Tuesday, 16th February 2021; 10am to 12noon – GMT (12noon to 2pm in South Africa)

Virtual https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MtIeKRSZSrGb4FLyMB3Pig (click here to join the meeting)

MEETING SCOPE

The UN Food Systems Summit is widely acknowledged as providing a grand opportunity for focused attention to the issue of food and food systems as a critical development issue globally. Food systems have underlying links, inter-dependences impacts across all priority aspects of sustainable economic growth and inclusive development – as per the SDGs’ 17 goals and 20 goals of Africa’s Agenda 2063.

National Dialogues is one key and unique feature in the build-up to the UN Food Systems Summit. This feature directly anchors the Summit in grounded realities and action frontline with a clear focus on Action, Implementation, and Impacts. The focus on the frontline is critical – these are the players, stakeholders who in their day-to-day lives are sustaining food systems and most often the ones suffering consequences of broken food systems.

Recognising the critical value of these frontline (significantly informal) and that National Dialogues should function in giving a voice to such constituencies, the AU and specifically AUDA-NEPAD recognise that coordinated support to national-led efforts in organising and running the National Dialogues in the run up to the September 2021 UN Food Systems Summit. The Food Systems Dialogues should be seen as platforms for advocacy to push for national commitments and targets on food systems mainly CAADP and Malabo Declaration and associated National Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plans (NAIPs); National environmental and Climate Change Adaptation Plans; National Nutrition Action Plans – among others.

MEETING PURPOSE

This Inception Partners’ Meeting is organised to:

• To discuss and agree on structured mechanism for generating and coming up with national and Africa’s position to the UN Food System Summit

• Identify and agreed on coordinated and coherent mechanisms by which support could be made available to member states in direct link to the needs of member states

• Leverage and build-on already underway support and work on food systems in the countries

• Identifying and rally available knowledge and information capabilities (including those from action tracks) which could contribute to further empowering of Africa constituencies in their participation in their National Dialogues

EXPECTED PARTICIPANTS

The Meeting will bring together bilateral and multilateral partners participating in supporting member states in Africa on food systems in general and specifically, the UN Food Systems Summit National Dialogues. The meeting will bring on board lead Ministries such as Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security, Ministries of Health and responsible for Nutrition; Ministries responsible for Environment, National Resources and Climate Change; representatives key agencies working on agriculture, food security and food systems broadly and specifically representatives of UN Agencies such as FAO; WFP; IFAD; UNDP among others.