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Social perspectives on food waste • Tradition: You should finish your dish; not everyone has this habit. It is common in the DACH region still, but especially young people that never experienced drastic events of food scarcity e.g. a war frequently leave more leftovers on their plates • Problem: How to communicate with friends and family members about food waste • Religion can help you treat food differently. e.g. Christian view: Throwing away bread is a sin. • Many consumers are not well informed about the issue of food waste; education about that topic needs to be reinforced! • Exp... Read moreiration date is a big matter: people throw food away, because the expiration date is over. They do not even double-check if the food is still good or not. • Dumpster diving = containering = saving food (it´s about how you define your action) If you communicate it differently and show people how good food "from the bins" tastes can change cultural perceptions. • Better food campaigns could change our way of behaving and thinking Read less

Role of consumers vs. supermarkets - who has the responsibility for the largest amount of food waste? • How important is local and seasonal food for the consumers? It is important, local is advertised very much. Shorter supply chains lead to more efficiency, less food waste and less waste overall. • Not just food waste avoidance and environmental consciousness, but also healthy nutrition is an important aspect for the customers • Many consumers are socialized in that way that as soon as you perceive the food not being in good shape, you do not buy or eat it.; in some cultures we have too... Read more many choices. How can we handle this? Supermarkets have a vast range of products, also in the area of fruits and vegetables. A focus on local and seasonal produce adds quality and lowers quantity. • Reducing food exports? On the other hand, people are living the export. This is a difficult topic to discuss also from an economical point of view. • Farmer´s markets and refill stores enhance the reduction of food waste because you can buy the right amount of food. Usually, larger supermarkets do not offer this personalized packaging option. Hence, smaller business structures are needed to help fighting food waste; it also easier for a better management overall. A small organic supermarket was observed to offer less fresh fruits and vegetables, but also to have less food waste overall. Read less

1. The role of the government: In general, the food waste reduction law introduced in France has been hailed as a major success by many food waste activists. However, participants in the dialogue also pointed out that this did not lead to systematic change. Only supermarkets/hypermarkets of a certain size are obliged to donate food that would otherwise go to waste. The offer remains the same, and voluntary workers from social organizations like “Die Tafel” then need to collect the food. But the workload has become higher and higher, and volunteers cannot even collect and distribute the foo... Read mored to needy people in a reasonable time! Thus, the law makes it a bit too easy for supermarkets. A suggestion for a solution: The law should maybe also oblige supermarkets to leave “food waste” that they cannot donate outside so people can come and get it. This would ease the pressure from benevolent NGOs and also encourage supermarkets to waste less – as otherwise, people would just take their food for free. 2. Some people argued that the impact of “using more”, e.g. a broccoli stem in the own kitchen, does not markedly contribute to food waste reduction. This is the debate of small changes at a consumer level vs. larger changes in the legal framework and on the producer level (bottom-up vs. top-down). In the end, changes in the mindset and actions of both levels are important, as all actors bear a certain responsibility for their food and their handling of food waste. 3. Some participants argued that people living in cities value food less as they are not densely connected to food production. People from rural regions would value food more. This however rather holds true for people working in the agricultural sector. In city regions, people are frequently more educated and aware about the food waste issue. Also, people in rural or poorer regions are frequently not ready to pay more in order to support shorter supply chains. Instead of saving on food quantity, they might just save on food quality in their own household, rather than consuming cheap food that went through a long supply chain, including convenience products. As they can be stored longer, this might even lead to less food waste. The influence of individual living habits and shopping preferences, as well as general life situations on food waste, might need more studies and reports. 4. Participants also advocated for more educational campaigns on the food waste issue. We arrive at the gap between knowing and doing here. There is already a lot of information out there, even on social media, food waste reduction tips are readily available. But how can we efficiently convince people that knowing is not enough? This is an issue that we may need to explore in more detail. 5. Do we need a lower choice of food in order to support food waste reduction? It was not an easy question. Some people argue that supermarkets just offer too much and that a reduction of the offer would be needed. But how should we realize that in a free society? A potential solution here could be that we internalize negative external effects, e.g. that mangos imported by airfreight need to pay more CO2 compensation, thus, fewer people will buy it and fewer mangos will be offered. However, this theory also presupposes that people only care about prices and are not able to see the giant environmental (and food waste) footprint of a perfect-looking, chilled airfreight mango. We could agree that we should all go out and communicate about food waste positively in our communities, and also show with our own actions how we reduce food waste (e.g. order a dish without French fries if we know that we do not eat them). Read less

