While countries recover from the severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change continues to pose an existential threat to humanity. Let us not forget that aside from climate change, hunger is the second or perhaps the first biggest challenge we are facing today. Despite our progress, more than 800 million people live in hunger, 3 billion do not have access to safe, affordable and nutritious food and 2 billion suffer from nutrition-related diseases. The dots do not connect; one third of food produced globally is wasted, while children are still hungry. That is why we need to reform our food systems fundamentally. It requires a collective effort of all of us.

Members of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) endorsed (February 2021) the first-ever Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition aiming to support countries and others to eradicate all forms of hunger and malnutrition using a food systems approach and focusing on action on the ground.

The Voluntary Guidelines represent a unique tool calling for change at national level aiming at reducing policy fragmentation with a special emphasis on the food, agriculture and nutrition sectors, while also addressing economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The guidelines focus on promoting transparent and accountable governance, sustainable supply chains, equal and equitable access to healthy diets through sustainable food systems, food safety across the sustainable food systems, nutrition knowledge, education and information, gender equality and women’s empowerment, and building resilience of food systems in humanitarian context.