Tools to support Food Systems Transformation
Releasing the brake on food systems transformation: Africa-focus
Policy Brief Series
Since the lead-up to the UNFSS, we have been supporting countries to draw up pathways to better food systems, and to begin walking the talk. But many constraints still hinder progress, and reforms are sorely needed.
That’s why we have worked with governments to develop and implement a series of practical tools to strengthen policy decision making processes and capacities. These are tools created to give users a hand over major, common barriers. They are also designed to align with or to support ongoing national processes, such as monitoring plans, or indeed continental and transnational ambitions, including the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), and the seven aspirations of Agenda 2063 which call for a more prosperous, integrated, democratic, peaceful, pan- African, people-driven, and influential Africa by 2033.
The tools collected here can be instrumental: in diagnosing food systems to identify critical gaps and untapped opportunities; in shaping nimble action plans in line with national priorities; in identifying much-needed policy reforms to ensure sectors act alongside each other, rather than against; and in providing new ways to effectively navigate political, financial, and technical impediments. Barriers have stood in the path of meaningful progress for too long – we must break through them.
The Food Systems Dashboard Framework
The Food Systems Dashboard is organized along a framework that includes the components of food systems – food supply chains, food environments, and individual factors – and the drivers that influence these. The framework also includes the outcomes of food systems – diets, food security, nutrition and health, livelihoods, the environment, and equity – as well as cross-cutting issues of governance and resilience. Food systems influence diets by determining which foods are produced, which foods are accessible, both physically and economically, and people’s food preferences. They are also critical for ensuring food and nutrition security, people’s livelihoods, and environmental sustainability.
Partners