The focus of this dialogue was on the issue of food waste. This topic is mainly related to Action Track 2: Shift to sustainable consumption patterns and Action track 3: Boost nature-positive production. The geographical focus area was the DACH region, but participants beyond the three countries could participate and contribute with their own experiences as well. As especially topic 4 showed, food waste is not just an issue for consumers, even though in developed countries like DACH the largest amount of food waste is created by them. Supply chain inefficiencies, overproduction, marketing, and ... Read morelogistics all contribute to more food waste and therefore, consumption and production are closely intertwined and stakeholders at all levels of the food supply chain can contribute to active food waste reduction. This is why in the beginning, the Convenor encouraged the participants to consider all the steps of the supply chains and to think about avenues for improvement in terms of holistic sustainability: From social, ecologic, and economic perspectives. Read less

1. An adaptation of the legal framework is necessary to make food donations easier and riskless for businesses so they are not liable if they donate food and someone falls ill accidentally. On the other hand, people need the education to distinguish good, edible food from food that has gone bad without looking at a best before date, but by using their own senses. Usually, this starts in families already. Educational institutions, e.g. schools can contribute here. The adaptation of the legal framework should also include the legalization of dumpster diving. 2. It is not a single solution that c... Read morean resolve the issue of food waste, but many different solutions and stakeholders. Businesses cannot only reduce food waste by taking it as their main business case and purpose, but also if they raise efficiency in general. (For example, if a restaurant decides to omit cherry tomatoes as a garnish as 60% of the consumers did not eat it.) Different business models reduce food waste at different levels of the supply chain. Successful businesses are existing on all these levels, and they do not just provide value for food waste reduction but also general value for their consumers – be it an upscale menu in a restaurant (from ugly vegetables, with innards) or bread sold at a discount. Zero Waste Austria already developed a manual with best practices for waste reduction in hotels, and this idea could also be further developed for food waste reduction. This helps every business to reduce food waste. 3. Plant-based diets have the potential to reduced food waste, directly and indirectly. If people stop eating animals, they also avoid wastage of one a perishable commodity, that needs to be transported chilled and thus uses a lot of energy. At least in Austria, meat accounts for ca. 11% of all food waste. Indirectly, if people decide to eat more plant-based they change their cooking habits. They become more aware of the ingredients they use and also may decide to use more local and seasonal ingredients. This is synergetic: Plantbased diets are healthier for people, reduce food waste and raise awareness for food. Therefore, we encourage the promotion of plant-based diets at every level and advocate for a phasing out of subsidies for meat, eggs, and dairy products as well as dairy campaigns. We also encourage farmer education that takes into account needs of future consumers, educating them about vegetable cultivation and cultivation of pulses, lentils, chickpeas etc. 4. The nose to tail trend contributes to food waste reduction. By changing the definition of what people regard as inedible food loss vs. food waste that they could have saved, we can feed more people with less food. In this area, cultural exchange is extremely valuable. A participant mentioned that in South East Asia for example, it is much more common to consume all parts of the animal, including the feet of chicken for example. Other participants mentioned that they started to use the green of carrots or the stem of broccoli for example. This is holistically sustainable, as it contributes to healthier nutrition with more fibers and vitamins, helps people to save money and also creates more business opportunities: If people in the DACH region get more accustomed to eating “more” parts of vegetables again, restaurants can design new, creative dishes and also startups find creative opportunities to market food that has been regarded as food loss in former times. Cooking classes, also in schools, can greatly support everyone in their journey to become a more reflective cook and not to regard a broccoli stem as “waste” because it has always been done that way in the past. 5. Smaller structures and shorter supply chains help to avoid food waste. Smaller stores have better possibilities to manage their food supply and create less food waste overall. Moreover, shorter supply chains lead to less waste creation. In that sense, it is not only important to watch out for regional but also for seasonal food. Food grown in the season is also tastier and provides people with additional health benefits. Zero Waste stores, farmers' markets and small organic stores, but also other alternative forms of purchasing food e.g. SOLAWI and growing own food in gardens are found to have beneficial effects for food waste reduction. Every consumer can do his/her part here: Informing themselves about local fruits and vegetables and establishing alternative purchasing habits. => A lot of the findings are synergetic and policies that reduce food waste are not just found to benefit the environment, but also people and companies. Food waste reduction strategies often need creativity, and there is no one actor that can fix our food systems so food waste is gone. We need each and every actor on every level of the supply chain to be involved. In this regard, it is not just important to organize dialogues like this, but also to get more people to participate. At the dialogue as well as at university events related to the food waste issue, the Convenor observed many engaged people, but frequently they remained in a bubble. Therefore, sound marketing is important not just to reach the target groups, but also consumers and producers that did not consciously think about the food waste issue before. For business leaders that want to reduce food waste, we recommend introducing changes in cooperation with all employees: Frequently, they know better where large amounts of food waste can be reduced only by changing small habits in the daily workflow. Read less

