AKADEMIYA2063’s portal on food systems transformation and the UN Food Systems Summit 2021 (UNFSS)
ONGOING
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The 8th meeting of the Malabo Montpellier Forum took place on 5 July 2021 and saw the launch of the Panel’s report Connecting the dots: Policy innovations for food systems transformation. It brought together senior government representatives from 13 African countries – Benin, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, The Gambia, Tunisia, and Uganda. The Forum also drew speakers from development partners and global think tanks, such as Dr. Godfrey Bahiigwa, Director of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DARBE) at the African Union Commission, Ms. Gunhild Stordalen, Founder and Executive Chair at the EAT Foundation and Dr. Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President for the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. In addition, representatives from various partner organizations joined the meeting including AfDB, FAO, FCDO, FANPRAN, GIZ, and OECD. Finally, Malabo Montpellier Panel members HE Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, Prof Muhammadou Kah, Dr Elisabeth Claverie de Saint-Martin, Ms Nachilala Nkombo, Dr Debisi Araba, Mr Tom Arnold and Prof Sheryl Hendriks participated in the Forum. Because of the nature of the topic, it was the first time that the Malabo Montpellier Forum partnered with other institutions to co-host the event: AUC DARBE, The Rockefeller Foundation and the UNFSS Scientific Group. The Forum was also an official side event of the UNFSS Science Days.
The Malabo Montpellier Panel’s most recent report – Connecting the dots: Policy innovations for food systems transformation – was published in July 2021 and presents a collation of African perspectives and priorities on food systems and their transformation. A technical part summarizes policy areas that need to be prioritized to enhance and transform African food systems. The second part presents case studies of four African countries that have already made significant and visionary progress in transforming their food systems. By combining the High-level Panel of Experts (HLPE) definition of sustainable food systems and the latest data on country performance against CAADP indicators, four African countries were identified – Ghana, Malawi, Morocco, and Rwanda – that are leaders within their regions in adopting a more holistic approach to food systems transformation. These case studies have a particular focus on the lessons to be learned from government action: policy and institutional innovations and programmatic interventions on the ground – and interventions that can be scaled up and scaled out across the continent. -
AKADEMIYA2063 has been invited by the African Union Commission to participate, as part of a group of Senior Officials and Experts, in the development of the Africa Common Position to the UN Food Systems Summit. A meeting on 1 July served to review a draft Common Position and to prepare for the Extra-Ordinary Session of the AU Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDWE) on 15 July 2021, preceded by a meeting of the Bureau of the STC on 8 July 2021. The Extra-Ordinary Session of the STC on ARDWE will meet to consider for endorsement, the draft African Common Position to the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) that will be held in September 2021. The draft Africa common position on food systems has emerged out of wide and highly consultative and iterative processes with AU Member States’ perspectives, aspirations, priorities and experiences as the primary basis of the position. The position is also informed by existing continental policy frameworks such as Agenda 2063, CAADP Malabo declaration among others. It has also benefitted from outcomes of independent dialogues organized by farmer organizations, civil society, academic and research institutions, among others.
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The Department of Policy Innovation oversees and coordinates AKADEMIYA2063’s involvement in the Food System Transformative Integrated Policy (FS-TIP) initiative that was launched to support African governments in realizing this transformation - in the lead up to the 2021 UNFSS and importantly beyond the Summit. As part of a coalition between African Population and Health Research Center, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Boston Consulting Group (BCG), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), The Rockefeller Foundation, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and World Food Programme, AKADEMIYA2063 is involved in the first phase of FS-TIP which runs the diagnostics work for two of the three countries, namely Malawi and Ghana. Several country policy briefs are currently in preparation, while a first brief about the project has been published.
AKADEMIYA2063’s activities on food systems transformation are implemented through the Malabo Montpellier Panel, which receives funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), UK aid from the UK Government, and the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Feed the Future Policy LINK program under the Cooperative Agreement 7200AA19CA00019. The views expressed in the publications do not necessarily reflect those of the funders.
