New HLPE-FSN drafting team to study inequalities

10/06/2022 - The new CFS HLPE-FSN drafting team has been selected to work on the upcoming report “Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition”, which will be presented to CFS in October 2023.
The main criteria for choosing the team have included the general principles of scientific and technical relevance as well as regional expertise, resulting in an extraordinary interdisciplinary team, well-equipped to address the multidimensional and intersectional aspects of inequality and vulnerability.

The selected international experts cover different areas of knowledge, including sociology, political economy, economics, statistical analysis, legal aspects of inequalities and human rights, gender analysis, rural and urban development, and, naturally, food systems, health and nutrition.

Serving in their personal capacities, they will engage with the  HLPE-FSN Steering Committee. Furthermore, selected experts will be co-authors of this future HLPE-FSN flagship report and will participate in the CFS public debate on inequalities and food security and nutrition as part of the HLPE-FSN.

They will be responsible for assessing the science related to inequality and world food security and nutrition and consider all the contributions received during the consultative processes, in a transparent and inclusive way, open to all forms of knowledge from many actors – knowledge of local implementation, knowledge based on global research and knowledge of “best practice” – that draw on both local and global sources.

The selected experts
The high-level multidisciplinary team is led by Bhavani Shankar, who will coordinate the work of six other members:

• Jane Battersby
• Jody Harris
• Christina Hicks
• Mariaelena Huambachano
• Swetha Manohar
• Nicholas Nisbett

Professor Bhavani is an applied economist working on research areas at the intersection of food, health and environmental sustainability. He is Professor of Food Systems and Health at the University of Sheffield, UK, and lead the “Food Consumption, Health and Sustainability” pillar at the University’s flagship Institute for Sustainable Food. He was previously Professor at SOAS, University of London where he was part of the core group directing the London Centre for Integrative Research in Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH) from 2010 onwards. He has also held appointments at FAO and at the University of Reading.

The report
The report, which will provide recommendations to the CFS workstream on inequalities, will:

• Analyse quantitative and qualitative evidence relating to how inequalities in access to assets (particularly land, other natural resources and finance), and incomes within the agri-food systems impede opportunities for many actors to overcome food insecurity and malnutrition. Relevant data on asset endowments in rural communities will be useful in this respect, along with the findings of latest SOFI reports. Given the focus on agri-food systems and the key role of family farmers within these systems, linkages and complementarities with the UN Decade of Family Farming will be examined, including as reference to decent employment issues in the agri-food sector;
• Analyse the drivers of inequalities and provide recommendations on entry points to address these;
• Identify areas requiring further research and data collection, also in view of the opportunities provided by the ongoing joint effort of the World Bank, FAO and IFAD within the 50 x 2030 Initiative.

The proposed thematic workstream on inequalities will contribute to the CFS vision and the overall objective of addressing the root causes of food insecurity with a focus on the people most affected by hunger and malnutrition.