Entrepreneurial experiences – food waste as a business case • exchange business model, it only works in bigger cities; connection between households and/or businesses. • Mostly just a marketing topic, but is not a real business practice • German initiative “foodsharing” where individuals can share their food surplus, also works via app • The Tafel cannot handle the German food waste alone in Germany, not even with 60.000 volunteers working daily for this german-wide daily. • Need policy to restrain food waste? • Group: consumers who need cheap food as they do not have enough ... Read morefinancial resources to buy qualitative food • Cutting down food waste can be beneficial for every company from a financial point-of-view • Retailers can create campaigns together with the government in order to change the consumer behavior and way of thinking: just because the food does not look nice from the outside anymore, it does not mean that it does not taste good anymore. • NGOs alone cannot handle the surplus of food; we need more legislation: not only for big supermarkets, but also for smaller food markets! But it does not make sense to make food surplus as a mandatory donation if the NGOs do not have the capacity to handle all the donations. Hence, a law is not directly problem-solving. • Smaller businesses are not willing to donate their food, especially in Singapore. They rather need to find a core solution on how to reduce over-production. • Legalizing dumpster diving? 1. 2 different business models: 1)taking produce from other companies and selling it to consumers e.g. a startup that collects bread from bakeries and resells it at a discount the next day.; from a business perspective, this is “downgrading” i.e. selling the food items at a lower price 2) using “ugly” or discarded food (e.g. vegetables that do not fit the standards set by supermarkets) and preparing food with them, e.g. new dishes in a restaurant, or chutneys, jam etc.; from a business perspective, this is “upgrading” i.e. selling the food items at a higher price.; Both business models are valuable for reducing food waste at different stations of the supply chain. • Problem: How can we support smaller businesses that create food waste? The legal framework needs to be adapted accordingly Read less

