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The discussion prompts for Discussion Group 2 are given below: Action Track 2 - Shift to Sustainable Consumption Patterns • What constitutes Sustainable Consumption Patterns? How can we move towards them? o Stricter governmental regulations? Or awareness campaigns and corporate volunteerism? o Taxing foods that have an adverse impact on health (such as ultra-processed food and food high in salt, sugar and fat) o How do we understand the role of advertising in encouraging consumption of unhealthy foods? Can we employ advertising to also discourage unhealthy food consumption? • How do we tac... قراءة المزيدkle food waste at various levels – post-production stage, supply chain, consumer, and retail? • Is the circular economy approach feasible? Roles of community organizations, civil society? • Any other suggestions that AT2 must include in its mandate? • Any suggestions for other Action Tracks? This discussion on AT2 revolved primarily around the question of how to define sustainable consumption and how can we move towards it. It was decided that sustainable consumption patterns would entail sustainability not just for the environment and the human body, but also over time. For this, changes needed to be made not just in production systems and government regulations but also in consumer behaviour. There was an understanding that our current food systems encourage the consumption of unhealthy, processed foods, which are not only more affordable than fresh, healthy food but also more aspirational. The role of advertising was debated in this context and the discussants agreed that punitive measures such as regulating advertisements or taxing unhealthy foods needed to be supplemented by constructive measures such as building awareness and providing affordable alternatives. Discussants also questioned the role of government in regulating food choices and consumption, as the Right to Food is recognized by the Indian constitution. The consensus was that the government’s role should involve providing information and awareness to consumers while also implementing behaviour change interventions such as removing sugary foods from checkout counters and promoting indigenous foods and kitchen gardens in schools. Government schemes and systems that are already in place, such as mid-day meals and Anganwadis, can be used to facilitate sustainable consumption at the local level. The discussants then returned to the question of who should decide the standards for healthy and sustainable diets. Everyone agreed that, while national frameworks are necessary, they need to be flexible to be adopted within local cultural and environmental contexts. Indigenous and traditional foods, wherever supported by science, should be promoted. The question of food waste was also discussed. The participants agreed that shorter value chains and the farm-to-fork approach would help in tackling food waste. Circular economy approaches should also be promoted, not just in terms of food but the overall capital of a community. The government could also play a role by regulating the food waste of food retail businesses, through certifications or ratings. قراءة القليل

The discussion prompts for Discussion Group 3 are given below: Action Track 3 - Boost Nature-Positive Production • Can we improve crop intensity and productivity while protecting and restoring the environment? How? • Can we have production practices that help create resilience to climate change while also restoring degraded ecosystems? Examples? • What needs to be done to shift to nature-positive production? o Government steps to reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture and incentivise ecosystem services? o Local input-output shops, Champion Farmers, women’s SHGs, Farmers’ Collecti... قراءة المزيدves, digital platforms? • Any other suggestions that AT3 must include in its mandate? • Any suggestions for other Action Tracks? The discussion centred on the question of what measures should be taken to shift towards nature-positive production. Many discussants highlighted certain regenerative agriculture approaches such as Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), which has been implemented in states like Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. It was agreed that there is a lack of proper scientific evidence and poor documentation of traditional natural farming practices. These should be taken up on a priority basis and disseminated to both farmers and policy makers. The importance of local level collectives such as FPOs, women's Self Help Groups (SHGs) and cooperatives in bringing about the transition to natural farming on the ground was acknowledged. The role of the government in this transition was also discussed, in terms of incentivizing and subsidizing natural farming (such as compensation for ecosystem services) instead of chemical intensive agriculture. Participants also spoke about the consumption side of the issue, as increasing the market demand for natural produce is equally important. This could be done through consumer awareness and increasing the affordability of such produce. At the same time, farmers’ incomes needed to be remunerative. Providing quality bio-inputs at low cost was also crucial to increasing farmers’ margins. قراءة القليل

