An invitation to engage in the Food Systems Summit

With 10 years to go, we are not on track to achieve many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is scientific consensus that transforming food systems offers one of the single strongest opportunities we have to “build back better” from COVID 19 and deliver progress across all of the SDGs.

As a part of the Decade of Action for the SDGs, the United Nations Secretary-General is convening a Food Systems Summit in 2021. The Summit is aimed at empowering people to leverage food systems as accelerators of progress so we collectively move in a clear direction to scale up food systems approaches that are working for all people and the planet, supercharging the pace of our progress to win the fight against all forms of malnutrition. •

The process leading up to the Food Systems Summit has now been announced. It will be structured around five objectives, or “action tracks” as follows:

1. Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all (enabling all people to be 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 scale (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, promote full and productive employment and decent work for all)
5. Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress (ensuring the continued functionality of healthy and sustainable food systems)

Some of SUN’s strongest allies and advocates have been selected as Leading Experts for those action tracks : Gunhild Stordalen, founder and Executive Chair of the EAT Foundation and SUN Lead Group Member will chair action track 2, Lawrence Haddad Executive Director of GAIN and SUN Executive Committee member will chair action track 1 and last but not least, Mike Khunga, one of the SUN Movement’s Youth Leaders for Nutrition, will co-chair action track 5.

It is important to note that these Action Tracks do not exist in silos. They are expected to think through their linkages with others, incorporate the co-benefits and trade-offs associated with alternative sets of action, and develop collaborative and coordinated action around key cross-cutting levers of change such as finance, policy, innovation, governance, data and evidence including scientific and indigenous knowledge, the empowerment of women, young people and marginalized groups, and respect cultural differences.

We want to hear from you!

Member States are invited to express their interest in one Action Track of their choice to the Food Systems Summit secretariat as soon as possible. We encourage SUN countries to get in touch with their permanent representatives to the United Nations in New York in order to do so. SUN stakeholders are invited to join, participate and possibly organise Food Systems Dialogues at national and subnational levels (more on that very soon!). SUN stakeholders are also invited to join, participate and possibly organise Food Systems Dialogues at national and subnational levels (more on that very soon!). They also have the option to select and propose Food Systems Summit’s Champions!

Please feel free to direct any questions and suggestions to the SUN Movement Secretariat. We are here to support you and ensure the process leading to the Food Systems Summit is inclusive of all SUN Stakeholders and results in ambitious nutrition outcomes to make a true difference in SUN countries.

Keep updated

• UN Food Systems Summit 2021 – @FoodSystems

• Food Systems Dialogues – @FoodDialogues