Explore Official Dialogue Feedback

Overall children were in agreement about the strengths and vulnerabilities of food systems, how to improve food sustainability, the issues that needed addressing, and the stakeholders that should be focused on. There were certainly different focal points. For example, some children focused on financial and educational support for farmers, while others focused on government legislation around food safety and food systems. But ultimately, we see these as overlapping and supplementary, rather than divergent. To make food systems more sustainable and nutritious, a holistic approach will be needed ... Read moreinvolving a broad range of different actors and interventions. In Nepal, the area of divergence that emerged during the Food System Dialogue with adolescents are as follows: (1) Food Poverty Focus: Participants of the group expressed their divergent thoughts that price of nutritious and healthy food is not the only vulnerability in the sustainable food system, rather low level of awareness among end user for certain type of nutritious and healthy food (e.g. Ground Apple) is also another vulnerability. So, programmes focusing on building awareness of nutritious and healthy food is required for creating sustainable food system. (2) Climate Change Focus: The increase selection and consumption of highly processed and packaged foods is contributing to waste and pollution. Participants of the FSS dialogue with adolescents suggested to develop taxation policy that helps in promoting only nutritious and healthy food. Most adolescents expressed promotion of traditional foods (food plate including pulse/ legume, cereals, and fruit & vegetables) that are nutritious and healthy, and which are less likely to contribute to waste. Read less

The workshop-based dialogues explored children’s and adolescents’ perceptions and lived experiences of their food systems, focusing on the issues of food poverty and climate change. Each country participating in the workshop-based dialogues conducted a minimum of two workshops with different participants; one workshop focused on food poverty and the other on climate change, enabling deep exploration of topics in the time available. Naturally, these topics and their discussions cut across all five Action Tracks. Workshop-based dialogues explored children’s perceptions of food poverty and ... Read moreclimate change through the following activities: Activity 1: This activity aims to surface what children think about food and what food means to them, this activity explores What children find appealing about food and what their aspirations are around eating to help inform aspects of food choice within their own food environments and systems. Children create a ‘food cloud’ by writing or typing foods they like and dislike. Activities 2 & 3: To explore their food systems, children drew a map of how food arrives on their plate, marking where their food is grown, how it is transported, and where it is bought and consumed. They then map the constraints in their food systems, as they relate to food poverty and climate change, and propose solutions to these constraints. Activity 4: This activity explores how children want to engage with these issues. Children were asked to explore what different people can do to help make sure that the foods we eat don’t negatively impact the environment. Using a series of different levels of circles from individual through to community and national levels of governance what actions can be taken in their food systems to create positive change? Activity 5: This activity generates children’s calls to action to address the impacts of food poverty and climate change on their food systems. Children write a leader to their leaders, outlining their call for change. Workshops concluded with a plenary discussion to draw our key insights. These workshops enabled children to contribute their insights and perspectives to the ongoing debates across all action tracks. They discussed challenges and proposed how to enhance their access to safe nutritious foods. They identified barriers to sustainable consumption patterns in their communities and suggested ways to shift behaviors. They identified that young people have a vital role to play in boosting positive production which, in turn, will contribute to more equitable livelihoods. And they called on governments to take concrete action to support vulnerable communities and to build the resilience and a brighter future for all children and adolescents around the world. Read less

Support: the UN should support sustainable food production, strengthening infrastructure, enhancing distribution, and implementing programs that make food more affordable and accessible, especially for those most impacted by food poverty and climate change (e.g. indigenous communities) “support access to nutritious foods for low-income and vulnerable population”, “defend the rights of indigenous people”, “strengthen the supply chain of foods”

Overall children were in agreement about the strengths and vulnerabilities of food systems, how to improve food sustainability, the issues that needed addressing, and the stakeholders that should be focused on. There were certainly different focal points. For example, some children focused on financial and educational support for farmers, while others focused on government legislation around food safety and food systems. But ultimately, we see these as overlapping and supplementary, rather than divergent. To make food systems more sustainable and nutritious, a holistic approach will be needed ... Read moreinvolving a broad range of different actors and interventions. Read less

