Presentation on "The 2021 Food Systems Summit: Relevance for Africa and African Perspectives"

1. The 2021 Food Systems Summit:
Relevance for Africa and African Perspectives
November 4, 2020

2. What do we mean by Food Systems?
2Source: https://www.nourishlife.org/teach/food-system-tools/

3. Food Systems are therefore connected to all our goals. They are one of the
biggest problems, when they can be one of our biggest solutions.
3Source: FAO
Right now, many of the world’s food systems are failing –
for people, for environment, and for our shared future
• Hunger - 690 million people are hungry (more than 250 million
in Africa)
• FLFW - one-third of all food is either lost or wasted
• Malnutrition – now the number one factor contributing to the
global burden of disease and reduced life expectancy (more
than 70% of Africans cannot afford a healthy diet)
• Obesity – more than 2 billion people are overweight or obese
• Climate change – Food systems contribute up to 29% of all GHG
emissions
• Biodiversity loss - agriculture responsible for up to 80%
• Water use - agriculture accounts for up to 70%
• Deforestation – agriculture accounts for up to 80%
• Energy – agriculture account for more than 25%
This is not only relevant for the SDGs, but also all the goals
laid out in the Malabo Declaration and AU Agenda 2063.

4. The Food Systems Summit will serve as a turning point in the world’s journey
to achieve the SDGs
4
With 10 years to go, we are not on track to achieve many of
the SDGs.
There is scientific consensus that transforming food
systems also offers one of the single strongest
opportunities we have to change course and realize the
vision of the 2030 Agenda, and to support the Secretary-
General’s call to “build back better” from COVID-19.
The Summit will unleash bold new actions, innovative
solutions, and strategies to transform our food systems and
leverage these shifts to deliver progress across all of the
SDGs.
“Transforming food systems is crucial for delivering
all the Sustainable Development Goals.”
- António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, 2019

5. The COVID-19 Pandemic only reinforces the importance of food systems
and the Food Systems Summit
5
• We share a deep concern for the human cost that the pandemic has already inflicted upon our world.
• This crisis demonstrates how much we depend on each other, for our health and economic systems, as well as for our
food systems, all the way from how we produce food to the supply chains that bring it to our homes. Indeed, as
highlighted in the Secretary-General’s recent Policy Brief, food systems directly employ over 1 billion people.
• The crisis has also highlighted many of our challenges and the fragility of our systems,
particularly for the most marginalized populations but also the interconnectedness of
global challenges. These problems can only be managed only through collective action that
builds resilient systems long before they become full-blown crises. They must be acted
upon not only as singular threats with emergency response, but as a series of shocks with
a long-term approach for improved food systems and more resilient societies.
“We must invest in the future, even as we work to urgently mitigate the impacts of the
present crisis.” - António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, 2020

6. Our Focus is on Five Objectives to Advance with this Summit
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1. Ensuring Access to Safe and Nutritious Food for All (enabling all people to be well nourished and healthy, progressive
realization of the right to food)
2. Shifting to Sustainable Consumption Patterns (promoting and creating demand for healthy and sustainable diets,
reducing waste)
3. Boosting Nature-Positive Production at Sufficient Scales (acting on climate change, reducing emissions and increasing
carbon capture, regenerating and protecting critical ecosystems and reducing food loss and energy usage, without
undermining health or nutritious diets)
4. Advancing Equitable Livelihoods and Value Distribution (raising incomes, distributing risk, expanding inclusion,
promoting full and productive employment and decent work for all)
5. Building Resilience to Vulnerabilities, Shocks and Stresses (ensuring the continued functionality of healthy and
sustainable food systems)
The Summit will also address cross-cutting issues such as finance, policy, innovation, indigenous knowledge, and the
empowerment of women, young people and marginalized groups.

