SPECIAL EVENT
From Commitments to Impact: Analyzing the Global Commitments Toward Promoting Food Security and Healthy Diets
Co-organized by IFPRI and The Rockefeller Foundation
FEB 6, 2024 - 9:00 TO 10:30AM EST

Since the mid-2010s, progress in reducing food insecurity and improving diet quality has stalled. Multiple shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, have exacerbated the situation and put Sustainable Development Goal 2 on Zero Hunger further out of reach.

There have been many calls for action to address the food and diets crisis facing vulnerable people around the world. The private sector has been called on to invest in transforming food systems—at an annual rate of $320 billion—while the development banks have been asked to align financial incentives with food system-related goals. While some of these actors have stepped up, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) opening of a food shock window to channel funds to countries beset by crisis, ultimately, progress depends on governments. National governments are responsible, and can be held accountable, for ensuring food security; healthy, diverse diets; and stable, dignified livelihoods, for their populations.

Since the SDGs were announced in 2015, governments in both high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries have made commitments to actions to address food insecurity and poor diets by 2030, including at the UN General Assembly, the World Health Assembly, the G-20, and the UN Food Systems Summit. What remains uncertain at this midway point is which commitments and actions are most salient, whether and how much global and linked national commitments are both fit-for-purpose and fit for the future, and to what extent these commitments have the potential to address known challenges to achieving SDG goals on food security and healthy diets.

This seminar will shed light on commitments already made, share research results on the potential of current commitments to achieve a focused set of food and nutrition security goals, and foster continued dialogue with global advocacy partners. A brunch reception will follow the presentations.

Opening Remarks
Johan Swinnen, Managing Director, Systems Transformation, CGIAR and Director General, IFPRI
Catherine Bertini, Managing Director, Food Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation

Report Findings
Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy, CGIAR and IFPRI

Global Scenarios for Food Security: An imperative for action
Rob Vos, Director, Markets, Trade and Institutions (MTI), IFPRI

From Commitments to Impact
Christina Zorbas, Postdoctoral Researcher, Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition in the Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University 
Shoba Suri, Senior Fellow, Health Initiative, Observer Research Foundation
Elyse Iruhiriye, Associate Research Fellow, IFPRI

Implications of Findings
Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy, CGIAR and IFPRI

Panelists
Mwandwe Chileshe, Director, Food Security Nutrition and Agriculture, Global Citizen
Oliver Camp, Environment and Food Systems Advocacy Advisor, The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
Alexandre Brecher, Communications and Advocacy Advisor, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement
Pedro Vormittag, Deputy Director for External Relations, Brazilian Center of International Relations (CEBRI)

Moderators
Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy, CGIAR and IFPRI
Asma Lateef, Policy and Advocacy Lead, SDG2 Advocacy Hub

Links:
The Rockefeller Foundation: https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/
From Promises To Action: Analyzing Global Commitments On Food Security And Diets Since 2015: https://cgspace.cgiar.org/items/c700ac9e-1b22-4319-b285-7e14e395b566
The SDGs And Food System Challenges: Global Trends And Scenarios Toward 2030: https://cgspace.cgiar.org/items/2961e6f2-5da4-41b4-80fe-8c61a02072a6

From Commitments to Impact

Introductory Remarks by Geraldo B. Martha Jr., Coordinator, Embrapa, Labex-USA
 
Successful agricultural transformations around the world provide critical lessons and offer insights into opportunities for other countries seeking to take this step forward.

 
At this special event, we will learn about Brazil’s agricultural transformation from Embrapa’s President, Maurício Lopes. IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan will share insights from Asian countries, ERS Administrator Mary Bohman will review the experience of the United States, and Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance President Marcos Jank will discuss the role of the food industry in agricultural transformation.

IFPRI Special Event:  Transforming Agriculture - 5/15/2018 - GMartha

Speaker: Marcos Sawaya Jank, President, Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance and IFPRI Board member
 
Successful agricultural transformations around the world provide critical lessons and offer insights into opportunities for other countries seeking to take this step forward.
 
At this special event, we will learn about Brazil’s agricultural transformation from Embrapa’s President, Maurício Lopes. IFPRI Director General Shenggen Fan will share insights from Asian countries, ERS Administrator Mary Bohman will review the experience of the United States, and Asia-Brazil Agro Alliance President Marcos Jank will discuss the role of the food industry in agricultural transformation.

IFPRI Special Event:  Transforming Agriculture - 5/15/2018  - M.Jank

What happens when a child is malnourished? Can such a child ever “catch up” later in life? Why does urbanization and obesity seem to go hand in hand—and what does this mean for food production? We’ll explore big picture food system questions today on the Leading Voices in Food with our guest Dr. Shenggen Fan.

The Leading Voices in Food

Shenggen Fan on Hunger, Climate Change and the Hope of Innovation

Speaker: William A. Masters, Professor, Tufts University

Interventions and innovation can lower the price of individual foods, but healthy eating depends on access to a mix of foods from diverse sources. How has the overall cost of meeting dietary needs changed over time worldwide, and in Africa and South Asia specifically? What determines the cost of a healthy diet? And how does affordability affect dietary intake and health status in different locales?

To answer these questions, Changing Access to Nutritious Diets in Africa and South Asia (CANDASA) (https://sites.tufts.edu/candasa) has been using new food price indexes that account for food substitutions to meet nutritional needs to evaluate food systems all over the world, including in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, and Tanzania.

This seminar will present the outcomes of CANDASA’s work to date, with a panel discussion featuring field researchers from each country to discuss the local and global implications of their results.

Research by Tufts and IFPRI on this topic is supported by UKAid and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

IFPRI Policy Seminar:  What is the Cost of a Healthy Diet? - 5/29/2019 - WMasters

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. Established in 1975, IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 50 countries. It is a research center of CGIAR, a worldwide partnership engaged in agricultural research for development.

From Commitments to Impact

International Food Policy Research Institute

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