Current food trends and food waste • Different eating trends such as vegetarian, flexitarian, etc. influence the food consumption. People that live more plant-based contribute to reducing food waste directly and indirectly. Also by cooking for yourself, you become more conscious about how much you need, eat and throw away • Issue: The government and businesses try to push people to overconsumption of dairy and meat (campaigns such as “drink xx l milk daily for your health” => agricultural policies • In the EU there is a huge overproduction of meat. The overproduction is re-sold fo... Read morer dumping prices to Africa, making it for smaller businesses more difficult to compete on the market. At least, export subsidies have been phased out already. Still, the amount of subsidies for practices that neither benefit the environment nor the people is massive, and inhibits adjustments of the market. • Cultural differences can influence the reduction of food waste; need a better cultural exchange on that topic • Issue: People living in cities who do not experience agricultural life/work often are not aware of how much work a farmer put e.g. into grains of rice. They treat food differently and tend to leave more on their plate. However, it is also observed that in rural regions and suburbs, people frequently do not value qualitatively high produce and just go for a higher price. This is especially an issue in Germany. Read less

Discussion group 2: Collaboration with civil society, academia, and private partners Fostering the concept of ‘food citizenship’ requires creating networks across spheres of government, as well as civil society associations, indigenous communities, farmers, and relevant stakeholders. Participants mentioned that this is needed to develop transparent and inclusive food systems at city levels. Further, academia was considered important in setting better and clearer standards on what healthy food is so that it is clear what should be promoted in an integrated approach for healthier youth. Work... Read moreing with private parties may also be fruitful to create healthier food environments. Participants elaborated that the main challenges for collaborating with multiple parties are differing visions and differing timelines for expectations; for example, private parties may have shorter term expectations while academia may be used to longer-term visions. To overcome this challenge, there should be clear understandings of the vision and timelines from the start of the project. It was stated that meaningful public-private partnership especially requires a common goal to be established. A steering committee was discussed to be beneficial as it involves people at different levels in a multidisciplinary manner. Additionally, an important consideration mentioned was that local governments and institutions need to be strong to be able to drive a common agenda and create adequate public-private partnerships. Hence, this can be a potential barrier in some contexts and may change how appropriate this collaboration model is for implementing a systems approach. Read less

Discussion group 3: Implementation of activities To design appropriate childhood obesity interventions within a systems approach, the need for community engagement was emphasized by participants. This entails engaging the target population, such as children and families, in the early stages of a program. Schools were mentioned as an important avenue to implement prevention and care activities through. This was a shared experience from several cities that participated in the Dialogue, from high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries, thus making schools an effective avenue to del... Read moreiver interventions to children and youth. Integrating healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle into the school curriculum can support knowledge and awareness on a healthy diet among children and their parents. However, despite the general success of interventions at schools, participants also mentioned the need to find alternative avenues for when schools are closed, such as online initiatives. Finding other avenues for activity implementation may also be helpful for contexts where schools may not have low attendance, as also observed by participants during lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To adequately improve the environments of children and facilitate healthier lifestyles, attention should also be given to urban planning and creating green spaces. By creating better parks, cycling routes, and spaces for playing and physical activity, public spaces can be transformed to promote active mobility. This was considered especially important in and around schools as well as in community neighborhoods. Moreover, participants suggested school yards can be made publicly accessible outside of school hours to create extra places for children to be active. This would allow for children to be exposed to healthy amounts of physical activity, which is important in addition to healthier diets for the prevention of childhood obesity. Further, participants mentioned that engaging parents for the lifestyle change of their children is vital. Parents can be engaged by inviting them into the playground and involving them with messages around healthier food consumption, increasing physical activity, and lifestyle modification. Lastly, participants elaborated that different countries experience the issue of childhood obesity differently. For some countries, childhood obesity largely affects lower socioeconomic households, while in others, it is an issue affecting higher socioeconomic households. Moreover, there may be different minorities and ethnic groups that are disproportionately affected. Hence, it was considered important to take this into account when designing interventions and policy, and when learning experiences from other countries. Read less

