Peer exchange on the national dialogues and the development of the Africa Common Position on Food Systems

Date: 14 July 2021

Time: 11am to 13:30pm (South Africa Time)

Link for Registration:  https://zoom.us/j/92256641288?pwd=alZBUGNHbjZTeFlhclZhNWZTYzQ5Zz09

Background
The United Nations Secretary-General has called for a Food Systems Summit to be held in 2021 as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit aims to launch bold new actions to transform the food systems and leverage these shifts to deliver progress across all the 17 SDGs. In Africa, the Summit objectives are consistent with the 20 goals of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063 and related sector plans and frameworks including the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) - Malabo, and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, and others.

As of mid-June, 40 Member States in Africa have heeded the UN Secretary-General’s call for a Food Systems Summit and are actively engaged in the Summit process. In this regard, several National, Regional and Independent Dialogues are being held across the continent, leading to the pre-Summit in July 2021 and the Summit in September 2021

Purpose of the National Food Systems Dialogues Convenors’ Seminar
AUDA-NEPAD is supporting National Conveners by providing technical backstopping in the planning and rolling out of national dialogues. The AUDA-NEPAD (developing the content, including technical validation) and AUC-DARBE (convening the Member States political endorsement process) are coordinating an Africa process to generate the Africa Common Position on Food Systems, based primarily on the outcomes from National Dialogues.

Almost all the national Convenors have been engaged directly and the AUDA-NEPAD is supporting the National Dialogues processes, tailored to specific national needs.

The purpose of this Platform, bringing all the Africa National Conveners together, is to facilitate (a) peer exchange of information and experiences on the processes and approaches in managing the national food systems dialogues; (b) share on emerging issues and national priorities in the pursuit of resilient and inclusive food systems; (c) Additionally, the platform will afford the Convenors an opportunity to highlight issues of regional and continental interest as input to the Africa Common Position Paper.