The discussion prompts for Discussion Group 4 are given below: Action Track 4 - Advance Equitable Livelihoods • How do we increase employment and incomes for farm-centric, sustainable rural livelihoods? o Repurposed agricultural supports and subsidies? • How do farmers realise better prices? o Market reforms, infrastructure and linkages? o Support prices? o Strengthened local food value chains, wet markets? o Individual and collective enterprises? • Should this be complemented by a welfare approach? o Universal Basic Income or Direct Benefit Transfers? o Interest subvention? • Any othe... قراءة المزيدr suggestions that AT4 must include in its mandate? • Any suggestions for other Action Tracks? In this discussion, there were two main overarching concerns: that farmers are perceived as only ‘beneficiaries’ and not as producers, service providers and risk-taking entrepreneurs; and how should we value farmers’ contribution to the economy and ecology? The share of rural India in the national GDP is much smaller than the share of its population. This implies that, even if farmers were to get their fair portion of the consumer rupee, it might not amount to a substantial income redistribution. This calls for a more expansive understanding of the valuation of farmers’ contribution, to include ecosystem services as well as their produce. The solutions discussed for the above mentioned concerns included strengthening the local, circular economy, ensuring better price realization for farmers and creating equitable systems of production. This will involve knowledge generation at the grassroots level, enterprise development and infrastructure, all of which would require public investment. Crucial to such a transition would be farmers’ collectives and women’s SHGs, as a large proportion of small and marginal farmers are women. An appreciation for the ecological services provided by farmers should also be inculcated through mass consumer education, implemented through digital technologies. Finally, it should be remembered that the farmer is also a consumer and nutrition security should be ensured for farming households. قراءة القليل

The discussion prompts for Discussion Group 5 are given below: Action Track 5 - Build Resilience to Vulnerabilities, Shocks, and Stress • How do we prevent, cope with and mitigate the effects of shocks on vulnerable food systems actors (farmers, fishers, livestock owners)? o Social protection and safety net programmes? o Government level, community level? • Can we have food value chains resilient to economic and environmental shocks such as the recession or global pandemics? o Production-to-consumption? o Local food value chains? • How do we ensure food security for ecologically vulnerab... قراءة المزيدle and socially marginalised communities (such as indigenous farmers, coastal communities and nomadic pastoralists)? o Specific strategies? o Roles of communities, civil society, Governments? • Any other suggestions that AT5 must include in its mandate? • Any suggestions for other Action Tracks? Resilience and sustainability were two important keywords that anchored this discussion. The challenges of ensuring both resilience and sustainability, especially for marginalized and indigenous people, were discussed. Two closely linked approaches, of diversification and decentralization, emerged from the discussion. Diversity involved acknowledging the diversity of agro-ecologies in India and the world, and recognizing that diverse, localized approaches needed to be taken. Transitioning away from the monoculture, rice-wheat model of the Green Revolution would require crop diversification according to the local environment. This would not only ensure carbon sequestration but also lead to increased diversity of foods consumed. There was a consensus among the participants that production and consumption systems needed to be decentralized. This was further emphasized by the pandemic, where local supply chains became important. National and state policies needed to focus more on the principles of action and the outcomes rather than the inputs. Investing in local capacity building and consumer education would also facilitate decentralization. قراءة القليل

Despite the presence of diverse stakeholders, there were no major areas of divergence during the Dialogue. There was a broad consensus on the main issues with our food systems and the direction of their transformation. All participants were in agreement on the main findings of the Dialogue, especially on the urgent need to shift to regenerative agriculture, to empower small producers and women, to decentralize the implementation of government schemes and to build consumer awareness. There was also consensus on the ideal vision of a sustainable, equitable food system: which regenerates the envi... قراءة المزيدronment, ensures decent incomes and livelihoods for producers, and facilitates access to and consumption of nutritious, safe food. قراءة القليل

Participants were invited to propose actions and identify actors responsible for implementing these actions taking into consideration cross cutting issues including climate change, innovation, women, youth, and finance. As a result, game changing actions were proposed on each of the four identified issues related to the action tracks namely ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all, shifting to sustainable consumption pattern, boosting nature-positive production at sufficient scale, advancing equitable livelihoods and value distribution. The main outputs and messages from the two reg... قراءة المزيدional dialogues held earlier on March 9 and 11 for Arab youth and Arab stakeholders were also presented. قراءة القليل

