Global Panel and The United Nations Food Systems Summit
The United Nations Food Systems Summit will take place in New York in September 2021 alongside the UN General Assembly. It will seek to launch bold new actions to accelerate progress on delivering the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, each of which relies on healthier, more sustainable, and equitable food systems.
The Summit will present new opportunities to reaffirm global commitments to nutrition, as well as prioritising policy shifts, at a country level, to transition food systems towards delivering better diets that promote health and protect ecosystem services.
The Global Panel members, and members of the African Leaders for Nutrition, released a statement ahead of the Summit recognising that food systems are key to addressing global challenges embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals – relating to hunger and nutrition, health and wellbeing, poverty, inequality, climate change and the environment. It urges delegates to provide the strongest possible level of political commitment to catalysing food systems transformation. Read the full statement.
The Global Panel is providing evidence to the Summit Science Group, the Action Track leaders, and briefings to key stakeholders, as well as country-level engagement through support to the Food Systems Summit Dialogues in low and middle-income countries, building on the Panel’s successful programme of high-level roundtables. A full list of our engagement with the UNFSS can be found here.
Global Panel Member Agnes Kalibata has been appointed as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to the Summit.
The Global Panel’s recent report, Future Food Systems: For people, our planet and prosperity, is closely aligned with the objectives of the forthcoming Summit. It sets out a case for the comprehensive reform of food systems so that they can transition towards delivering sustainable, healthier diets for everyone across the world.
This transition to more sustainable, equitable food systems will require actions at multiple scales and specific to local conditions. Prioritising actions will not be easy and trade-offs will be required. The Global Panel’s summary paper Game Changing Solutions for Food System Transformation outlines the top priorities for policymakers and how they can be resourced.