Group 4: Communication Within a systems approach, communication was considered important both internally and externally. Internal communication entails coordinating activities within the approach, collaborating with multiple stakeholders. On the other hand, external communication entails reaching out to the target population, such as children and families, to whom the approach is directed towards. For the purposes of internal communication, participants mentioned the need for a dedicated interdepartmental board to work with multiple stakeholders and ensure everyone is working towards the same ... Read moredirection and vision. This interdepartmental board was described as important because of its ability to implement ‘cross-cutting communication’, i.e., communication that goes beyond departmental boundaries and involves all stakeholders to successfully implement a systems approach. According to participants, communication activities should be aimed at the target groups and the corporate level to keep a healthy lifestyle and a healthy environment on the agenda of politicians, social partners, business, policy, and the media. Additionally, importance was placed on communication across multiple stakeholders and departments for the integration of health actions in a variety of programs and policies. With regards to external communication, participants suggested communicating with the target population from early stages of the program. This was considered important to be able to design effective interventions, but to also make intervention design a collaborative process by taking into account the needs of the people. Further, raising awareness on interventions to combat childhood obesity through marketing and branding was considered beneficial. Lastly, participants mentioned that communication between cities is very important. Through city-city cooperation, cities can share their experiences and create a wider pool of knowledge from each other. Such communication should focus not only on what has been effective in some contexts, but also on what has been ineffective so that newer approaches can be devised accordingly. Particularly, participants mentioned that exchange of experiences between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can be fruitful since the former has been working on childhood obesity prevention for longer and may have more experience. Such experiences can be adapted and utilized for LMICs after taking into account the double burden of malnutrition (coexisting undernutrition and overweight). A potential strategy highlighted here was ‘leap-frogging’, which entails that LMICs can avoid following the same trajectory of the nutrition transition that is evident in HICs. To do this, participants suggested returning to optimized traditional diets may be better for both human and planetary health, and can help LMICs to avoid moving towards higher prevalence of childhood obesity but instead, treating all forms of malnutrition. Read less

Group 5: Monitoring and evaluation Since childhood obesity is a wicked problem with complex determinants and causes, its prevention may also entail complex methods and analyses. However, participants stressed the need to create simple tools and guidelines to measure the food environment and its determinants. This is especially important for organizations implementing a systems approach who may not have in-depth knowledge or resources on how to conduct monitoring and evaluation. Thus, according to participants, academia and public health officials should collaborate to create simple tools, trai... Read morenings, and guidelines for non-research organizations to be able to conduct appropriate monitoring and evaluation. Further, to measure the prevalence of childhood obesity, participants discussed the need for indicators other than body mass index (BMI), which can offer a limited picture. However, it was expressed that since a systems approach is adopted, it may not be necessary to overcomplicate matters by trying to find perfect indicators and effects. A systems approach means that we should also be able to look at the whole picture when monitoring progress. Due to this, participants mentioned that qualitative data is important for adapting systems approaches, in addition to quantitative data. Qualitative data may help overcome the shortfalls in quantitative research, such as that of limited indicators and causal effects. Further, participants suggested it may be especially relevant to create an overall assessment of the program’s success by acknowledging the systems approach instead of isolating particular indicators. Lastly, qualitative data may also facilitate involvement of communities and target populations to lend their own voices. Participants stated that this engagement of communities acknowledges that evaluation is more than just collecting data but also gives community members the opportunity to be involved. Lastly, for the purposes of translation of learnings between cities worldwide, context-specific data was considered crucial to detect the differences between countries. This requires working closely with health officials that are working in monitoring and evaluation to see what works and what does not. Participants indicated that research is needed specifically to learn differences in determinants of malnutrition in various contexts so that experiences from cities can be translated and transferred worldwide. Read less

