Context
Year 2021 will be the biggest year in decades for agriculture and food security. In this year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene the United Nations Food Systems Summit (FSS) as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. So far, efforts to encourage rapid and joint actions that transform food systems have been hampered by deep disagreements among different stakeholders. That’s why the secretariat of the Food Systems Summit has set up standardized Food Systems Dialogues as a preparation activity for the summit. These multi-stakeholder dialogues aim to increase participation and contribute to a common understanding of priorities.

Dialogues in Switzerland
In Switzerland, the Federal Office for Agriculture is in charge of organizing the national food systems dialogues. On the other hand, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is involved in a broad range of activities in food systems in developing and transition countries as well as in emerging economies, and it is in an unique position to mobilize a broad range of potential dialogue participants from all its partner countries and organizations. This is why SDC has decided to launch a series of independent food systems dialogues via its Agriculture and Food Security (A&FS) Network. The dialogues concept foresees around 100 participants representing all important stakeholder groups and participating in series of two sequential dialogue events per language. Each dialogue event will last max. 2.5 hours and include thematic inputs and discussions in break-out groups. In these break-out groups participants will discuss visions, how food systems will function in 2030. These ambitious projections of the future will provoke the participants to think beyond the current situation and to imagine something that is altogether better.

April 27th: Event 1 : Engage Topically 

Break-Out-Groups:
1) Fair prices 2) Strong social networks 3) Sustainable Production 4) Conducive Policies 5) Nutrition Awareness 6) Healthy School Meals 7) Access to Land 8) Fairtrade policies 9) Reliable data and certification 10) Conducive Research 11) Agroecological Farming 12) Intact Natural Resources

You
Anyone working in the context of Swiss development interventions and who is able or enabled to communicate complex issues concisely is a potential dialogue participant. Especially the following target groups are encouraged to participate (please inform interesting potential participants, bring them in and motivate them to apply below): * representatives of country programs (including decision-makers from local and national governments, consumer organizations, small and large-scale food producers and processors, business, researchers, civil society groups) * SDC partner organisations (including NGOs, research & international organisations) * other multi- and bilateral donors *