The game changing actions identified across each of the four issues that were discussed include: 1. Call for all stakeholders to work together for implementing game changers. They all share the responsibility to shift food systems and change the rules of the game to achieve sustainable food security and nutrition for all. 2. Develop and adopt a regional guiding legislation about importance of having strategic stocks of essential commodities, whether food or non-food commodities so that it contributes to setting a safety percentage of these necessary commodities to avoid any shortages and crisi... قراءة المزيدs as witnessed during the Covid-19 pandemic. 3. Establishment of an Arab Centre for Food Security, that includes brings together Arab initiatives and that can provide appropriate financing through development and investment funds. 4. Below are the key messages emanating from the dialogue. These messages, along with other regional processes’ outcomes undertaken in the Arab Region (Arab Youth and Arab Stakeholders Dialogues), will be included, in a dedicated document that organizers will be submitting to Secretariat of the Food Systems Summit. The document will present pathways and key propositions for sustainable Arab food systems (a) Need for improved coordination and cooperation as transformation is a shared responsibility that involves partnerships among all sectors of society and transparency is a prerequisite for the success of those partnerships. (b) Adoption of a food systems approach that acknowledges inter-system and intersectoral linkages and the multiple outcomes of the food system: food security and nutrition, environmental, social and economic. (c) Development of an evidence-based decision-making process by collecting, analysing, and sharing food system data and scientific analysis for the purpose of supporting the transformation process. (d) Adoption of a context-specific approach to food systems resilience and sustainability at individual, household, social class and regional levels, taking into account shocks and stresses. (e) Addressing issues of inequalities associated with gender, age and marginalization, especially but not exclusively those relating to the food system and that impinge on food security and nutrition and equitable, sustainable and resilient livelihoods including equal pay for equal job, access and ownership of resources, and forced child labor. (f) Providing incentives for the adoption of nature-friendly technologies, entrepreneurs, climate smart agriculture, with special focus on the water, food and energy nexus as main derivatives for agricultural development and food security in the region (g) Building capacities to adapt to climate change encourages use of renewable energy for food production and processing and using modern and appropriate technologies throughout the food systems value chain. 5. The resulting document and meeting report to be shared with member countries to guide and support the national dialogues when undertaken. قراءة القليل

Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all • Monitor the quality of the raw materials involved in the production process (basic and secondary materials) • Support the inclusion of fish in the food and nutrition program • Monitor local markets in terms of food quality and compliance with standards of healthy food • Establish micro-scale food production systems in cities and villages distributed among the population and including the entire agriculture chain • Support civil society organizations in food systems and encouraging related projects • Increase collaboration betwee... قراءة المزيدn Arab countries especially those with common issues and establish mechanism between countries that aid in establishing a food security fund that supports food baskets • Develop food banks and food-for-work programs • Secure strategic Arab stocks that are not subjected to political tensions and establish an Arab food security center • Improve government support for food factories (large and medium) such as stockpiling raw materials and considering them initial parts of strategic food storage • Develop policies that control the food market and form regional operations unit that reports movement of the global stockpile of major food commodities and global price expectations • Create data centers that provide advice to food industries in Arab region • Implement an Arab regional strategy to ensure food safety • Launch the International Year of Food Security to raise awareness and develop solutions • Promote consumption of traditional food • Initiate technical, administrative, and marketing units for food factories, that can prepare food industry managers and provide quality control • Provide resources, consultations, and education to farmers and livestock keepers on how to maintain healthy and proper production. Further enhance training and specializations related to agriculture • Establish an emergency committee during crises • Encourage adoption of health standards and environmental labels, especially data related to product life-cycle analysis during the various stages of procurement, supply, storage and distribution قراءة القليل

• Enable dialogues with all the actors to reach healthy food systems • Reconsider the freedom of children to choose and buy their meals before going to school • Support production of high-quality homemade food while ensuring their affordability and promote local food production and traditional ways and educating consumers about the importance of supporting local products • Propose a World Nutrition Day • Increase consumer awareness and motivate and enable them to make good and healthy choices through social media, training and educational workshops, and providing offers on health pro... قراءة المزيدducts • Raise awareness among media workers of the importance of healthy food • Raise awareness among media workers of importance of healthy food and building on consumers' interests and perceptions of nutritional risks to change their food behavior • Set up appropriate educational programs, courses and group activities targeting children and youth to changing consumer behavior, and use social media to achieve this goal • Prepare a national action plan to develop sustainable consumption and production systems • Exchange experiences and success stories and educate consumers and producers to move towards sustainable consumption and production patterns. • Review national social protection programs, and replicate successful experiences from other countries • Establish laws to ensure product quality, impose quality control and penalties on violators, and apply food taxes • Ensure the establishment of an institutional framework concerned in transforming food systems into sustainable and healthy consumption and production systems and developing legislations that contribute to accelerating this transformation. • Enhance the role of health institutions in raising consumers ’awareness of the need to change their unhealthy • Enhance food integration departments, where each department coordinate among its members to address the quantitative or qualitative food shortage under the supervision of the United Nations as technical support. • Provide financing to private institutions on projects that adopt sustainable production systems and establish new consumption behaviors that take into account the requirements of sustainability and waste reduction • Increase investment in innovation and logistics systems such as climate-smart agriculture and improve post-harvest operations, infrastructure, packaging and cooling centers to reduce food waste and loss. قراءة القليل

