HLPE-FSN procedures. 

Requirements 

Candidates will need to be experts in food security and nutrition and Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems.

Candidates should possess the following:

• ability to work well in diverse and remote teams;
• excellent oral and written communication skills in English, especially to policy audiences;
• interpersonal skills and ability to work in teams;
• ability to work under pressure and respect tight deadlines; and
• previous experience writing reports and documents to inform food security and nutrition policy.

Context

Indigenous Peoples have deep and enduring connections, along with inherent and granted roles and rights, related to food systems, knowledge systems and traditional practices. Unique and sophisticated food systems-related knowledge is possessed by Indigenous Peoples, much of which is undocumented and therefore un- or under-utilized. Even when it is documented, indigenous knowledge is often overlooked and rarely recognized as having scientific value, resulting in its exclusion from published literature. 

The High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has been analyzing issues related to Indigenous Peoples and indigenous knowledge in all its reports, and with increasing frequency in recent years. Sustainable Forestry for Food Security and Nutrition (2017) makes ten recommendations specific to Indigenous Peoples. Integration of transdisciplinary science and indigenous knowledge in participatory innovation processes that transform food systems is recommended in the 2019 HLPE-FSN Report, Agroecological and other innovative approaches for sustainable agriculture and food systems that enhance food security and nutrition. In the 2022 HLPE-FSN Note on Critical, Emerging and Enduring Issues for Food Security and Nutrition, the need to build meaningful interfaces for diverse knowledge and practices is emphasized. It states that Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge systems are methodologically, substantively and contextually strong, and can contribute to evidence-based agricultural and food system policies and programmes, and deliver solutions, across important dimensions of FSN. 

Much has been documented on the consequences for Indigenous Peoples when separated from their traditional food systems. Those consequences include food insecurity, malnutrition, loss of food biodiversity, and opportunity loss for transforming food systems to be more resilient and sustainable (Kuhnlein et al., 2009, 2013). The 2023 HLPE-FSN report on Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition, recommends that policy and legislation should be informed by indigenous knowledge and related data, to broaden the spectrum of evidence for FSN policy and action, and address the systemic inequalities disproportionately affecting Indigenous Peoples. 

Reviewing, consolidating, and presenting FSN recommendations from relevant sectors and disciplines will bring much-needed attention to policy imperatives for achieving the CFS vision and the SDGs; and for advancing progress on realizing the right to food and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

Guiding principles

While drafting the report, HLPE-FSN experts will adhere to the following guiding principles, in addition to the established HLPE-FSN working procedures, to ensure legitimacy among stakeholders and maintain a high degree of scientific quality: 

• The rights-based policy framework includes the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the right to food, and the rights of nature, along with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). 
• Consistent with the wording of the CFS request, and in respect of the position of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and that of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the focus on ‘food and knowledge systems’ will be Indigenous Peoples exclusively (i.e., it will not include terms such as ‘local communities’). 
• The report will be focused on Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems, as elaborated in the CFS MYPOW.
• The report will also address traditional knowledge and practices covering those from cultures and communities with heritages and legacies of place (e.g., local communities), and those designated as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)).
• A review of relevant policy recommendations from a range of scientific and intergovernmental processes will be conducted. 
• Relevant text and recommendations from previous HLPE-FSN reports will be reviewed, updated, and corrected as appropriate. 
• Current disparate, conflicting, contradictory, and controversial issues will be addressed, along with ramifications, repercussions and unintended consequences for Indigenous Peoples from unrelated, and/or well-meaning policies and processes. 
• Recommendations will be directed to CFS, UN agencies, the private sector, civil society organizations, national and local governments, academia and research sector, and Indigenous Peoples’ mechanisms and governing bodies as rights holders. 
• All consultations, content of the report and especially all recommendations will respect Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), principles of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS, 2011), and sovereignty issues around food and information.  

To learn more about the report and the ongoing consultation on its scope, please click here

To apply to the HLPE-FSN drafting team expert call, please click here.