The workshop-based dialogues explored children’s and adolescents’ perceptions and lived experiences of their food systems, focusing on the issues of food poverty and climate change. Each country participating in the workshop-based dialogues conducted a minimum of two workshops with different participants; one workshop focused on food poverty and the other on climate change, enabling deep exploration of topics in the time available. Naturally, these topics and their discussions cut across all five Action Tracks. Workshop-based dialogues explored children’s perceptions of food poverty and ... Read moreclimate change through the following activities: Activity 1: This activity aims to surface what children think about food and what food means to them, this activity explores What children find appealing about food and what their aspirations are around eating to help inform aspects of food choice within their own food environments and systems. Children create a ‘food cloud’ by writing or typing foods they like and dislike. Activities 2 & 3: To explore their food systems, children drew a map of how food arrives on their plate, marking where their food is grown, how it is transported, and where it is bought and consumed. They then map the constraints in their food systems, as they relate to food poverty and climate change, and propose solutions to these constraints. Activity 4: This activity explores how children want to engage with these issues. Children were asked to explore what different people can do to help make sure that the foods we eat don’t negatively impact the environment. Using a series of different levels of circles from individual through to community and national levels of governance what actions can be taken in their food systems to create positive change? Activity 5: This activity generates children’s calls to action to address the impacts of food poverty and climate change on their food systems. Children write a leader to their leaders, outlining their call for change. Workshops concluded with a plenary discussion to draw our key insights. These workshops enabled children to contribute their insights and perspectives to the ongoing debates across all action tracks. They discussed challenges and proposed how to enhance their access to safe nutritious foods. They identified barriers to sustainable consumption patterns in their communities and suggested ways to shift behaviors. They identified that young people have a vital role to play in boosting positive production which, in turn, will contribute to more equitable livelihoods. And they called on governments to take concrete action to support vulnerable communities and to build the resilience and a brighter future for all children and adolescents around the world. Read less

Describe in under 5,600 characters including spaces Experiences of Food Children pointed out that food is fundamental for obtaining energy and sustaining life. Food is a primary need for survival, a basic requirement for growth and health. However many children also linked food with joyfulness and happiness. Food was delicious and to be enjoyed, sometimes with family. These responses suggest that food for children is a mix of the material and the aspirational. Children focused on taste, health, and affordability when talking about foods they liked and conversely aspects like bitterness, smell,... Read more and unhealthiness when talking about foods they disliked. When asked about foods they would like to eat but couldn’t, children often focused on price; these desirable foods were simply too expensive. Availability was also an issue, with foods not available in local markets, and health effects (too much fat/sugar) also a factor. Some children could choose the food they ate, but some could not, whether due to seasonal availability, price, or parents overseeing cooking. ‘We have a choice, if I want avocado I get it’. Challenges to Food Systems One core activity in the consultations was food mapping. Children mapped a food system around them, visualizing how food moved from the farm to the plate. Overall children demonstrated a deep understanding of food production, especially when it was a local staple food or meal. Children then reflected on what the vulnerabilities or weak points in these systems were. The main vulnerability voiced by the children was poor availability of food. Poor availability was due to minimal stock in the markets, distance from the farming areas, and problems with food distribution. Access to food is also significantly affected by poverty and disruption to food production by season/natural disaster. Another predominant concern was the poor quality of food due to water pollution, use of artificial fertilisers, and unhygienic market conditions. These concerns highlight once again how interconnected food systems are, with economic (e.g. high food prices) and environmental (e.g. flooding, low crop yields) frequently overlapping. For children in State of Palestine, is was important that the food be of decent quality. Unique to this context, there were also concerns about refugees being able to access food and transporting food through occupation checkpoints. ‘Due to the trucks duty to serve many places, being the last place makes the food become bad, also the occupation checkpoints play a factor. Also if the farm uses chemicals on the produce itself, it affects us as the consumers’. Strengthening Food Systems Children completed activities designed to provide concrete suggestions for change at different levels of society, from family to community, industry, and government. They also wrote a “postcard to the President,” outlining key changes that need to happen and how children could input into these shifts. Many children saw potential in empowering communities to grow their own produce and learn more about sustainability. Farms and farming also emerged as a frequent theme, with children suggesting it should be promoted as a vocation and supported with financial incentives and training. Proximity of both food production and food consumption, as mentioned above, was a key concern. In response, children stressed that farms and markets should be local and accessible, moving from ‘far away to being close’. Many of the childrens’ suggestions strongly link food security with food autonomy: import less, regulate more, and invest seriously in local farms and infrastructure, producing enough cheap, nutritious food for all. For children in the State of Palestine, it was also important to deal with environmental considerations such as plastic use and CO2 production. ‘Use the electric cars as an alternative to reduce the exhaust fumes’. Read less

