In September or October 2021, the UN Secretary-General will convene a Food Systems Summit with the aim of maximizing the co-benefits of a food systems approach across the entire 2030 Agenda and meeting the challenges of climate change. The Summit aims to provide a platform for ambitious new actions, innovative solutions, and plans to transform food systems and leverage these shifts to deliver progress across all of the SDGs. It is envisioned that the Summit will have objectives and outcomes including to:
- Raise awareness of food systems’ centrality to the entire sustainable development agenda, and the urgency of transforming food systems, particularly in the wake of a global pandemic;
- Align stakeholders around a common understanding and narrative of a food system framework as a foundation for concerted action, making food and food systems a more widespread issue for advocacy and action to achieve the 2030 Agenda;
- Recognize the need for inclusivity and innovation in food systems governance and action;
- Motivate and empower stakeholders who support food systems transformation through the development of improved tools, measurement, and analysis; and
- Catalyze, accelerate, and enlarge bold action for the transformation of food systems by all communities, including countries, cities, companies, civil society, citizens, and food producers.
By delivering on these objectives, the 2021 Food Systems Summit provides an opportunity for us to review our choices and be bold on the outcomes we seek throughout the Decade of Action, and put the world on a new trajectory within a generation.