2023

CFS 2023 Private Sector Engagement

PSM had an active participation at CFS51 and with all activities leading up to the event. We sincerely thank all the delegates who participated in the 51st plenary session of the CFS. PSM was represented by a delegation of 127 from 30 countries. 

We are pleased to report that this year’s delegation included a diverse gender, geographical and age representation (see below). The strong return to CFS in such numbers is a confirmation of private sector’s commitment to the work of CFS. 

CFS52 is planned for 21 – 25 October 2024 in Rome (TBC) under the leadership of the newly elected CFS Chair for 2023-2025, H.E Nosipho Nausca-Jean Jezile, Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to the Food and Agriculture Organization to the United Nations. Key outcomes include the endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines on Gender and the Policy Recommendations on Data and the Multi-Year Program of Work which will start with reducing inequalities and then focus on urban and peri-urban food systems. 

Explore the recordings from all four side events of PSM at CFS51. You can now access and view them below:

Empowering women farmers to effectively reduce poverty and hunger
Oct 24th, 8:30 – 9:45 || Side Event 5

Women play critical roles across agriculture and food systems, on and off the farm, constituting a significant portion of the agricultural workforce worldwide. However, they often face numerous barriers such as lack of access to productive resources, financing, markets, agricultural training and education, suitable working conditions, that are underpinned by discriminatory norms and policies that limit their full potential and hinder agricultural development.

The panel discussion will build on the work of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines for Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in the context of food security and nutrition. It will explore how the guidelines can contribute to helping women overcome of the challenges they face in agriculture and food systems. Panelists will also highlight the importance of collecting sex and gender disaggregated data and will provide insights for the upcoming CFS workstream on reducing inequalities.

Private sector has made significant efforts in empowering women throughout the agrifood value chain and PSM members will use this event to showcase these activities throughout various crops and sectors. For example, PSM member, Nestlé is well poised to share its learnings on women’s empowerment from its activities increasing smallholder farmers’ livelihoods across dairy, cocoa and coffee production.

Improved data management for increased sustainability, food security and nutrition
Oct 24th, 13:30 – 14:45 | Side Event 11

The future of agriculture will be driven by data, and its effective management can help deliver SDG outcomes, improving livelihoods and increasing food security and nutrition. Agricultural data and their use for better decision-making is key to digital transformation of agriculture, but farmers’ willingness to adopt digital solutions is affected by concerns regarding fragmented and unclear data governance arrangements.  This reduces the availability and accessibility of agricultural data that are valuable for agricultural policymaking, for agricultural innovation and the development of services for the sector.

The challenge is to find a balance between protecting the privacy and confidentiality of agricultural data, farmers’ economic interests in that data, while making it possible to leverage their potential for the sector’s growth and innovation, which are vital for better livelihoods and increased Data management policies must ensure the beneficiaries of data across the entire agrifood value chain stand to benefit from data shared.  Without the adequate safeguards for data of diverse types, sources and sensitivities, the value of this data can be lost.

This side event aims to share the concerns and potential of data management policies from a farmer’s perspective to promote data-driven decision-making to help farmers monetize their data and drive more climate smart interventions. Increased collaboration is needed between the multiple actors involved in this space which include: generators of data (farmers), data management entities, third party platforms, and government.

Lastly, the side event will be an opportunity to highlight the recently endorsed CFS guidelines on Data in promotion of greater use of data collection and monitoring tools, and the challenges to doing so. Best practices on data management policies exist and should be shared with all CFS constituencies in support of the uptake of CFS guidelines on data.

Investing in Youth to Reduce Inequalities – Implementing CFS Guidelines on Engaging Youth in Agriculture and Food Systems
Oct 26, 8:30 – 9:45 | Side Event 23

Following the endorsement of the CFS Policy Recommendations on Promoting Youth Engagement and Employment in Agriculture and Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition during CFS’s 50th Plenary session in 2022, the time has now come to ensure effective implementation of those policy recommendations.

Investing in Youth through education, capacity development and academic programs on a scale that transcends national and regional boundaries, has incredible potential to reduce inequalities, accelerate economic development in rural areas, transform our food systems and ensure the next generation of food producers and food system professionals inherit more equitable, sustainable, and resilient food systems.

Many programs currently exist to precisely do this yet lack the necessary financing and resources to expand their reach and grow their participation beyond the countries that they were established or traditionally operate within. This event intends to showcase these programs and link them to international funding and development organizations they can work with to achieve scalability on a global level.

Recognizing that the youth of today inherit the success or failure of our global food systems, ensuring increased access to opportunities for youth can be the greatest driver to reduce inequalities in the future.

The Inextricable Link Between Diet Quality, Food Accessibility and Global Inequality
Oct 26, 13:30 – 14:45 | Side Event 27

According to the recent HLPE report, Reducing Inequalities for Food Security and Nutrition, inequalities in food systems are often related to food accessibility and availability, among other things. Access to healthier, nutritionally adequate diets in turn can lessen inequalities in populations, leading to greater health, education, and employment opportunities.

In many developing countries, access to healthy foods and the ability to purchase them are often reserved for a select few. In these countries, creating efficiencies in purchasing power and availability of nutrient dense foods among them can help ease the burden of malnutrition by making nutritious foods affordable and accessible to the most people possible.

This side event will highlight ongoing projects designed to 1) generate a least cost diet model which generates foods and diets that can supply the most nutrients for the lowest cost; and 2) provide insights on malnutrition in India and Africa, and the importance of supplying low cost, high-quality protein sources more broadly to combat stunting, wasting, and related conditions.

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