HASTEN lecture: Multistakeholder engagement and governance for agrifood systems transformation - Advancing the SDGs

25/11/2025

©© FAO/Sebastian Liste

Background

In 2024, FAO launched the HASTEN project to empower the next-generation of agrifood leaders in Lesotho, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda to drive sustainable agrifood systems transformation. This lecture series is the second element of the project’s capacity-building component, designed in response to country-identified priorities and knowledge gaps. Targeting young professionals across public, private and academic sectors, the series emphasizes transdisciplinary systems thinking and SDG interlinkages. The sessions build on findings from inception missions and a capacity survey, as well as insights from a 2025 study visit to Ireland. The lectures aim to deepen understanding of systems transformation and inspire context-relevant leadership and innovation across sectors.

Lecture: 'Multistakeholder Engagement and Governance for Agrifood Systems Transformation - Advancing the SDGs'

This third lecture in the HASTEN lecture series presents case studies of effective stakeholder engagement and applications of inclusive, participatory design to drive sustainable agrifood system transformation and collaboration for impactful governance advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Agenda

11:30	Opening and welcome Hajnalka Petrics, Lead Technical Officer for FAO HASTEN, FAO Office of Sustainable Development Goals
11:35	Multistakeholder Engagement and Governance for Agrifood Systems Transformation Pramisha Thapaliya, Agrifood Systems Specialist, FAO Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division
12:10	Practical case studies from South Sudan, Uganda and Ireland Dr. Florence Dwoki Lado, Evaluation and development consultant, South Sudan Edward Walugembe, Commissioner, Strategic Coordination and Implementation, Office of The Prime Minister, Uganda Dr Tom Arnold, Chair, Ireland Africa Rural Development Committee (IARDC), Ireland Moderator: Siobhan Kelly, Agibusiness Officer, FAO Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division
12:30	Q&A
12:50	Reflection on discussion Siobhan Kelly, Agribusiness Officer, FAO Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division
12:55	Closing Hajnalka Petrics, Lead Technical Officer for FAO HASTEN, FAO Office of Sustainable Development Goals

Speakers

	Moderator Hajnalka Petrics Office of SDGs, FAO Hajnalka Petrics is a Programme Officer at FAO's Office of Sustainable Development Goals, where she leads the Prototyping and Acceleration Portfolio. She heads the FAO SDG Agrifood Accelerator Programme and the HASTEN FVC Project, which promote eco-inclusive and social agripreneurship. Previously, she was the Global Coordinator of the RBA-EU Joint Programme on Gender Transformative Approaches for Food Security and Nutrition. She also served as a Gender and Development Officer in FAO’s Gender Team, leading work on CEDAW implementation, gender-responsive policies, and rural advisory services. Earlier in her career, she was a Rural Development and Gender Technical Officer at FAO's Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia. Hajnalka holds a PhD in International Cooperation and Sustainable Development Policies, and an MA in Policies and Governance of European Integration from the University of Bologna.
	Siobhan Kelly Agribusiness Officer, Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division, FAO Siobhan Kelly is an Agribusiness Economist with FAO’s Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division. She currently leads FAO’s work on policymaking for agrifood systems transformation; including on themes related to multistakeholder and private sector engagement in policy agenda setting and implementation. She also has expertise in agrifood value chain development, including the role of agrifood SMEs in rural transformation.
	Pramisha Thapaliya Agrifood Systems Specialist, Agrifood Systems and Food Safety Division, FAO Pramisha Thapaliya is an Agrifood Systems Specialist at FAO, supporting policymaking for agrifood systems transformation through multistakeholder collaboration and systems approaches. She previously led youth action and policy at the World Food Forum, driving initiatives to empower young people in agrifood policy and advocacy. An agricultural economist by training, Pramisha began her career in youth-led climate and food systems advocacy at local and international levels.
	Dr. Florence Dwoki Lado Evaluation and development consultant, South Sudan Florence Lado is an experienced evaluation and development consultant with over a decade of expertise in gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, agricultural value chains, and food security programming across South Sudan and the Horn of Africa. She developed and led the Women in Trade Programme in South Sudan under AMSCO Development Solutions for TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), designing and implementing training initiatives that strengthened the capacities of women in informal cross-border trade in Nimule, Kaya, Nadapal, and Elegu; in collaborating with the University of Juba on training initiatives. Florence Lado has served as a Lead Consultant and Gender Thematic Evaluator with FAO, contributing to key evaluations such as FAO -FNS-REPRO, FAO-FICREP and the FAO–SIDA Resilient Livelihoods Project, focusing on gender integration and systemic resilience. Her work as a consultant with GIZ, focusing on Gender and Human Rights, where she evaluated governance projects aimed at promoting peaceful coexistence in South Sudan. She also contributed to the GIZ-FSAD initiative, bridging gender inclusion with market systems and policy transformation, ensuring that women’s economic roles are central to sustainable development outcomes.
	Edward Walugembe Commissioner, Strategic Coordination and Implementation, Office of The Prime Minister, Uganda Edward Walugembe is chairperson of National Food Systems Coordination Committee (NFSCC), office of the Prime Minister, Uganda. He is primarily responsible for strengthening institutional framework for coordination of policy and programme implementation in Government. He also developed and manages the Institutional Framework for the Coordination of Policy and Programme Implementation including Policy Coordination Committee, Technical Coordination Committee, Working Groups and Task Forces to ensure multi-sectoral coordination in line with the Policy Coordination Policy of 2016.
	Dr. Tom Arnold Chair, Ireland Africa Rural Development Committee (IARDC), Ireland Tom Arnold currently serves as a Board member of the Global Food Banking Network (GFN); member, Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition (GloPan); board member, Malabo Montpellier Panel; board member, John and Pat Hume Foundation; board member, Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation. His previous roles include serving as Ireland’s Special Envoy for Food Systems; Chair, Food Vision 2030 agri-food strategy group; Director General, Institute for International and European Affairs (IIEA); Chair, Irish Constitutional Convention; CEO, Concern Worldwide; Chief Economist and Assistant Secretary General, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM); Administrator, European Commission.