FAO announces a new important partnership to improve policy-making for agrifood systems.

As an important step of its work on agrifood systems transformation, FAO's division on Food Systems and Food Safety (ESF) is launching a partnership with the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) at the University College London - led by the global thought-leader in public policy Professor Marianna Mazzucato. The collaboration converges IIPP’s expertise in innovative policy design using systems’ approaches and FAO’s knowledge on agrifood systems.

The objective of the partnership is to co-design a training for public sector officials on policy-making for Agrifood Systems Transformation to be launched in Rwanda at the end of November in collaboration with the University of Rwanda, and the regional research institute Academia 2063.  

The training will form the first module on Agrifood systems to be delivered under Rwanda’s Knowledge Programme in support of the country’s design process for its 2025-2030 Strategic Plan for the Agriculture Sector (PSTA5).

The collaboration kicked-off in early October with a crash course for the IIPP on FAO’s work on agrifood systems; with regional and HQ colleagues sharing challenges on translating systems concepts into actionable policies and programmes.

Continuing the ‘co-creation’ process, the IIPP team, led by Professor Rainer Kattel, the Deputy Director of the Institute, travelled to Rome to advance the design of the training’s development during a workshop 30th-31th October. Participants in Rome included a range of colleagues from across HQ, the regional offices, and stakeholders from Rwanda.   

The co-creation process will continue in Rwanda at the end of November when FAO, IIPP, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Rwanda will convene policy-makers, and non-state stakeholders to undertake experiential learning on innovative policy design using systems’ approaches as a contribution to the country’s Strategic Plan for the Agriculture Sector.  Through its collaboration with regional colleagues ESF will continue to share the learnings widely from this area of work in order to accelerate the adoption of a systems approach for the sustainable transformation of agrifood systems.   

Photo: Professor Marianna Mazzucato – IIPP-UCL – Global thought-leader on systems’ approaches and public-policy.