Towards the SDG Summit, the Summit of the Future and the 2025 UNFSS+4

Wednesday, 26th July, 14:30-16:30

The United Nations Food Systems Summit issued a powerful call to transform food systems in order to enable their role as accelerators in generating multiple co-benefits towards the Decade of Action to deliver progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Now less than seven years away from 2030 and as the world seems further than ever from delivering “The World We Want”, the urgency to move from aspirational, wide-scale, visions and goals, to context-specific implementation, coordinated action and durable results at all scales is compelling.

Success is conditioned by unwavering political will by government leaders - across parties and election cycles-, and integral commitment by food systems actors and institutions across the globe, especially those who shape (and must reform) the food systems finance architecture. A number of overarching sustainable development moments pave the way towards 2030 to maintain momentum and speed, starting with the upcoming SDG Summit (September 2023), the Summit of the Future (2024), with the UNFSS+4 already in sight. These are complemented by sectoral processes and fora such as COP 28 and the Climate Summit (2023), Nutrition for Growth (2024), COP-16 Biodiversity (2024), the Third UN Ocean Conference (2025), and regional moments (G7 and G20 processes, the Fourth SIDS Conference in Antigua and Barbuda (2024), the Third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) in Rwanda (2024), all equally critical in accelerating the convergence and integration of sustainable food systems’ objectives. Enhanced coordination will be required to reach common goals for food and other SDGs, such as on climate, water, nutrition, biodiversity, gender empowerment and poverty eradication.

The issues: The 2021 UNFSS was not “just another Summit”. It was a turning point for food, which charted a roadmap of action, for all countries to shape their national pathways in the pursuit of the integrated Sustainable Development Goals and other national sustainable development priorities.

The session will focus on the following:

Integrating Sustainable Food Systems transformation objectives across sustainable development discussions and efforts at the national, regional and global levels conditions our collective ability to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Elevating the conclusions of the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktaking Moment (UNFSS+2) and anchoring its outcomes into ongoing preparations to the September SDG Summit (Declaration; World Leaders’ Commitments; High-Impact Initiatives) can model better future integration of related intergovernmental processes.
Enhancing thematic and political engagement on food systems within the G7 and G20 processes, across respective development tracks, will be critical to accelerate and strengthen progress on debt reform, access to funding for low-income countries and other economic concerns, while keeping momentum on humanitarian needs.

The expectations is to witness a growing momentum of leaders chairing or part of the bureau of intergovernmental processes and fora relating to the environment, social affairs and finance, championing new practices associated with food systems for the achievement of inter-linked sectoral or overarching sustainable development objectives.

The session will advocate for the centrality of transformed food systems for the achievement of other sectoral or overarching sustainable development objectives. Facilitators of various processes will be invited to reflect and present concrete steps to accelerate the integration of sustainable food systems considerations in other discussions and action-oriented roadmaps and frameworks.