7. Summit Outcomes
7
In this context, it is envisioned that the Summit will result in at least the following outcomes:
• Dramatically elevated public discourse about the importance of food systems leading to the achievement of the
SDGs and what to do to get the public working for people and planet.
• Significant action, with measurable outcomes that enable achievement of the 2030 goals. This will include
highlighting existing solutions and celebrating leaders in food systems transformation, as well as calling for new
actions worldwide by different actors, including countries, cities, companies, civil society, citizens, and food
producers.
• A high-level summary and call to action developed through the process that will support Member States and other
stakeholders to leverage their food systems capacity to reach the SDGs. Distilled through all elements of the
preparatory process, these will summarize the optimistic and encouraging vision in which food systems play a
central role in delivering on the vision of the 2030 Agenda.
• A system of follow-up and review that will drive new actions and results, allow for sharing of experiences, lessons,
and knowledge, and incorporate new metrics for impact analysis.

8. The Summit must be both a “People’s Summit” and a “Solutions Summit”
8
The need is urgent, and our ambition is high.
Food systems touch all of society, and all stakeholders – every
government, organization, individual – need to do more. As a result,
this must not be ‘just another conference’, but a broad, global,
inclusive, all-of-society engagement process.
This is an agenda that must be owned by everyone, and so the
Summit will seek to get all ideas on the table and to ensure action
is owned and driven by different actors. It will awaken the world to
the fact that we all must work together to transform the way the
world produces, consumes and thinks about food.
The Summit will also leverage connections with other processes and
respond to the “systems” approach. It will establish linkages and
ongoing connectivity between these inter-connected processes.
UNFCCC
COP
CFS
UNCBD
Oceans
Conference
UNEAUNCCD
N4G
Gender
Equality
Forum
UN LDC-
V
Financing for
Development
Figure: Processes for deep collaboration
(not exhaustive)

9. Advocacy, Communications, &
Mobilization
Action TracksEvidence, Knowledge, & Policy
Dialogues & Engagement
Digital Platform
Summit Moments Post- Summit
The Summit Work Streams are Designed to Deliver on this Vision
“World Class Evidence
& Tools”
“Place-based and
constituency-led actions for
transformation”
“Game-changing
initiatives for
transformation”
“Continuous
Review and
Progress”
“Elevate Food in
the Discourse,
Drive the
Movement”
“Elevate vision,
unlock actions,
accelerate
progress”
“Ensure a “People’s Summit” that reaches everyone and empowers
them to engage to advance their own goals”
9

10. The Scientific Group sits at the heart of Evidence, Knowledge, and Policy
10
1
The Scientific Group is composed of a Chair, 3 Vice Chairs, and 25 members from
across various disciplines: Natural sciences, agronomy, livestock, nutrition,
health, life sciences, ecology, natural resources, social sciences.
Their mandate is to:
• Ensure that the Summit brings to bear the foremost scientific evidence from
around the world and helps expand the base of shared knowledge about
experiences, approaches, and tools for driving sustainable food systems that
will inform the future…
• Help pull together applied science-based syntheses and analyses of the
trade-offs faced by food system actors, linking with ongoing initiatives...
• Inform the Summit’s content, recommended outcomes, clarify the level of
ambition and commitments that will emerge from the Summit…”
In order to do this, they will engage hundreds if not thousands of other
independent experts across various technical areas and regions.

11. Core Team
(N~10)
Serve as AT secretariat
to Leadership Team
Leadership Team
(N~30)
Providing advice to Core team on
how to take forward ideas
generated from Platforms; linking
into important/new networks;
development of commitments
around operationalized ideas.
Open Platforms for Discussion, Collective
Action and Innovation
(N ~ however many needed)
Sources of game changing ideas, testing
and socialization of ideas developed,
generation of enthusiasm, innovation.
Open platforms feeding into Leadership
Team.
Action Tracks
platform
platform
platform
platform
Closely engaged
member states
platformEach AT
Some
Champions
Network
members
Some
Scientific
Group
members
Food System
Dialogues:
curated and
organic
11
2
The Action Tracks offer all constituencies a space to share and learn, with a view to supercharging their progress by fostering
new actions and partnerships and by amplifying existing initiatives

