Webinar | COVID-19 and Sustainable Food Systems - Responses and innovations to tackle vulnerabilities and build back better

? 03 June 2020 ?3:30 PM (Nairobi Time)
Webinar

What critical measures are required to both combat the COVID19 crisis and to build sustainable food systems? Can responses to the COVID19 crisis catalyse transformation toward sustainable food systems?

The COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented challenges for food systems worldwide – but also enormous opportunities. It is a wakeup call that has highlighted the need for holistic approaches to both address the shock brought by the pandemic, but also to address the vulnerabilities of our unsustainable food systems. To build sustainable food systems we will need a more coordinated, more integrated measures – a food systems approach.

Join the discussion with key experts and policymakers who will provide insights on key measures to both combat the pandemic’s impact and to build sustainable food systems.

A keynote speech by the WHO Special Envoy for COVID-19, Dr. David Nabarro, will be preceded by the presentation of findings from two pieces of research from INRAe and UNSCN. We will hear from practical response examples from Costa Rica and Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state.

In Brazil, the main advisory bodies on food-related matters, known as Councils of Food Security and Nutrition (CONSEAs), were created in the 2000s with an innovative multi-stakeholder architecture. The CONSEA of Rio Grande do Sul state has been responding to the food and nutrition security crisis brought on by COVID-19 through four areas of action. With closed schools, children’s access to food has been compromised. We will learn how CONSEA’s structure has facilitated a coordinated, agile response.

To close, practitioners from FAO, IFAD, UNEP and WWF will kick off a discussion highlighting why a systems-based, collaborative response is essential to both counter the vulnerabilities highlighted by COVID-19 as well as to build sustainable food systems.

Aimed primarily at regional and national decision-makers focusing on food or elements of the food system, the webinar is open to anyone with an interest in building sustainable food systems as a response to COVID-19 through a systems approach, and the role of inter-sectoral coordination and collaboration.

Original source: One Planet
Published on 02 June 2020