• Reclaim and rehabilitate agricultural lands, encourage good management of resources and increase efficiency of resources used, especially ground and surface water and agricultural lands through the use of modern technology • Enhance provisions related to technology transfer and capacity building included in the UN Climate Change Agreement • Improve skilled professional and provide the necessary infrastructure • Enhance the role of research and encourage scientific agricultural studies to solve problems of agricultural production, especially applied research • Improve regional coope... قراءة المزيدration in scientific research, Arab partnerships, and exchange of capabilities according to the comparative advantage of agricultural production • Promote genetic improvement programs for quantitative and qualitative production • Endorse national campaigns on environmental challenges, and include in the education curriculums and disseminate pioneering experiences in agriculture and food processing • Establish pilot projects that improve water and energy use and reduce pollution to support countries in crisis and with funds from World Bank, Green Climate Fund and FAO • Support entrepreneurial projects and grant provision for youth initiatives • Implement educational program on leadership in the field of agriculture and specializations related to urban agriculture • Provide support for vehicles transporting crops and reduce transportation costs and provide qualified warehouses designated for storage and packaging • Develop local plant varieties and animal breeds to increase production and productivity • Develop post-harvest services through improving packaging, grading, transportation, storage, and manufacturing • Enhance information availability on capabilities and provide a modern and up-to-date database • Expand the use of digital solutions such as e-commerce platforms • Reduce industrial costs by reducing taxes imposed on food factories and inviting them to exploit the largest available percentage of production capacity, adopting special prices for fuel (especially electricity) and supporting use of renewable energy equipment • Find working storage for Arab food factories in the manufacture of grains, sugar, oils, and edible fats, dairy, red meat, production of broiler chicken and table eggs قراءة القليل

• Provision of financing mechanisms • Focus specializations in universities based on qualifications and available resources • Create youth leadership positions • Encourage self-production and educating consumers about the importance of supporting local products • Improving practical education on agriculture in communities, homes and buildings so that everyone can produce food • Strengthen effective social protection networks based on sustainable financial resources and enhance the concept of social security through the preparation and support of the food basket and food banks • I... قراءة المزيدntegrate social justice in the distribution and allocation of agricultural resources (land and water) • Implement digital solutions such as e-commerce platforms, digital payments and simple digital technologies to enable smallholders to access data and knowledge to make timely and informed decisions and to connect them directly with markets and finance • Focus on vulnerable groups, especially small farmers through providing support and financing and introducing modern technologies that increase productivity and production and improve their income. • Integrate disaster risk reduction considerations into sustainable development strategies and policies to mitigate losses. • Support animal breeders • Activate the role of food cooperatives • Resolve local and regional conflicts and alleviate the effects of wars, disasters and political sanctions to shift focus on productivity rather than conflicts • Provide basic services in the countryside and enhance the methods and tools of rural finance so that the rural producers can enter the countryside and engage in production • Support agri-food microfinance projects such as microfinance banks • Facilitate access to agricultural lands for young women • Promote and support women and youth participation in value chains by providing capital and financing mechanisms to invest in agriculture, as well as creating job opportunities and developing needed skills such as negotiation and project management. • Use of modern technology, creating appropriate conditions for rural employment, and ensuring the sustainability of supply chains for various agricultural products. • Review national legislations and regulations and integrate environmental protection policies adapting to climate change and limiting its effects, in line with the economic and social conditions of each Arab country. قراءة القليل

The participants were knowledgeable of the main challenges in the region and stressed on the need to have urgent action and implementation.

