Thinking systems. Acting together.
The way we grow, trade, and consume food is changing. And so is the way we work together to shape that change. Towards fairer, more sustainable and more resilient agrifood systems.
Launched in 2025 as a cross-divisional effort in FAO, the Inter-Country Learning Series on Agrifood Systems Transformation builds on a range of experiences and existing engagements to connect countries and practitioners driving agrifood systems transformation on the ground.
It’s a space to exchange experiences, test ideas, and learn how to turn joint planning into collaborative action. Each session offers new perspectives and inspiration to rethink the design of the agrifood systems with its participants at the centre.
The sessions
Hosted on 27 November 2025
Our initial dialogue laid the foundation for how we’ll explore agrifood systems transformation in the sessions to come. It was a testing ground for ideas, partnerships, and perspectives. A space to learn together and shape the journey ahead.
Building on this spirit of exploration, the first dialogue spotlighted how youth are not just the future of agrifood systems – they have a vital role in driving the change today. From influencing policies and launching impact-driven agribusinesses to creating green jobs and innovating across rural and urban spaces, young people are redefining what fair, resilient, and sustainable local and global agrifood systems can be.
Across farms, schools, factories, governance councils and public squares, youth voices are calling for justice. They are demanding land rights, decent work, smart investments, healthy food, and environmental regeneration. This first session was a spark. It explored how to harness that energy through a systems approach to transformation.
Anchor speakers:
- Sofía García Muguerza, Entrepreneur and Baker, Ecuador
- Gabriela Valenzuela, Director of Management and Transfer of Innovative Agricultural Knowledge, Ecuador's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries
- Cristina Laurenti, Coordinator of the Agroecology Europe Youth Network
Highlights
Why this learning series?
Transforming agrifood systems is essential to achieving food security and advancing a wide range of interconnected outcomes: from agricultural productivity to nutrition and health, from environmental sustainability to inclusive growth and equality.
Business-as-usual in policy, governance and action on the ground are insufficient to achieve this transformation, as demonstrated by persisting food insecurity, widening socio-economic inequalities, and ongoing degradation of biodiversity and natural resources.
Agrifood systems are deeply interconnected. Real change will only be achieved by taking action across different parts of the system, balancing competing priorities across sectors and engaging meaningfully with people with lived experience.
This learning series tackles a big, somewhat uncomfortable truth: shifting from planning to the purpose-driven, collaborative action required remains a challenge.
Countries and practitioners worldwide have made progress in joint planning through integrated strategies and multistakeholder platforms. Yet too often, these plans stall at the starting line. What’s missing is the leap into collaborative action to turn plans into impact.
What will participants do?
This learning series will work as a collaborative laboratory where countries and communities connect, learn, and build the capacity for joint action that turns strategies into real impact. This is about moving from talk to traction, from strategies to shared solutions.
Participants representing the diversity of agrifood systems stakeholders around the world will discover on-the-ground examples of systems leadership from women and men experimenting with joint action in several countries; engage in interactive dialogue that provokes new questions; and bring fresh perspectives from their lived experiences of taking the leap from planning to purpose-driven change.
Together, we will learn how systems approaches can help turn shared visions into collective action and sustained impact that spans across sectors, generations and geographies.
What makes this different?
The learning series is grounded in the Experience-Reflect-Generalize-Apply (ERGA) learning cycle and generative dialogue approach, tailored to advance agrifood systems transformation. This method follows four guiding principles:
Where our participants come from
From spark to spiral: moving towards a transformational cycle
This series follows a spiral of learning and action. Each session builds on a concrete entry point for systems change, shaped by participants’ insights, challenges, and ambitions. The spiral ultimately extends towards a continuous loop of reflection, innovation and impetus.
Outcomes will include the documentation of learning insights from each session, which will be shared through concise and accessible learning and practice notes, along with an overarching synthesis highlighting emerging patterns.
Each step builds momentum towards one shared purpose: sustainable, inclusive, resilient agrifood systems that deliver for people and the planet.
The moment is ripe for action. As FAO celebrates 80 years of learning and innovation, bold initiatives and partnerships around the world are reshaping agrifood systems. This series cultivates an inter-country conversation to share experiences and set the tone for the next phases of transformation, moving from planning to collective action, with an aspiration to make these collective learning practices scalable and replicable.
This is not just a series. It’s an invitation to shift how we think, connect and act together.
Co-hosts:
- Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division (ESF)
- Development Law Service (LEGN)
- Governance and Policy Support Unit (GaPS / DDCG)
- Office of SDGs (OSG)
Who’s in the room?
We’re bringing together diverse voices from across agrifood systems. The mix will be deliberate and inclusive:
- Local and national government representatives/advisors
- Farmers, fisherfolks and food producers
- Impact-driven agrifood businesses
- Civil society and NGOs (including consumer groups)
- Finance, training, and service providers
- Academia and research
- FAO colleagues from country, regional, liaison offices, and HQ
We’ll seek to ensure gender balance, intergenerational voices including youth champions, and sectoral diversity as much as possible. Because systems change needs all of us.
In Focus
Transforming food and agriculture through a systems approach
Transformation isn’t a circle. It’s a web. This is the future of food and agriculture, reimagined. Discover the six dimensions that redefine our vision.
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Useful resources
- 2025 Governance Learning Series
- FAO & Agrifood Systems Governance
- The Status of Youth in Agrifood Systems
- The water of systems change
- Centering Justice and Decolonization in Agroecology
- The Agroecology Europe Youth Network at the European Commission
- Framework paper - Focus on governance for more effective policy and technical support
FAQ on agrifood systems transformation
This FAQ provides answers to commonly asked questions about the terms, meanings and processes of agrifood systems transformation.