The Fiji national dialogue on Action Track 4 – Advance Equitable Livelihoods will be held on 26 May 2021 at a crucial time as the country battled its second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with restrictive measures and lockdowns.  This makes this Food Systems Summit even more crucial to Fiji as it enables the country to study the challenges exposed or exacerbated by the COVID crisis and to find transformative solutions to emerge and build back. This is the fourth national dialogue to be organized in Fiji on May 2021.

The Fiji National Dialogue for Action Track 4 will be curated by the Fiji Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and led by the Fiji Convenor, the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, Mr Ritesh Dass. Technical support for the curation of the dialogue will be provided by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) offices in Suva, Fiji.  Recognizing and observing the UNFSS Principles of Engagement, a series of highly consultative, inclusive, preparatory meetings were held in the lead-up to the dialogue with key government ministries and partners such as the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, the Ministry of Economy, the International Fund for Agriculture Development, IFAD, and the Ministry of Agriculture as the national Convenor. The preparatory meetings developed the dialogue agenda, framed questions and topics for discussion, developed a group reporting template to focus and guide group discussions and identified themes for discussion across three strands (i) Access to Economic Opportunities (ii) Access to Productive Resources and Services (iii) Gender Inequality in the Food System. The Action Track 4 dialogue was chaired by the Fiji Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation and officially opened by its Permanent Secretary, Ms Jennifer Poole. The preparatory meetings highlighted the Summit’s Principles of Engagement and ensured that they were understood and incorporated into the format of the dialogue agenda and the identification of participants. In addition to this, participants were sent a URL to register online where they were required to read and agree to the Principles before being able to register. This ensured that everyone read and understood the Principles and committed to the SDGs before participating in the Dialogue. All food systems group stakeholders will participate in the Dialogue from diverse, multi stakeholder backgrounds consisting of government ministries, civil society, international and regional agencies (including UN agencies), academia and other key actors as evidenced by the participants listing and data.