The Agroecology Fund, Dominican Republic, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, IPES-Food, and SDG2 Advocacy Hub co-hosted a side event on February 11, 2021, at the 47th Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). The side event brought together diverse stakeholders to explore pathways to uphold integrated, participatory and inclusive food systems governance, in the context of the upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) and beyond. 

In the face of multiple and urgent threats from Covid-19 to climate change, governance determines “who has power over how the food system will be transformed,” noted the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food,as he called for a rights-based approach that included agroecology and Indigenous knowledge in the UNFSS agenda. 

Ambassadors from the Dominican Republic and France emphasized the importance of civil society engagement through the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) of the CFS; they held that a holistic, multilateral approach would be key to a meaningful Summit later this year, and to successfully eradicate global hunger and achieve SDG2 in decades to come.

Speakers from the CSM were critical of what they described as the corporate capture of the UNFSS. They reiterated the need to center CFS—where civil society and a science-policy interface have been guaranteed representation since its reform in 2009—as the overarching mechanism for robust food systems governance. Just as food is diverse, so too should the diverse voices and perspectives represented in the CFS be respected as we ensure equitable and sustainable food systems, the CSM delegates emphasized. 

Discussants demanded that governance address existing asymmetries of power. The spokesperson from the UN Global Indigenous Youth Caucus called for the participation of marginalized groups —women, Indigenous peoples, and youth— to be ensured at the Summit and beyond. Indeed, questions of accountability and political economy should not be sidelined, cautioned the former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). 

The Director of the SDG2 Advocacy Hub urged all stakeholders to embrace disruptive thinking and find common ground in the coming months, such that the UNFSS succeeds in accelerating food systems transformation. Speakers suggested a number of pathways to action, including that the Summit adopt another action track focused on reversing the corporate control of food systems; that outcomes of the Summit be sent to the CFS as a way of evaluating and operationalizing its recommendations; and that food systems reform be sought at the territorial level in support of smallholder farmers and their rights.

In his closing reflection, the CFS chair reinforced that the Committee is a unique intergovernmental and international platform that could certainly be further strengthened as a mechanism for food systems governance. Acknowledging that the CFS mechanism has an important role ahead of the Summit, and well after it, the event moderator concluded that  “integrated governance is essential for systemic change.” The moderator repeated that only by challenging established structures and improving upon them will food systems transformation be within our collective reach.

Watch the session here. Passcode: CFS47SE10+