With a new year stretching out ahead of us, it’s time to pause and ask: what’s on the horizon for 2021? What have we learned from 2020 that we must take forward into the new year? What are the emerging trends, challenges, and issues in food systems that are likely to shape and define the year ahead? These are important questions. Here are my reflections on the key lessons learnt this year and what we must do in 2021 in order to help create a sustainable, equitable, and resilient future of food for all.
1. Systems breakdown means that we have to transform food systems
We are witnessing systems breakdown on multiple fronts — the pandemic, the ongoing climate emergency, increasing hunger — and each one is inextricably linked to human-made, unsustainable food systems that degrade the environment and undermine human health. These crises exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and structural inequalities at the heart of our social systems. For 2021, we must set in motion bold actions that fundamentally and radically transform our food systems for the betterment of all our health and the well-being of the planet. Crucially, all actions must hinge on the values of transparency, inclusivity, and shared power.
2. Once upon a time… and why it matters
Stories shape how we think, how we act, and what we dream is possible. This year, a salient theme in all our work was the need to shift narratives and imagine a more equitable, nourishing, and regenerative food future for all. To find out more, listen back to our session at the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) special event here or the discussion at Foundation-20’s Climate Solutions Week here. The range of stories in the Beacons of Hope project also provide an inspirational vision of what’s possible. The latest series shines a light on creative, adaptable, and resilient responses to COVID-19.
3. Space for dialogue as a tool for transformation
The pandemic has been a stark reminder that life on this earth and every element of our food systems — from the field to the supermarket — are deeply interconnected. In many ways, all parts of the system speak to one another. When faced with such complexity and dynamism, a commitment to brave dialogue, deep listening, and bold collaboration is crucial to cultivating long-lasting and systemic impact. Building on eight years of research, trusted conversation, and international convenings, we will be rolling out a series of events in 2021 that explore these seven calls to action. From healthy diets and regenerative practices to the economics and true cost of food, these pathways to transformation touch on all priority aspects of food systems change.
4. Systems change is daunting but principles show us how to act
The Global Alliance is a coalition of foundations, each with their own mission, vision, and ways of working. Members also come in all different shapes and sizes. What both guides and connects us is a commitment to an indivisible set of principles: renewability, health, equity, resilience, diversity, inclusion, and interconnectedness. During turbulent times, principles are powerful social technology that can be used to help us see the system in new ways, challenge our assumptions, and help inform decision-making. Check out these Actionable Frameworks for Systems Transformation to find out more.
5. We all have a role to play in transforming food systems
Transformational change at the speed and scale needed worldwide requires everyone to do their part. Diverse agents of change — the scientific community, grassroots movements, policymakers, farmers, the private sector, Indigenous Peoples, and others — committed to food systems change must connect so that, together, we can better understand the system, co-create the solutions we need, and inform action within our communities. Acting on our principles and Theory of Transformation, the Global Alliance joined the Champions Network of the UN Food Systems Summit in October of this year. In 2021, we’ll be working hard to mobilize diverse stakeholders around the case for food systems transformation, helping to build critical mass and momentum behind tipping points that lead to healthy, resilient, inclusive, and culturally diverse food systems.
6. 2021 is a year to connect the dots and think in systems
Without losing sight of the fact that transformation is a process, there’s no doubt that 2021 will be a “super year” for international fora, creating many opportunities for systemic action for healthy food systems. We must adopt a systems mindset in our collective approach to the forthcoming 47th Session of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS), UN Food Systems Summit 2021, UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP15), and the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit. The stakes are high, the cost of inaction formidable. But, without systems thinking — and systems doing — we risk siloed recommendations and action that are insufficient to meet the profound challenges we have experienced as a global community in 2020.
We have a lot of work to do. We built these systems — food, health, economic — that are proving they no longer serve people or the planet. We must lean in, learn from the past, and (re)create systems that lead us to a brighter, bolder, healthier, and more sustainable future.
