FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

Food Systems Talks: Shedding light on key game-changing solutions towards food systems transformation

Hybrid Event, 04/11/2021

In the support of the UN Food Systems Summit, the Issue-Based Coalition (IBC) on Sustainable Food Systems is launching the ‘Food Systems Talks’ series as an engaging opportunity to increase awareness on how food systems are interlinked in all three dimensions of sustainability, and why food systems transformation is necessary to achieve healthy people and a healthy Planet in a remarkable year when a number of important global processes are taking place, such as the G7, G20, COP26 summits.  

The Food Systems Talks will encourage Food Systems Summit Dialogues’ conveners and other actors to continue to the discussions and strengthen their commitment from the Summit dialogues and roadmaps, and maintain the momentum towards and beyond the Summit on 23 September.

As an active member of the IBC Sustainable Food System, FAO has advocated for the establishment of this specific Issue-Based Coalition, with the aim of promoting sustainable food systems, using a multi-sectoral approach that capitalize on the expertise of several UN agencies as an important element of the 2030 Agenda, with a strong focus on the most vulnerable groups, in line with the principle of ‘leaving no one behind’.

FAO hosts the Secretariat and co-chairs the Issue-Based Coalition on Sustainable Food Systems, along with UNICEF and WHO.

Scaling up nutrition as part of the food systems transformation 

The first Food System Talk will set the scene for the series of thematic talks, focusing on the need for a food systems transformation to achieve human and environmental health, with a special attention to nutrition having a leading role in the process, guided by the Action Tracks (particularly Action Track 1 and 2) to showcase current game-changing ideas and initiatives. 

The first Talk will also help critically review and analyze major outcomes of the UN Food System Pre-Summit, held in July in Rome, where the strong nexus between climate-nutrition-health was the centre of the debates and commitments.