Here’s how we’re ensuring there’ll be enough sustainable and nutritious food for 9.8 billion people by 2050

The impact.

The NVA’s Grow Asia Partnership has helped 700,000 smallholder farmers in South-East Asia.

The New Vision for Agriculture (NVA) initiative, led by the World Economic Forum, is helping to ensure that the agricultural sector can sustainably nourish a growing world population. The initiative has helped forge public-private partnerships for sustainable agriculture in 23 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America that are implemented through regional programmes – the Grow Africa Partnership, the Grow Asia Partnership, NVA India and NVA Latin America.

At a regional level, Grow Africa has created more than 80,000 jobs. Grow Asia’s impact has reached 700,000 smallholder farmers in South-East Asia, leading to improved smallholder incomes by up to 80%, increases in yield by up to 52% (as of 2017) and reduced carbon emissions by about 40%.

Today the NVA engages over 650 organizations and has advanced 100 value-chain initiatives that have benefited millions of farmers.

It has also helped create the Food Systems Action Platform, a coalition of partner organizations that leverages their diverse and complementary competencies to support new and existing value-chain initiatives for scaling positive impact for food systems.

What's the challenge?

Nearly 800 million people are undernourished, 2 billion are considered micronutrient-deficient and an additional 2 billion are overweight or obese.

Today’s food systems do not provide the world’s population with enough nutritious food in an environmentally sustainable way.

Nearly 800 million people are undernourished, 2 billion are considered micronutrient-deficient and an additional 2 billion are overweight or obese. Meanwhile, food production, transport, processing and waste are placing enormous pressure on environmental resources.

What will the situation be in 2050 when the demand for food is projected to be 70% higher?

Our approach.

To effectively tackle the issue of food security and sustainability, the World Economic Forum launched the New Vision for Agriculture initiative (NVA) in 2009 to engage all stakeholders relevant to the effort, including farmers, government, civil society and the private sector.

The NVA focuses on three key objectives: enhancing food and nutrition security; improving environmental sustainability; and increasing economic opportunity through a market-based, multistakeholder approach. It follows a set of core guiding principles to facilitate action-oriented partnerships at the country level:

Locally owned and aligned with the country’s goals

Multistakeholder, with open and inclusive engagement

Market-driven, with the project led by the private sector and rooted in viable business models

Holistic, integrating full value chains that benefit all actors in the agriculture system

Globally supported by an international network that provides solidarity and support

The NVA has captured this model in a Guide to Country-Led Action, supported by dedicated toolkits, to share the approach widely among interested stakeholders. The NVA set up the Transformation Leaders Network, which includes 150 leaders and experts from various countries and industries who share their knowledge, best practices and experiences to scale impact.

How can you get involved?

The World Economic Forum is looking for organizations that want to contribute to our efforts to improve food security and build inclusive, healthy, efficient and sustainable food systems.

Are you interested in getting involved in this or other important initiatives to secure our planet’s future? Contact us to see how you can join the Forum’s mission to improve the state of the world.

Our Platform

This initiative is part of

The Platform for Shaping the Future of Global Public Goods

Accelerating actions on climate change and environmental sustainability, food systems and the future of international development.

More about this Platform