There was only one significant area of divergence within the groups, since most of the nuance of conversation arose from differences in city and country contexts. This nuance was intended as part of the ‘translation of lessons and experiences’ dimension of the Dialogue and adhered to in a respectful and constructive conversation. The only significant area of divergence was within the communications group (breakout room 3). There was a discussion about how LMICs should return to traditional diets to avoid the trajectory of increasing childhood obesity that HICs underwent, since traditional ... Read morediets may be healthier for both humans and the planet. This was, however, contested by one of the participants who elaborated that not all traditional diets are healthy, and that people in urban areas increasingly want foods that are convenient, apart from being affordable. Hence, they mentioned the need to work with the target population and ensure that interventions match the needs of the people. In response to returning to traditional diets, another participant from an LMIC mentioned that this may not be entirely possible since many traditional crops are not grown due to lacking commercial and research interest. Read less

This Independent Dialogue sought to explore Dutch lessons in employing urban systems approaches to combat childhood obesity. Starting with the lessons from a systematic analysis of Dutch municipal approaches to combating childhood obesity, we aimed to explore how the Dutch lessons can be used in other contexts. Further, we invited city networks and other local governments and communities worldwide to share their insights on such urban systems approaches. In doing so, this dialogue aimed to compile successful lessons in transforming urban food systems to create a healthier youth in cities world... Read morewide. Hence, it aligns with UNFSS’s Action Track 1: ‘ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all’ with a specific focus on childhood obesity in youth. The Dialogue was commenced by a key-note discussion between two high-level speakers to establish the concept of a systems approach and the major international, national, and local implications of implementing such an approach. Following this, findings from the systems approaches in the Netherlands were shared from the ‘Urban Learnings project’ – the research project which carried out the analysis based on experiences from Dutch municipalities employing a systems approach for childhood obesity prevention. Researchers presented the five major themes which were identified for the successful implementation of such an approach, namely: i) municipal organization and political support, ii) collaboration with civil society, academia, and private parties, iii) activities on prevention and care, iv) communication, and v) monitoring and evaluation. Break-out rooms were created based on these five themes to explore the experiences from different contexts and reach constructive strategies for implementing such urban systems approaches worldwide. Each discussion group was initiated with an introductory contribution on the theme by a city network. The participants in break-out rooms were designed to have equal representation from different stakeholder backgrounds but also geographical backgrounds. This allowed for multi-stakeholder perspectives to be voiced and for experiences from different cities to be shared. In this way, the Dialogue firstly aimed to gain insights into translating findings of the research onto a broader context. Further, it aimed to foster knowledge exchange between cities so that urban areas can transform for lower childhood obesity prevalence, and in overall, healthier youth by 2030. Read less

From the presentations and discussion groups in this Independent Dialogue, we were able to arrive at several constructive points for the successful implementation of urban systems approaches targeting childhood obesity. Derived from the discussion group outcomes below, the key lessons and considerations highlight the importance of the following: Strong leadership: An important enabler of a systems approach against childhood obesity is inculcating leadership and willingness at all levels, ranging from mayors to families and from local, national, and international level. Leadership is also neede... Read mored to scale the program if successful or derive lessons from it if unsuccessful. It is not just one political leader that is important, but their ability in working collectively across policy domains. Working in multi-stakeholder partnerships: Cities are advised to establish a partnership network in which a wide range of stakeholders, such as academia, grassroot organizations and services are included. This facilitates thinking of childhood obesity or malnutrition from various perspectives and tackling the behavioral determinants from different angles. The findings from the research in the Dutch context suggested that a steering committee should be setup to guide and govern a multistakeholder partnership. In the dialogue, this was seen as a good suggestion. However, one needs to realize that not all sectors are equally strong as may be the case in the Netherlands. Implementing activities in schools: schools are important avenues globally to reach the target population for better nutrition, physical activity, as well as education for the same. Apart from schools, other routes need to be explored based on country contexts to reach children from multiple avenues. Community engagement: for the purposes of designing successful interventions, it is important to engage the community and stakeholders from the early stages of the program. This also requires that the target population such as children and families are reached out to. Doing so would allow for interventions to be developed more appropriately and better align with the needs of the population. Further, it would allow for context-appropriate interventions to be devised based on how the burden of childhood obesity falls and which groups are disproportionately affected. Lastly, communication between cities was also considered important so that different urban areas can share their experiences and create a wider pool of knowledge from each other. Simple monitoring and evaluation tools: while monitoring and evaluation is crucial for constantly adapting an integrated approach, organizations are often not well-equipped to develop a monitoring and evaluation system in terms of capacity and funding. Therefore, it would be useful to devise simple tools and guidelines for organizations to utilize. Assistance can be given from public health services, or academia partners and research institutes. Further, a systems approach means that we should also be able to look at the whole picture when monitoring progress. Hence, monitoring of quantitative indicators should be supplemented with qualitative research as well. In this way, the Dialogue allowed for representatives of both high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries to come together and share experiences for childhood obesity prevention using systems approaches. While outcomes indicate initial thoughts on this, there is still a need to devote more time and resources to make further progress in this exchange of lessons. Moreover, the enthusiasm of participants from diverse backgrounds, city network representatives, and high-level presenters indicates the scope and willingness to further develop this commitment towards Action Track 1 for a healthier youth. Read less

