Goal: To deliver inclusive, sustainable, efficient and nutritious & healthy food systems.

Food is integral to every single Sustainable Development Goal and building food systems we need for 2050 presents a global challenge given its complexity. The quality of current multi-stakeholder collaboration is inadequate to meet the scale and nature of this challenge. Concerted action will require unfamiliar partners to work towards a common agenda – farmers, environmentalists, investors, consumer industries, agribusinesses, innovators, and government amongst others. The world needs a step change in the quality of systems leadership – with new mind-sets, incentives and ways of working that can navigate complexity and collaboratively deliver future food systems that are fit for purpose.

The World Economic Forum’s Food Systems Initiative is working to establish the conditions for collective leadership action through systems thinking, institutional leadership alignment, and catalyzing and supporting an international consensus and collective action agenda and a series of leadership milestones that can accelerate those actions.

Building on this robust track record, the Food Systems Initiative continues to serve as a platform for collaboration for food systems transformation. Through coalitions and communities of practice – including the Stewardship Board, Food Systems Dialogues, Food Action Alliance, Food Innovation Hubs, and Future of Protein, COVID-19 response efforts and a new focus on Decarbonizing Food – the initiative brings together diverse stakeholders to accelerate action and support the transitions needed. The FSI fosters cross-sector collaborations and involves working across Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe to implement these commitments. The FSI aims to:

•  Facilitate multistakeholder dialogues such as the Food Systems Dialogues, related to food systems transformation around the world.


• Mobilize leadership and expertise to achieve agriculture-sector transformation through the Transformation Leaders Network which engages over 150 action leaders and experts to exchange knowledge and systems leadership thinking, best practices, and experience across regions and sectors.


• Strengthen the positive impact of agricultural value chains leading to food that is produced efficiently and sustainably in a way that is accessible to all, supporting a transition to healthier diets and improved environmental outcomes. The Food Action Alliance is comprised of a coalition of organizations and initiatives, who support these systemic changes and enhance productivity.


• Leverage the role of emerging technology innovations and create a robust innovation ecosystem at the country and regional level through the Food Innovation Hubs, which promotes collaboration that is multistakeholder, precompetitive and market-based.


• Drive multiple pathways for enhancing sustainable nutrition through alternative proteins and diversified high-protein crop varieties, improving sustainability of existing animal-based production, and complementing all efforts through consumer behavior and demand-based shifts.


• Support UN Food Systems Summit action tracks through game-changer initiatives as well as through key leadership milestones. The action tracks are complimented by levers for change to offer cross-cutting and transformative impact from enabling agendas such as youth and gender empowerment, finance, human rights, and innovation.

Key Milestones

·      WEF Sustainable Development Impact Summit (20 – 23 September 2021, Virtual)

·       UN Food Systems Summit (23 September 2021, New York)

·       UN World Food Day (16 October 2021)

·       UN Climate Change Conference COP 26 (1-12 November 2021, Glasgow)

·       UN Nutrition for Growth Summit (December 2021, Tokyo)

How to Engage

Food Systems Initiative partners receive multiple unique benefits, including opportunities to:

-       Shape the strategic direction of food systems 

-       Champion and contribute towards a portfolio of action-based programmes and initiatives.

-       Be recognized as thought leaders and drivers of positive systemic change in the food and agriculture space, both regionally and globally

-        Develop capacities to instigate and scale ground-breaking, transformative change

-        Participate in thematic events with a curated group of leaders

-        Develop close relationships with other partners to share insights and enhance collective impact

Reach out to us at Agriculture@weforum.org to learn about joining the shared learnings platform.