Engagement Strategies and Recommendations for Ethiopia’s Food Systems and Nutrition Stakeholders
These fact sheets look at the roles that can be played by different stakeholders seeking to improve food systems and nutrition in Ethiopia. • Stakeholders from diverse groups have a role to play in transforming Ethiopia’s food system to address complex challenges arising across the supply chain that contribute to food insecurity and malnutrition. • Each stakeholder group must take steps towards enhancing collaboration, aligning efforts, and working to deliver a more sustainable and resilient food system for the country. • Key recommendations include strengthening government commitment, mobilising financial and technical resources, building capacity across different groups, setting up accountability mechanisms, boosting inclusivity of decision-making processes, leveraging technology and innovation, and conducting periodic assessments to identify emerging challenges and opportunities.
Cultivating Diversity: Kenya’s Bold Vision for Resilient Food Systems
Imagine a Kenya where vibrant urban markets overflow with indigenous greens, youth in peri-urban areas lead Agri-tech startups, and rural cooperatives thrive as they steward regenerative farming methods. This future was at the heart of a recent co-creation workshop in Kenya, uniting 35 food system leaders from Ministry of Agriculture, Glocolearning, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), SUN CSA and GAIN to chart pathways toward food systems diversification. Diversification has been widely identified as a strategy with great potential to build better resilience, nutrition, and equity across Kenya.
The Food Systems Countdown Initiative Webinar
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This webinar will introduce participants to the Food Systems Countdown Initiative and present the 2024 report tracking global progress on the Countdown's 50 indicators and examining interactions across indicators. The webinar will highlight how participants can use the Food Systems Dashboard to explore the Countdown's indicators. Participants will also hear from country stakeholders on the impacts of the Countdown and Dashboard and how they can help guide action.
GAIN 2025 Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Commitments
From March 27 to 28, 2025, The Government of France hosted the 2025 Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in Paris. The N4G Summit is an international conference dedicated to defeating all forms of malnutrition by bringing together governments, international organisations, philanthropies, businesses, NGOs and other key stakeholders. Its objectives are to elevate nutrition as a key priority on the global development agenda and secure concrete political and financial commitments to accelerate progress against malnutrition. In alignment with its mission to enhance nutrition outcomes by improving the consumption of nutritious and safe food for all people, GAIN registered two new commitments under the Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF) to ensure accountability in achieving its objectives. These commitments build upon those that GAIN initially registered at the 2021 Tokyo N4G Summit.
Paving The Way To Combat Malnutrition: Kenya’s National Preparations For The 2025 Paris N4G Summit
On March 27th and 28th, 2025, France hosted the Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G) in Paris. Launched in 2013 in London, N4G is a flagship international conference aimed at securing concrete political and financial commitments to combat malnutrition in all its forms. N4G brings together governments, international organisations, philanthropies, businesses, NGOs and other key stakeholders at a global and regional level to elevate nutrition as a key development agenda and accelerate progress against malnutrition.In preparation for the 2025 Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) in collaboration with The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, the Ministry of Health of Kenya, and other stakeholders, hosted several dialogues over the past months bringing together participants representing a diverse array of sectors, including civil society organizations, private sector (e.g. food production businesses), policy-makers and media. The primary objective was to mobilize and inspire Kenyan government representatives to review and develop Kenya's commitments for the 2025 N4G Summit while reflecting on the commitments it made as a nation during the 2021 Summit.
Beyond Silos: Powering Food Systems with Off-Grid Solar
This white paper explores the nexus between food systems, infrastructure and energy provided by off-grid solar (OGS) systems.8, 9, 10 The efficiency, sustainability, and productivity of food systems are deeply intertwined with energy use.11 The agricultural sector accounts for 30% of global energy consumption and requires power for food production, storage, transportation and processing. The infrastructure used to power food systems is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, accounting for at least 15% of fossil fuel use globally.12 However, in sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural production consumes significantly less energy than the global average. This limits opportunities for value addition, increases food waste due to inadequate storage and processing facilities, and contributes to low agricultural yields.
GAIN Working Paper n°49-Empowered Local Agency, Infrastructure Investment, And Governance
Food systems, important for food security, nutrition, prosperity, and environmental well-being, are integral to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Traditional food markets are strategic entry points for food systems transformation, since a diversity of stakeholders (including local producers, vendors, consumers, and government), interact routinely in these spaces. These markets connect millions of stakeholders within and across local food systems and levels of government mandates. As food-insecure regions like sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) rapidly urbanise, most urban, low-income, vulnerable communities are reliant on food purchased from markets. As such, markets are key spaces to guide vendor practices, influence consumer food choices, and strengthen inclusive governance. Despite their critical value, markets’ ‘hard’ (structures and equipment) and ‘soft’ (capacities and resources) infrastructure are significantly under-supported. Investment efforts have been challenged by a lack of understanding of how markets are embedded in the wider food system and markets’ wholesale and retail dynamics, inadequate financial models, insufficient public budgets and capacity, and limited empowerment of key stakeholders. This paper introduces and illustrates GAIN’s Inclusive Food Systems Governance Model and supporting tools. The model is designed to strengthen investment and empower voices, alongside increased efforts to ensure sustainability and resilience in traditional food markets. It has been shown to support effective market infrastructure investments, to foster local agency and inclusive and equitable food systems transformation, and to be adaptable across different contexts. The case of Marikiti Market, Machakos County (Kenya) shows the model in action, including details of specific investment components and costs. As infrastructure investments are limited, the importance of making a sound business investment case for public and private (and philanthropic) partnerships and banks to invest in traditional markets is critical.
DSG UN Amina Mohammed Calls For Accelerated Food System Transformation
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohamed calls for bold action to accelerate food system transformation. She highlights two key priorities: 1. Helping governments craft high-impact, investible actions. 2. Leveraging aid to unlock concessional loans and mobilize private sector resources for nutrition, food security, climate, resilience, and jobs. Watch the video to hear her full message