10YFP: Sustainable Food Systems

The 10YFP Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) programme is a multi-stakeholder partnership aiming to collaborate on joint initiatives to support and promote more sustainable food consumption and production patterns. Initiated in 2015, it takes a holistic approach, the 10YFP SFS considers the interconnections and trade-offs between all elements and actors in food systems.

The 26 COAG requested that FAO continue to support the strengthening of strategic partnerships and platforms, notably the 10YFP SFS programme. It recognized that the 10YFP SFS can play a "key catalytic role in driving more sustainable food systems by providing fora for sharing and extending experience, policy advice and knowledge on food system transformation and its impacts, including the promotion of the appropriate adoption of innovations..."

The 10YFP SFS focus themes of: Resilient, inclusive, diverse food production systems, Sustainability along all value chains, Reduction of food losses and waste, Sustainable diets fits with FAO's Strategic Objectives, and the role of FAO within the partnership.

The Incentives for Ecosystem Services (IES) project, together with UNEP and Biovision, have developed and are implementing one of the 10YFP SFS core initiatives: Sustainable Food Systems: What's in it for farmers?

This core initiative builds on IES's work to increase understanding of the adoption barriers food producers face when transitioning to more sustainable production practices. It aims to improve the coordination of incentives to help overcome these barriers, across agriculture and food sectors, and between public and private partners. With a more integrated approach, producers can be supported to address conservation goals, while improving productivity and livelihoods.

This work aims to:

Identify and analyse barriers faced by farmers in adopting sustainable production practices
Map the different types and combination of incentives provided by public programmes, civil society initiatives and private sector investment
Analyse how an enabling environment can be fostered across political/ public sector, private sector involvement, role of civil society and consumers, to better coordinate existing incentives across sectors and develop policy recommendations to support the implementation of such an enabling environment
Develop an overview of how the impact of such incentives on SFS can be assessed and measured
Validate results in selected countries.

Regional focus: Asia Pacific

EAT - Lancet Commission brief for policy makers

The EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems presents a global planetary health diet that is healthy for both people and planet. It brings together global experts to scientifically review what constitutes a healthy diet from a sustainable food system, and what actions can support and speed up food system transformation.

Innovative action identified for policy makers included increasing the affordability of healthy and sustainably produced foods through the alignment of subsidies, taxes and incentives, and by reviewing policies targeting food environments, food procurement, public distribution schemes and related infrastructure. It also highlighted the need to address different socioeconomic and political drivers of food through the full range of policy levers from "soft" (e.g. voluntary commitments) to "hard" (e.g. legislation) to advance the planetary health diet.

This is reflective of the IES approach to map existing initiatives and policies financing sustainable production, and improving the coordination of a diverse package of incentives within an enabling environment to address multiple drivers of food systems and support producers transition to improved practices.