On upcoming partnership events regarding foresight activities for agrifood systems transformation, Lorenzo Giovanni Bellù, Senior Economist, Team Leader of the Policy Intelligence Branch - Global Perspectives (PIB-GP) in the FAO Agrifood Economics Division (ESA), and lead author of the FAO report The future of food and agriculture – Drivers and triggers for transformation, has been invited by the European Commission’s secretariat of the Member State-led Standing Committee of Agricultural Research (SCAR) to speak at the SCAR workshop “Shaping the Future – SCAR Foresight” on Wednesday, 7 June. The SCAR Foresight Group meets at various levels to discuss research and innovation policy orientations, and includes a dedicated strategic working group on Foresight. Their last foresight (5^th) report was published in 2020 and the group is now starting their work on the next foresight exercise.

Every 3 to 5 years the SCAR Foresight Group starts a new foresight process. The process consists of two sub-processes, the dissemination of the results of the recent study on one hand and setting up a new study on the other hand. Both processes are running in parallel. Currently, a new SCAR Foresight process is being started. FAO’s contributions are expected to nurture the debate and strategic actions of European Union Members towards more sustainable and resilient agrifood systems.

The contribution to this event is the latest of a series of efforts undertaken by FAO to contribute to the discussions and policymaking processes ongoing within the European Union. Indeed, at the beginning of 2023, the FAO Policy Intelligence Branch – Global Perspectives (PIB-GP) was invited to several events in Brussels, organized by European Union institutions and academia to showcase the findings of the FAO report The future of food and agriculture – Drivers and triggers for transformation and the Corporate Strategic Foresight Exercise (CSFE). The interest and support from FAO’s Liaison Office in Brussels were significantly appreciated.

PIB-GP had already engaged, in September 2022, in foresight activities for agrifood systems organized by the European Commission (EC)’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the EC’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG-AGRI). Notably, FAO’s contributions to an exercise on “Transformative futures for farmers and rural communities” reinforced working relationships in this field with these institutions.

In March 2023, Lorenzo Giovanni Bellù, went to Brussels and presented the report at the JRC and at the EC’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG R&I). In addition, he met with colleagues from the EC’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG-INTPA). After this meeting in Brussels, DG-INTPA invited FAO to discuss the findings of the report and the CSFE and plan for future foresight activities and possible collaborations in regional strategic foresight programmes.