In September this year, the first ever United Nations Food Systems Summit will be convened – a historic moment for centring food in many critical issues facing people all over our planet today: from hunger and malnutrition; to environment and nature; to livelihoods and human rights; to resilience to shocks and stresses like COVID-19 and the climate emergency.
On the occasion of the United Nations Food Systems Summit Pre-Summit taking place in Rome (July 26th to 28th), we talked to GAIN’s Executive Director and lead of the UNFSS Action Track 1 – Dr Lawrence Haddad – about his impressions of this 'People's Summit'; about the challenges and rewards of inclusivity; and heard more about the action coalitions emerging in advance of the historical Summit scheduled for September.
It's been half a year since we heard from Lawrence on this subject, and a lot of progress has been made. He reflects on his impressions so far, as well as sharing some insights into three exciting emerging coalitions around a) Achieving Zero Hunger, b) Food Safety, and c) Healthy diets from sustainable food systems.
Lawrence shares his hopes for the pre-summit, particularly for Member States and for the Private Sector, and reflects on what it means for GAIN as an organisation, where a lot of energy and effort has been invested in engaging with these multistakeholder processes in preparation for the Summit.
Tune in to Episode 10 Sprinting through the super year and preparing for the marathon to 2030 to find out how can we all change food systems. As Lawrence says, "we cannot do just one thing to change systems – and we all have a responsibility".