**PLEASE NOTE: outcomes in this and the following section represent outcomes from the plenary session of the Dialogue, namely: i) conversation between high-level speakers, and ii) main research findings from the Urban Learnings project on Dutch lessons for childhood obesity prevention using systems approaches. ** i) Plenary: Conversation between high-level speakers: High-level speakers discussed the scope of urban systems approaches against childhood obesity from a local, national, and international perspective to initiate discussion in the Dialogue. They mentioned that an important enabler of... Read more such a systems approach against childhood obesity is inculcating leadership and willingness at all levels, ranging from mayors to families. Leadership is also needed to scale the program if successful, or to derive lessons from it if unsuccessful. Further, speakers elaborated that a crucial aspect of implementing a systems approach is firstly ensuring nutrition is on the political agenda. For this, it is important to elect mayors or political leaders that have a clear agenda for a healthy and vibrant city, where everyone can make a decent living, and a city which is well-connected to the surrounding rural areas. A need to properly incorporate the rural and urban areas was emphasized so that there are better connections within the food chain and the people working in it. In this way, urban areas can take the lead in scaling such systems approaches, and moreover, in working towards the sustainable development goals and UNFSS Action Track 1. As part of a systems approach, establishing public-private partnerships was described as a challenging aspect of a systems approach. It is important to create healthier environments for children, such as by regulating marketing towards children, and the choices presented to children and families. A proposed strategy was the “naming and faming” of companies that are genuinely interested in investing in future generations, whereas “naming and shaming” of companies which are avoiding the same. Further, a systems approach is considered appropriate in acknowledging that food choices extend beyond individual decision-making. The environment is crucial because we as individuals cannot constantly refrain from eating unhealthy foods when they are available to us. Specifically, lower income families are constantly challenged by the food environment. Hence, the key element from the city perspective is to improve the food environment. Read less

**PLEASE NOTE: outcomes in this section represent outcomes from the plenary session of the Dialogue** ii) Plenary: Main research findings from the Urban Learnings project (executive summary available as a link at the end of the Feedback Form, once published) Acknowledging that childhood obesity is a wicked problem with complex determinants and causes, several Dutch municipalities have implemented a systems approach called JOGG (Dutch acronym for Healthy Youth, Healthy Future). The aim of the Urban Learnings project was to compile and analyze the lessons learnt from these Dutch municipalities, ... Read moreso that these lessons can be shared with other contexts. For this, a mixed-method approach was used, which included a literature review and qualitative analysis. After the desk research, an interview framework was created based on five themes of JOGG: i) municipal organization and political support, ii) collaboration with civil society, academia, and private parties, iii) activities on prevention and care, iv) communication, and v) monitoring and evaluation. Findings followed these five themes to identify main learnings which can potentially be translated to other contexts. Firstly, municipal organization and political support entails the political commitment, organization structure, collaboration within municipalities, and budget-related matters. Secondly, collaborations entail building networks and engaging with all stakeholders involved. Collaboration with civil society, academia, and private parties was especially highlighted for a systems approach. Next, implementation of both prevention and care activities are required for childhood obesity prevention, as well as findings effective avenues for implementation to reach the target population. Further, communication is required to keep all parties involved. This includes both external communication towards the target population, as well as internal communication within the stakeholders organizing the approach. The last theme, monitoring and evaluation, covers the need for data to create urgency at the municipal level, and constantly adapt the approach based on lessons learnt. In the Dialogue, discussion groups followed the five themes that arose from the research to exchange lessons, and thus arrive at concrete recommendations towards Action Track 1 for a healthier youth. Read less