Education: the UN should teach people about climate change, environmental protection, recycling, food systems; it should raise awareness of food inequality and show people the benefits of nutritious and sustainable practices, like eating seasonally “further promote socialization about climate change, the food systems, and the 2030 SDGs, so that the world community is more aware of the condition of the earth”

Inclusion: the UN should listen to young people, create offline (e.g. forums) and online (e.g. platforms) spaces for them to share their views, collaborate with them, and involve them as government intermediaries “I hope UN continues to invite youths from various countries to participate in every activity because youths are the future leaders of nations. Let youths learn how to protect the world”

Regulation: the UN should regulate food production, establishing laws to tackle global warming, keeping food producers accountable, auditing programs to ensure compliance, addressing plastic and deforestation, and controlling chemicals/pesticides “UN intervention to countries must be more aggressive. For example, an international Environmental Impact Analysis seems to need to be agreed. Auditing food producers must be conducted from upstream to downstream.”

Overall children were in agreement about the strengths and vulnerabilities of food systems, how to improve food sustainability, the issues that needed addressing, and the stakeholders that should be focused on. There were certainly different focal points. For example, some children focused on financial and educational support for farmers, while others focused on government legislation around food safety and food systems. But ultimately we see these as overlapping and supplementary, rather than divergent. To make food systems more sustainable and nutritious, a holistic approach will be needed i... Read morenvolving a broad range of different actors and interventions. Read less

Regulation: the UN should regulate food production, establishing laws to tackle global warming, keeping food producers accountable, auditing programs to ensure compliance, addressing plastic and deforestation, and controlling chemicals/pesticides “UN intervention to countries must be more aggressive. For example, an international Environmental Impact Analysis seems to need to be agreed. Auditing food producers must be conducted from upstream to downstream

Support: the UN should support sustainable food production, strengthening infrastructure, enhancing distribution, and implementing programs that make food more affordable and accessible, especially for those most impacted by food poverty and climate change (e.g. indigenous communities) “support access to nutritious foods for low-income and vulnerable population”, “defend the rights of indigenous people”, “strengthen the supply chain of foods”

The workshop-based dialogues explored children’s and adolescents’ perceptions and lived experiences of their food systems, focusing on the issues of food poverty and climate change. Each country participating in the workshop-based dialogues conducted a minimum of two workshops with different participants; one workshop focused on food poverty and the other on climate change, enabling deep exploration of topics in the time available. Naturally, these topics and their discussions cut across all five Action Tracks. Workshop-based dialogues explored children’s perceptions of food poverty and ... Read moreclimate change through the following activities: Activity 1: This activity aims to surface what children think about food and what food means to them, this activity explores What children find appealing about food and what their aspirations are around eating to help inform aspects of food choice within their own food environments and systems. Children create a ‘food cloud’ by writing or typing foods they like and dislike. Activities 2 & 3: To explore their food systems, children drew a map of how food arrives on their plate, marking where their food is grown, how it is transported, and where it is bought and consumed. They then map the constraints in their food systems, as they relate to food poverty and climate change, and propose solutions to these constraints. Activity 4: This activity explores how children want to engage with these issues. Children were asked to explore what different people can do to help make sure that the foods we eat don’t negatively impact the environment. Using a series of different levels of circles from individual through to community and national levels of governance what actions can be taken in their food systems to create positive change? Activity 5: This activity generates children’s calls to action to address the impacts of food poverty and climate change on their food systems. Children write a leader to their leaders, outlining their call for change. Workshops concluded with a plenary discussion to draw our key insights. These workshops enabled children to contribute their insights and perspectives to the ongoing debates across all action tracks. They discussed challenges and proposed how to enhance their access to safe nutritious foods. They identified barriers to sustainable consumption patterns in their communities and suggested ways to shift behaviors. They identified that young people have a vital role to play in boosting positive production which, in turn, will contribute to more equitable livelihoods. And they called on governments to take concrete action to support vulnerable communities and to build the resilience and a brighter future for all children and adolescents around the world. Read less

