Policy Recommendations (2020)

To ensure the right to adequate and nutritious food for all and to end hunger by 2030, we must not only reshape our food systems to become fair, healthy, resilient, and environmentally friendly but also integrate them into a broader political effort to maximize the health of humans, animals, and our planet.

1. Make food systems work better for people and the planet

   • To support smallholder farmers in becoming sustainable and diversified producers, governments, donors, the private sector, and NGOs must seek to improve those farmers’ access to agricultural inputs and extension services, coupling local and indigenous agricultural knowledge with new technologies.

   • Local and regional food markets should be strengthened, especially through support for farmers to organize themselves, fair farm-gate prices, and better links between rural and urban areas.

   • Food should be priced not only by its weight or volume but also by its nutrient density, its freedom from contamination, and its contribution to ecosystem services and social justice. To achieve this, governments and stakeholders should educate the public about the importance of these attributes and require appropriate labeling. To curb the spread of agricultural pests and diseases, governments must promote sound biosecurity practices throughout value chains.

   • All countries must promote, develop, and implement circular food economies—that is, economies that recycle resources and materials, regenerate natural systems, and eliminate waste and pollution.

2. Improve how food systems are governed

   • Governments must hold food system actors legally accountable for respecting human rights and protecting the environment throughout their value chains as outlined in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

   • Governments and investors must adopt integrated land-use planning and ensure security of land tenure, especially for marginalized groups, in line with the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security.

   • Governments must strengthen and incentivize local and participatory governance that incorporates marginalized groups, including peasants, indigenous groups, youth, and women.

3. Expand social investments for resilience

   • Governments must build up social protection systems, including universal health coverage and social security, and provide job training, especially for rural youth and the urban poor. They should expand access to maternal and child health care, as well as education on healthy diets and child feeding practices.

   • Governments should prepare and implement holistic plans to ensure accessible local and national water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) systems, which are crucial to people’s health.

   • Governments, donors, and NGOs must work with organizations trusted and monitored by communities to ensure social protection programs function optimally and fairly and promote gender equity and social cohesion.

4. Make emergency and long-term development interventions more equitable and sustainable

   • Governments, donors, private actors, and NGOs should carefully prepare and coordinate their responses to overlapping food and health crises and work with community organizations to make sure interventions are culturally acceptable, reach the most vulnerable, and preserve local ecosystems.

   • Governments must treat the production and supply of food as essential services and guarantee safe working environments in those sectors. They must ensure equitable access to emergency assistance for both human and animal diseases, including new technologies such as medical supplies.

   • To support local food supply chains, donors must continue to untie food aid from the requirement that recipient authorities acquire donor-country goods and services. Furthermore, and whenever feasible, humanitarian and development actors should provide assistance in the form of cash and voucher assistance.

   • To track and address hunger, governments must produce data that are timely, comprehensive, and disaggregated by income, subnational location, and gender.

5. Strengthen international cooperation and regulations

   • Trade inequities, such as high-income countries’ nontariff trade barriers, must be reduced. Governments’ trade policies should align with development goals and create market incentives for sustainable food economies.

   • Existing human rights-based multilateral mechanisms and international standards, such as the Committee on World Food Security, must be strengthened to support inclusive policy making and sustainable food systems.

   • Governments must use upcoming opportunities, including the UN Food Systems Summit, to reinforce their commitments to equitable and sustainable development.