12. Member State Dialogues: Three stage progression October 2020 to June 2021
• Organized by National Authorities, involving leaders of food system stakeholder groups.
• Participants explore options for the future of local and national food systems.
• Shape national pathway to sustainable food systems by 2030, and encourage
commitments from different stakeholders.
• Findings are posted on the Dialogue Gateway website and synthesised.
Global Dialogues: At high-level international and regional events
• Organized on behalf of Summit Secretariat.
• Exploring interconnections of food systems with global action for good nutrition,
climate action, biodiversity, the ocean, finance, women’s empowerment, against
desertification, and more.
Independent Dialogues: Organized by anyone in any local food system
• Toolkits accessed by individuals and organizations to establish multi-stakeholder
dialogues.
• When dialogues follow the Summit principles their findings are posted on the Dialogue
Gateway website.
Food Systems Summit Dialogues
The Food Systems Summit Dialogues were launched on World Food Day, and they are planned at three different levels
in addition to online engagement.
3
12

13. Overview of the Advocacy, Communications, and Mobilization Work Stream
13
4
The Summit’s success will depend on increasing awareness, shaping the narrative, and driving mobilization around food
systems at the heart of the SDGs.
Activities Include:
• Working with and through the Champions Network and
constituency groups to harness the widest possible
support across all stakeholders with equal status and
ideas to drive a new coalition for food systems
transformation;
• Engaging a wide range of constituencies in international
and local markets to raise awareness, commitment to the
agenda, and desire to take action – websites, online
platforms, social media channels, etc;
• Building and managing strategic coalitions with advocacy
and communications groups to develop and drive a global
digital campaign with creative and targeted content which
will resonate with the focused audience groups and in
local markets toward and beyond the Summit;
African Leaders in Initial Champions
Become a Food Systems Hero
• Godfrey Bahiigwa, AUC
• Kanayo Nwanze, CGIAR
• Lucy Muchoki, Pan-African
Agribusiness Consortium
• Bonolo Monthe, Generation
Africa
• Theo de Jager, World Farmers Org
• Ishmael Sunga, SACAU
• Divine Ntioka, CSAYN
• Jemimah Njuki, IFPRI
• Hindou Ibrahim, SDG
Advocates and Association of
Peul Women and
Autonomous Peoples of Chad
• Mike Khunga, Scaling Up
Nutrition Youth Network
• H.E. Cardinal Peter Turkson,
Vatican
• Michael Taylor, International
Land Coalition

14. Overview of the Digital Platform Work Stream
14
5
A powerful digital platform will provide a universally accessible, dynamic, and inclusive platform where the Summit
process will be accessible 24/7 up to and beyond the Summit. As a “People’s Summit”, this will enable the Summit to
reach into all countries of the world and directly to as many communities and individuals as possible to engage them
around the Summit and advance a conversation around the opportunities for improvements in food systems to help
achieve all of their goals.
Activities Include:
• Knowledge management for all Summit efforts;
• Enable dynamic conversation and productive collaboration aross different stakeholder groups;
• Enabling online surveys and consultations with global constituencies;
• Sourcing, synthesizing, and tracking actions and commitments to action from all actors;
• Sharing framework, tools, and materials for hundreds of individuals – even billions – to engage with the Summit
over the next two years.
This digital platform will intentionally look to build on and intersect with existing platforms to ensure scale of reach and
sustainability after the Summit.

15. Advisory
Committee
Scientific
Group
Champions Network
Food Systems Summit Support Structures
15
UN Task Force

16. Summit Approach and Phases
16
The Food Systems Summit itself is a pinnacle moment that must ultimately culminate from significant preparatory activities
and will be followed up by several other efforts to ensure the it translates into action and impact to deliver its intended
vision. These phases of work are just getting started:
Mar
2022
Summer
2021
Oct
2020
July
2020
Sept
2021
1st Advisory
Committee
Meeting
Pre-Summit
Meeting
Food Systems
Summit
Phase 1
Inception
Phase 2
Consultation
and Ideation
Phase 4
Cultivating
Commitments
Phase 3
Prioritization, Setting the
Agenda, & Refining the Case
Phase 5
Summit
Delivery
Phase 6
Summit
Follow-Up
BreadthofIdeas
Jan
2021
World Food
Day

17. This work is already underway. Africa needs to lead in this new era.
17
Major Opportunities:
• Enhance the evidence base and
understanding of food systems
improvements to prioritize in African
countries and communities
• Support Food Systems Summit Dialogues,
both country-level and independent
• Contribute game-changing solutions and
commitments to action
• Mobilize more networks and elevate the
discourse