Experiences of Food Children pointed out that food is fundamental for obtaining energy and sustaining life. Food is a primary need for survival, a basic requirement for growth and health. However many children also linked food with joyfulness and happiness. Food was delicious and to be enjoyed, sometimes with family. These responses suggest that food for children is a mix of the material and the aspirational. Children focused on taste, health, and affordability when talking about foods they liked and conversely aspects like bitterness, smell, and unhealthiness when talking about foods they dis... Read moreliked. When asked about foods they would like to eat but couldn’t, children often focused on price; these desirable foods were simply too expensive. Availability was also an issue, with foods not available in local markets, and health effects (too much fat/sugar) also a factor. Some children could choose the food they ate, but some could not, whether due to seasonal availability, price, or parents overseeing cooking. For example, children in Zimbabwe emphasised that food affordability and availability got in the way of things they would like to eat. ‘Pork, expensive and hard to get’ Describe in under 5,600 characters including spaces Experiences of Food Children pointed out that food is fundamental for obtaining energy and sustaining life. Food is a primary need for survival, a basic requirement for growth and health. However many children also linked food with joyfulness and happiness. Food was delicious and to be enjoyed, sometimes with family. These responses suggest that food for children is a mix of the material and the aspirational. Children focused on taste, health, and affordability when talking about foods they liked and conversely aspects like bitterness, smell, and unhealthiness when talking about foods they disliked. When asked about foods they would like to eat but couldn’t, children often focused on price; these desirable foods were simply too expensive. Availability was also an issue, with foods not available in local markets, and health effects (too much fat/sugar) also a factor. Some children could choose the food they ate, but some could not, whether due to seasonal availability, price, or parents overseeing cooking. For example, children in Zimbabwe emphasised that food affordability and availability got in the way of things they would like to eat. ‘Pork, expensive and hard to get’. Challenges to Food Systems One core activity in the consultations was food mapping. Children mapped a food system around them, visualizing how food moved from the farm to the plate. Overall children demonstrated a deep understanding of food production, especially when it was a local staple food or meal. Children then reflected on what the vulnerabilities or weak points in these systems were. The main vulnerability voiced by the children was poor availability of food. Poor availability was due to minimal stock in the markets, distance from the farming areas, and problems with food distribution. Access to food is also significantly affected by poverty and disruption to food production by season/natural disaster. Another predominant concern was the poor quality of food due to water pollution, use of artificial fertilisers, and unhygienic market conditions. These concerns highlight once again how interconnected food systems are, with economic (e.g. high food prices) and environmental (e.g. flooding, low crop yields) frequently overlapping. ‘limited refrigeration facilities lack of refrigerated trucks for transportation no specific or dedicated vehicles to ferry produce from fa[r]ms’. Strengthening Food Systems Children completed activities designed to provide concrete suggestions for change at different levels of society, from family to community, industry, and government. They also wrote a “postcard to the President,” outlining key changes that need to happen and how children could input into these shifts. Many children saw potential in empowering communities to grow their own produce and learn more about sustainability. Farms and farming also emerged as a frequent theme, with children suggesting it should be promoted as a vocation and supported with financial incentives and training. Proximity of both food production and food consumption, as mentioned above, was a key concern. In response, children stressed that farms and markets should be local and accessible, moving from ‘far away to being close’. Many of the childrens’ suggestions strongly link food security with food autonomy: import less, regulate more, and invest seriously in local farms and infrastructure, producing enough cheap, nutritious food for all. For respondents in Zimbabwe it was especially important that there be greater investment into farming, the building of infrastructure, economic development, and regulation of food prices to ensure affordability. ‘Should implement price control of healthy foods and increase wages of workers so that families can afford food’. Read less

