Food losses and waste (FLW) in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) are persistently high and point to the inefficiencies, unsustainability and inequalities characterizing most agrifood systems in the region. The region needs a transformation of its agrifood systems to deliver healthier diets, strengthen food security in every dimension_availability, access, stability and utilization – and meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). FLW reduction is an important component in the transformation of the Region’s agrifood systems. Addressing the drivers of FLW along value chains provides an opportunity to tackle some of the inherent problems within the NENA Region agrifood systems and to contribute to goals such as: boosting incomes and employment, improving access to nutritious food, reducing the climate footprint, and improving the use of scarce natural resources, particularly arable land and water. There has been a remarkable evolution in our knowledge, awareness and advocacy around FLW reduction, globally and in the NENA region. The 2011 FAO landmark report Global Food Losses and Food Waste – Extent, Causes and Prevention placed FLW reduction high on the global agenda for reducing hunger and promoting the transformation of agrifood systems. The world enshrined FLW in the SDGs by setting the Target 12.3 to reduce FLW by 50 percent by 2030. The FAO 2019 State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report introduced the Food Loss Index and a new global estimate of 14 percent of food lost from harvest to retail (not including retail). In the NENA region, this figure is about 11 percent. The present study looks at FLW from an economic perspective, considering producers, intermediaries, and consumers as key decision-makers. It builds on our accumulated experience in the analysis of the causes of FLW and solutions. It also examines more closely the incentives and behaviours driving value chain actors’ decisions towards the reduction of FLW, and how lossreduction decisions play out across the value chain. It provides recommendations to governments, international organizations, and resource partners wishing to strengthen the effectiveness of their support to value chain actors. It does so by centering the analysis on the economic incentives of these actors and the interconnectedness of decisions within value chains and, by extension, the entire agrifood system The study comes on the heels of a global pandemic and an unprecedented economic downturn. The COVID-19 crisis has revealed the fragility of agrifood systems in the NENA region. Governments have kept value chains functioning since the start of the pandemic, but as the crisis moves into response and recovery, they wish to build back more productive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems with less FLW. Now more than ever is the time to accelerate action towards FLW reduction as part of the broader agrifood systems transformation agenda of the region.