Investment in innovation, and the focus on R4D in the region - investment going into agricultural research and development, which is not necessarily aligned to climate or nature, as much as it should be, need to shift into climate foster nature positive pathways. It's not just reorienting investment; it's also increasing the investment to agricultural research and development, especially in under-investing countries. There is a need to address the innovation gap and more investments into innovation.

Institutions – invest in the institutions that we have set up for innovation, even national institutions or international institutions, or set up to facilitate those innovation processes. We need to rethink the institutions, what they set up to achieve the SDGs, how they can be realigned, do we need new institutions, and think about coming together to create them.

Scaling up innovation - when we talk about innovation, is it something new and useful? It can be a new idea, or it can be a new way of doing things. There are lots of excellent ideas out there, but why are they not being scaled? And this could be because there is no conducive policy environment and sufficient investment.

Inclusive and evidence-based dialogue - we will not succeed unless we talk to each other, especially talking to people outside of our comfort zones, who are crucial for achieving scale. We need to bring people together on these innovations, their ideas, talk about complex issues that we might have because only by talking and having an open dialogue can we move forward.

Not many areas of divergence were brought up due to time constraints. Participants highlighted the importance of convergence of the two agendas, the Food System Summit and a COP 26. Some critical areas of divergence that involve trade-offs: 1) The tension between resiliency and affordability in order to scale food systems especially in light of population growth. 2) The tension between highly technological food systems vs. going back to nature and the multiple benefits in terms of health and environmental of diversification. 3) The trade-offs between consumers’ access (buying capability) and... قراءة المزيد producers’ income. قراءة القليل

The dialogue was held to provide a multi-stakeholder platform for stakeholders to explore various existing and emerging approaches that have the potential to deliver nature-positive solutions at scale and encourage collaborative action in the ASEAN region and beyond and to directly inform the United Nations Food Systems Summit process. The food systems dialogue brought together state and non-state actors, to include policy research institutions, universities, farmer organizations, agri-business, agricultural financiers, civil society, policy makers, oversight bodies and the media. The Food Sys... قراءة المزيدtems Dialogue program will feature plenary sessions and theme-based break-away sessions. The dialogue will provide time and space for informal discussion groups, enabling participants to engage fully. Social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, will form part of the communications strategy to promote the dialogue as well as disseminate proceedings and outcomes. قراءة القليل

This was part of a 3-part series of 90 minutes each via zoom: 1) Ideas for Innovation; 2) Connecting Innovation Ideas with Food Systems; 3) Creating Tangible Recommendations for the UNFSSD The major highlights: There is a link between the Food Systems Summit and COP26, which happens in November, and the Food Systems Summit in September, and we need to hand carry the outcomes of the Food Systems Summit to COP 26. Having the focus on climate and nature is key as it fits both agendas quite nicely of Food System Summit and a COP 26. When looking at the portfolio of innovations being put forward by... قراءة المزيد the region, it is crucially important that both these agendas are connected as there is a very strong climate dimension that makes it relevant, both to the Food System Summit and a COP 26. There is also very much a nature link, and obviously, this discussion has been linked to the actual track three on nature positive production. COP 26 this year with the UK presidency highlights the role of nature and can be aligned with the convention for Biodiversity as well. قراءة القليل

Group 3: Renewed traditions and empowered culture + Affordability and true value The group discussed two subjects which were outcomes of previous workshops : one about how renewed traditions can ensure a culture of empowerment, the second about how affordability is linked and relates to the true value of food, and eventually to seeing food as a public good. First, about renewed traditions, the group underlined the importance of taking the best out of both traditions and innovations, as it would reduce the fear of losing something. It highlighted that while intergenerational dialogues are key, ... قراءة المزيدthe voice of the youth should be strengthened in decision-making arenas, in a real and honest manner, in particular when it comes to taking actions with a sense of urgency. Second, about affordability and true value, the group highlighted the need not only to account for the true value of food in the consumption price but also at each stage of the chain, redistributing at the same time accountability and positive side-effects across the chain in a fairer manner. The link between true value and well-being was underlined and the need for providing consumers with more and more easily accessible information highlighted. The group also talked about the multi-dimensionality of affordability which not only refers to the financial capacity of a consumer to access a good but also embeds awareness, education, information,… eventually relating to inequalities. It finally stressed the necessity of taking actions in a collective and holistic manner and not only individually. قراءة القليل