Education: the UN should teach people about climate change, environmental protection, recycling, food systems; it should raise awareness of food inequality and show people the benefits of nutritious and sustainable practices, like eating seasonally “further promote socialization about climate change, the food systems, and the 2030 SDGs, so that the world community is more aware of the condition of the earth”

Inclusion: the UN should listen to young people, create offline (e.g. forums) and online (e.g. platforms) spaces for them to share their views, collaborate with them, and involve them as government intermediaries “I hope UN continues to invite youths from various countries to participate in every activity because youths are the future leaders of nations. Let youths learn how to protect the world”

The entire summit had been focused on all ATs to track how much each representative contribute to the thematic areas in the trackers. The summit has recognized the trackers are really useful in determining how much of efforts have been made so far and what are the possibilities, suggestions and available solutions that could be found in the ground levels and the top policy levels. Additionally, the focuses were on how to link the there two-level in terms of fulfilling the requirements of a sustainable eco-friendly food system that fulfils the requirements of nutrition as a whole. It has been e... Read morexpressed the requirement of having access to safe and nutritious food for all with focus on the current tendency towards unsafe food and the high usage of them especially in the young generation and the bad consequence of that. This has been deeply highlighted in connection to the AT2, to make the change towards safe food usage with a sustainable consumption pattern to ensure minimal food wastage and to reduce the post-harvesting losses as much as possible at all levels in the food supply chain. Summit has recognized the optimized livelihood with equity will be a leading factor to establish nature positive food production which will be the key to solve the quantity of food for family levels and to have high-quality food that fulfils the nutrition requirements. The synergistic effect of all above will be the in build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress that the family and the community level has been highlighted by the summit. Additionally, the summit drew the focusses on the financial aspect and policy-level actions to be taken in enhancing the sustainable food system to be established in the context of ensuring the human rights are respected and ensured. Read less

The summit elaborated that how has the current unsafe food consumption emerged and the supply has been contributed to enhance the unsafe food consumption. Keeping this disaster in minds of the representatives, it has been suggested many sustainable actions be taken to ensure the current food trends are rejected and the sustainable food system has been established. The key findings suggested reducing the current bad food consumption pattern (i) To force the policy actions to reduce the high level of marketing and media usage in advertising such junk foods. (ii) To force/suggest policy levels to... Read more get media more involved in popularizing nutritive environmentally beneficial food production and consumption, (iii) To take actions to build an efficient, effective and participatory stakeholder platform to take the required action to change the current food trends to more eco-friendly and sustainable one ensuring the better livelihood, a better nutrient with food secure and finally the whole food system to become food sovereignty. It has been suggested for this system to be positively changed, all state entities, who are directly or indirectly affecting all levels of the food system, not just the agriculture ministry, should work in unions, and move towards nutrition-based food production, embracing the concept of food sovereignty. In addition, the local seed banks (state and private) and watersheds should be protected, post-harvest technology and ecological farming knowledge should be promoted, young farmers and women should have rights to land and farming, and farming should have an integrated management system. Moreover, the policies and bilateral agreements the state enters should be transparent, local teams should be linked with the global knowledge-based who are already working on these issues, and the cooperative systems should be promoted more. Moreover, it has been deliberated his submissions around the 5 action tracks associated with the food system summit. While recognizing the importance of discourse on the food system, he emphasized the significance of pushing the agenda from food security towards food sovereignty. It has been pointed out that the so-called multi-stakeholder platform which is organizing the FSS, is not representative enough and consequently does not look at the food system with a holistic approach. The food summit is focusing largely on corporate businesses and state interventions and does not give enough attention to people’s engagement and peoples ownership of food productions. It has been commended the current government’s decision to move towards toxin-free agriculture and stated that there should be an organized collective strategy to push this forward in a people-friendly way, blocking it from being hijacked by the lobbying groups lead by chemical companies. Read less

