Evidence-based policy making: for a demand-driven and inclusive approach

Key messages

During the last fifteen years, the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN), as the Science-Policy Interface of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), has contributed to build a global policy framework for food security and nutrition, based on evidence. 

HLPE-FSN reports have called for a critical shift in food policy framework that requires: (i) a food systems approach; and (ii) expanding food security to incorporate sustainability (ensuring future generations’ needs) and agency (empowering people in food decisions), anchored on the right to adequate food. 

To go further, we need to: (i) create greater demand for evidence-based decision-making; and (ii) to be more inclusive, recognizing diverse forms of knowledge, including Indigenous and local experiences.

1. Motivation/Background

For over six decades, international policies have enabled agricultural products to move relatively easily across national borders. During this time, the agriculture research agenda focused on boosting the yields of our primary crops and livestock.^[i] This allowed the price of food energy (e.g. calories) to fall, supplies per capita to rise ^[ii] and food budget to decline as a percentage of household income.^[iii] Yet, despite the supportive trade agenda, extreme hunger is not eradicated and progress towards the Agenda 2030 targets including SDG2 was slow even before the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

In addition, recently, the landscape has been changing. Deglobalization threatens international supply chains^[iv] and trade policy is used as a geopolitical strategic instrument. Major actors withdraw from multilateral agreements and initiatives, without consideration for the far-reaching consequences. Development aid is decreasing at the same time as poor countries have already used their fiscal space to alleviate the polycrisis made of economic shocks, extreme weather events and, for many countries, conflicts.

However, countries are not facing these shocks alone. Many of these challenges are global, and their solutions require coordination within and between countries.  On a global scale, climate change undermines production while food systems contribute around 1/3 of all human induced greenhouse gases emissions._^[v] Major public health challenges in poor and rich countries alike are linked to unhealthy diets.^[vi]

There is mounting evidence that food systems are responsible for major environmental, social, and health problems^[vii]. Therefore, transforming food systems will help address simultaneously the triple burden of malnutrition (undernutrition, obesity and micronutrients deficiencies) and Earth’s limits.^[viii]

2. Key issues of the current food systems and challenges for knowledge

Formulating more effective food security and nutrition policies requires a deeper understanding of the underlying forces that drive food systems’ changes:

• Biophysical, environmental and disease trends. Climate change is having profound effects on food systems, while food systems contribute to a changing climate, which is modifying the incidence of plant, animal and zoonotic diseases^[ix].
• Technology, innovation, and infrastructure trends. Recent years have seen growing support for innovation in sustainable agricultural production methods—such as agroecology, sustainable intensification and climate-smart agriculture (HLPE, 2019^[x]). Innovations in agriculture and food systems are distinct from those in many other sectors, because ecological processes and social interactions play a central role. Therefore, the people who implement solutions need to be central to the development of innovations, so that technologies are adapted to local conditions.
• Economic and market trends. There have been both expansion and disruption in food and agriculture markets in recent decades and ongoing debates over the implications of international food trade for food security. Progressive concentration has also reshaped agrifood supply chains in ways that enhance the power and influence of large corporations within food systems. Financial actors have also become increasingly engaged at various points in food systems, sparking debates about whether their activities are beneficial or destabilizing. The shift of a significant proportion of agricultural production and land use away from human food-related activities and towards animal feed, timber and biofuels has presented trade-offs between food security and energy needs.
• Political and institutional trends. Weak and fragmented governance for food security and nutrition has resulted in policy inertia at different scales that threaten progress. Public sector investment in food and agriculture has declined, raising questions about the appropriate balance between the roles of the public and private sector in supporting food systems (HLPE, 2025^[xi]). Civil strife and conflict affect the food security of millions of people around the world. Conflict endangers the right to adequate food through the destruction of the food supply chains and the ecosystems and using “hunger as a weapon”. Conflict-induced acute food crises have a long-term impact on health, productivity, well-being and social cohesion (HLPE, 2024^[xii])
• Socio-cultural trends. Inequalities persist at all levels, with a negative impact on poverty reduction and food security, especially for the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized people—including small-scale producers, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and vulnerable food system workers (cf. HLPE, 2023^[xiii]).
• Demographic trends. Population increases, especially in Africa where most of the world’s population growth will be concentrated and parts of Asia, will result in growing demand for food, although by how much will depend on consumer food choices and the ability to reduce food losses and waste. Urbanization patterns also influence food systems, particularly rural to urban migration and growing urban demand for easy-to-prepare and processed foods (cf. HLPE report on urban food systems^[xiv]). Declining youth interest in agriculture, food industry or services presents enormous challenges for the future of food production and food system livelihoods (HLPE, 2021^[xv]).

3. Science for the future of food: updating the policy framework

In a complex and fast-changing world, past experience and intuition are no longer sufficient. Policy makers need to rely on the latest evidence and new ways of thinking provided by science.

The HLPE-FSN, created in 2010, is the science and policy interface of the Committee on World Food Security, which is the unique UN policy—coordinating body for food security and nutrition. The HLPE-FSN provides to the CFS, independent analysis and advice, as well as alerts on priority emerging or enduring issues at the multilateral level. Based on HLPE-FSN reports, the CFS negotiates global policy frameworks, which are nonbinding but endorsed by the Member states and participants of CFS who will implement them at the national level, ensuring policy coherence across scales. Uniquely among UN intergovernmental platforms, the private sector and the civil society are participating in the CFS negotiations. Examples of policy products adopted by the CFS are the voluntary guidelines on the right to adequate food, or on land tenure, or responsible investment and a policy framework of actions during food crises.