Discussion group 1: Municipal organization & political support For a successful systems approach, there is a need to establish childhood obesity as a system-wide priority that links to municipal priorities. Participants elaborated that it is important to have a strong local political leader who works with other council members (or equivalent in other political contexts) across various policy domains. Further, it is also important for political leaders to be passionate about actively engaging with the community and have strong political will to be able to implement the intervention combatti... Read moreng childhood obesity. Successful political leadership was described as one that invested in creating a wide partnership network with a range of stakeholders, such as academia, grassroot organizations and services. Doing so facilitates thinking of childhood obesity or malnutrition from various perspectives and tackling the behavioral determinants from different angles. Hence, strong political leadership is considered important for several reasons in adopting a systems approach. While these lessons were important for some European cities, an important consideration for translation of learnings worldwide is that political settings may differ across different contexts. Based on this, participants elaborated that decision-making powers may lie at the national or city level in certain contexts, and this would affect how transferrable the above-mentioned learnings are with regards to urban systems approaches. This may be especially relevant for low- and middle-income country contexts, where health and nutrition policy may be determined at the national level. Regardless of the context, participants also stated the importance of different levels of governments working together to create a system of policies converging in the same direction. Even for contexts where systems approaches can be executed at the municipality level, national governments are important to provide an overarching national roadmap for implementation of an integrated approach. Hence, participants emphasized the need for municipalities to work together with national governments to create national policies for urban food system transformation. The role of local and regional governments in food systems was highlighted as creating democratic access to nutritious food to tackle hunger and obesity. Additionally, an urban systems approach was also envisioned as one adopting a territorial approach such that governments consider urban-rural linkages and emissions throughout the food system and implementation of the systems approach. Read less

Main outcomes: - The importance of careful research designs actively integrating indigenous knowledge including active involvement of all relevant stakeholders. - Integration of local research institutions in food system research approaches. - Transfer of research outcomes including indigenous knowledge should be disseminated via advisory and extension services. However, the style of transferring knowledge (bottom-up vs top down) is rather challenging in keeping participatory principles. - value of nutrition education to enhance the value/recognition of indigenous food systems

The spectrum of participants and speakers overrepresented academia, NGOs and governmental organizations. This imbalanced representation and negelct of indigenous people and knowledge was also key point of discussion. As one example, the UNFSS was discussed as also here indigenous people or farmers are under-represented to non-existent in main activities. Further exploration is also needed on how to involve extension services in more inclusive and multi-directional ways to prevent them being/becoming agents of scientifc knowledge. Another point of discussion that remained open for debate was on... Read more decolonialization processes and how they can possibly hinder or contribute to better bridging different knowledge systems. Read less

The dialogue focussed on bridging indigenous and scientific knowledge for sustainable and inclusive food systems. The event addressed concepts for a joint understanding of integrating indigenous knowledge to science and vice versa, general problem statements on effects when indigenous food systems are marginalized, and different case study examples from Bolivia, India, Mali and Tanzania how indigenous knowledge was integrated in scientific approaches. Based on diverse inputs, strategies on better linking the different knowledge systems for more inclusive and resilient foos systems were discuss... Read moreed. Read less