1. Farm organizations are not strong and do not always represent the needs and rights of farmers. There are about 15,000 registered FOs with legal authority to act on farmer’s needs. But only about 5000 are really engaged with the mandate they are supposed to be working on. Most are politicized or organized only to distribute fertilizer grants from the state or to undertake local infrastructure contracts. There is a lack of knowledge and competency for FO leaders to engage with the policy and the market. Suggested- strengthening the FO should be done in a coordinated manner, involving all th... Read moreose who have a vested interest to do that. For this a proper national plan and a coordinated action process should be developed, profitable businesses should be introduced to farmers, FO leaders should be well networked to cross learn and empower each other. 2. Members are poor and highly indebted to Microfinance companies. Most farmers are encouraged to grow what is sold at supermarkets and organized markets. What they grow are often easily perishable crops. When distribution channels are disrupted or farm production is not properly organized, they find it difficult to sell at wholesale markets. Suggested - organize better distribution in local areas using locally available state Agri officers, part-time farmers should be promoted to engage in subsistence farming and also to grow what can be preserved, more local markets should be created. Market expansion should be bottom to top, not top-down where a few supermarkets expand their presence in every township. 3. Farming has become unprofitable. Farmlands have become highly toxic, water seed, fertilizer and pesticides have become very expensive inputs. Suggested - Crop diversification should be promoted, post-harvest food wastages to be reduced, improved distribution systems backed by the government should be introduced to minimize the middlemen in the supply chains. 4. Food produced by farmers are not safe/ Consumers are not getting good food at an affordable price. The promotion of Agribusiness had delinked the farmers from the concept of food production. Suggested - Traditional echo-friendly farming systems should be reincorporated into the current farming system Intercropping should be promoted, Traditional, nutrition-rich grans should be promoted. 5. It is important to regulate and standardized how media portray food. Current media advertise unhealthy food. Establishing a sustainable food system is determined by consumer demand and media plays a negative role. Instead, media can deliver knowledge on healthy and environmentally friendly food. Suggested - There should be a media regulating policy related to the promotion of food. 6. In some areas of the country, such as upcountry, farmers have very limited land. Most land is been given to bigger plantation companies. Suggested - There have to be policy-level actions to address the land ownership to improve better land use and productivity. 7. With the changing weather patterns and intense droughts and torrential downpours, farmers find it difficult to stabilize their income. Technical knowledge related to adaptation methods and technology does not reach the lower segments. Suggested - Climate-smart agriculture to be promoted, technology should reach to the farmers continuously without stagnating at the officer level, there should be coordinated institutional solutions to manage climate change-related risks, knowledge of farmers about risk mitigation strategies should be expanded. 8. Losing peoples ownership in the food system. When food security and nutrition is highlighted without discussing the real actors of production, farmers lose their right and authority on farming matters. Also, consumers will end up having to eat whatever is supplied at the market. Suggested - Instead of food security which is a very narrow term, food sovereignty should be promoted, people maintained seed banks to be established at region levels, better accessibility to technical support and information. Local knowledge on sustainable, climate-resilient, healthy food production to be revived. Read less

While agreeing to all ATs , there was one divergence that It has been pointed out that the so called multi stakeholder platform which is organizing the FSS, is not representative enough and consequently does not look at the food system with a wholistic approach. The food summit is focusing largely on corporate businesses and state interventions, and does not give enough attention to people’s engagement and peoples ownership for food productions.