The HLPE-FSN reports call for a critical shift in the food policy framework, following recent advances in knowledge.

Food systems approach: HLPE-FSN reports complement a growing literature that stresses the need to move beyond production and demographic change, to address the quality of food: the health and nutritional dimensions of food, its social and environmental sustainability, and how it meets consumers’ needs and preferences. The quality of food involves all actors of the food systems, including firms in the supply chain (the production and distribution network) and private and public institutions that shape the food environments where consumers make their decisions. A food systems approach requires awareness of trade-offs, conflicting objectives and power imbalances. It also opens new avenues for policy interventions, based on coordination and policy coherence.

Six dimensions of food security: The concept of food security has evolved to recognize the importance of agency and sustainability, along with the four other dimensions of availability, access, utilization, and stability. Agency implies the capacity of individuals or groups to make their own decisions about what foods they eat, what foods they produce, how that food is produced, processed and distributed within food systems, and their ability to engage in processes that shape food system policies and governance. Sustainability refers to the ability to provide food today without compromising the environmental, economic, and social bases that generate food security and nutrition for future generations.

The evolution is linked to a broader understanding of the causes of malnutrition: hunger or food deserts can persist even if food is available. Disadvantaged groups are often overlooked by policies and experience a higher level of food insecurity.

The guiding principle in support of food security and nutrition is the right to adequate food, a fundamental human right that States have the duty, obligation and responsibility to respect, protect and fulfill (Art. 11 of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights).

This broader perspective allows the HLPE-FSN to address the root causes of food insecurity: structural drivers such as inequalities (HLPE, 2023) and environmental changes (HLPE, 2021^[xvi]). The HLPE-FSN Background Note on "Climate change, Biodiversity loss, land degradation and the right to food" (2025) explores how the right to food could be a unifying solution to harmonize the objectives of the Rio Conventions and find cost-effective policies that can be scaled up and “do not harm” people when they preserve the planet.

Agency also requires working across scales and regions. There is no top-down, one-size-fits-all solution. Policies need to be context-specific and designed hearing the voices of all stakeholders. The CFS, based on HLPE-FSN recommendations, adopts a global policy framework that each country can adapt to its specific needs.

HLPE-FSN has evolved to be more inclusive, integrating many types of knowledge and evidence, such as the lived experience of people (including indigenous peoples, peasants, and traditional communities). It has also started informal exchanges with other Science-Policy Interfaces (SPIs) such as members of IPBES, OneHealth and IPCC.

4. Actions to update the policy framework

1) Create greater demand for data for decision-making among governments, policy makers and donors (HLPE, 2021^[xvii])

1. Invest in monitoring and evaluation of food policies and programmes, including non‑food specific impacts (such as economic development and environmental sustainability).

    

2.  Establish a UN Global food systems observatory that maintains a dashboard (based on households and firms level datasets, satellite imagery, country surveys). The UN observatory will complement countries’ efforts and continue the stocktake at the UNFSS. Part of its actions could be coordinated by the CFS as part of its monitoring of CFS policy products.
   • Increase and sustain investment in the collection of essential and sufficiently disaggregated data for food security and nutrition (FSN). Data are woefully lacking in most countries for agriculture, food environments, household-level food access and dietary intake and nutrition outcomes. Often, most data exist only in the form of national-level statistics and indicators, providing few insights into subnational differences, inequalities across population groups, and other variations that may hold relevance for FSN.
   • All government data that refers to agriculture and FSN should be treated as "open by default" while improving the legal frameworks that protect sensitive data and privacy.
3. Promote data literacy to promote agency: Enhancing agency in data generation and access (especially through digital technologies) can help address ethical concerns linked to power imbalances in data ownership and control and contribute to reducing inequalities. This action concerns:
   • policymakers who rely on the results of data analysis to make policy or investment decisions.
   • the general population, by including these topics in schools and academic curricula. 
4. Support formal and informal education, from youth to adult learning, to build the capacity of people to respond to stresses and shocks, including by helping farmers to diversify to non-agricultural activities
   

2) Recognize diverse forms of knowledge.

1. Strengthen national Science-Policy-Society interfaces: national group of experts, following the i-TRACE principles to ensure legitimacy ^[xviii] (independent, transparent, accessible, consultative, evidence-based), will be in charge of foresight exercises, making sure that marginalized groups are participating. They will contribute to a culture of evidence and evidence-based policy in local contexts. Part of this action could be coordinated by the CFS as part of its collaborative governance workstream.
2. Incorporate qualitative data and lived experience in food policy.
3. Use geographic information systems, remote sensing, digital tools and participatory mapping to identify areas most vulnerable to food‑system disruption to inform long‑term planning and crisis response.
4. Support the diversification of food through: (i) research on climate-resilient and nutritious forgotten crops and supporting biogenetic conservation and community gene banks of plants and animals; (ii) putting innovation at the scale of small farmers and SMEs; (iii) creating routes to market for diverse and healthy products.

The HLPE-FSN is ready to contribute to update the policy framework on food security and nutrition towards the achievement of the right to adequate food. 

[i] Evenson, R.E. & Gollin, D. 2003. Assessing the impact of the Green Revolution, 1960 to 2000. Science, 300(5620): 758–762.