The 2nd UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake (UNFSS+4) is a global event taking place July 27–29, 2025, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, co-hosted by Ethiopia and Italy. It serves as a key milestone to reflect on progress since the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) and the UNFSS+2 Stocktake (2023), strengthen accountability, and unlock investments for sustainable food systems transformation.

UNFSS+4 comes at a critical time – four years after UNFSS 2021 and five years before 2030, the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event will evaluate national and global progress on food systems transformation, identify challenges, and drive new commitments to accelerate action in the face of ongoing crises, climate change, and economic disruptions.

The UNFSS+4 Stocktake focuses on three core objectives:

1. Reflecting on progress: Four years after UNFSS 2021, UNFSS+4 will assess progress in food systems transformation, highlighting successes, lessons learned, and remaining challenges. It will explore how countries define and achieve transformation goals while assessing their needs and matching them with available tools and approaches. Discussions will also highlight governance and coordination mechanisms that engage all sectors and stakeholders through a whole-of-society approach.
2. Strengthening accountability: UNFSS+4 will evaluate the roles, commitments and contributions of state and non-state actors, strengthening accountability mechanisms to close gaps and strengthen engagement. By promoting inclusivity, participatory governance, and business responsibility, it will drive collective action toward food systems transformation.
3. Unlocking investments for food systems transformation: Scaling transformative solutions requires unlocking investments, improving enabling environments, and leveraging partnerships. UNFSS+4 will connect national efforts with global investment opportunities and platforms, ensuring countries have access to short- and long-term concessional finance, investments, budget support, and debt restructuring to accelerate food systems transformation.

UNFSS+4 will bring together governments, policymakers, UN agencies, financial institutions, private sector actors, civil society organizations, youth representatives, Indigenous Peoples, and researchers. High-level participation will include the UN Secretary-General, heads of state and government, ministers, and global experts working on food systems transformation.

UNFSS+4 is expected to deliver several key outputs, including:

• The UN Secretary-General’s Stocktaking Report, assessing global progress on food systems transformation.
• A Non-State Actor (NSA) Analysis, providing insights from civil society, private sector, and grassroots organizations.
• A Chair’s Summary that, though not negotiated, brings the consensus emerging from Member States’ experiences might also be considered.

Preparations for UNFSS+4 involve:

• Regional Preparatory Meetings, where countries assess their progress and challenges.
• Technical Background Papers, developed by civil society partners in collaboration with the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, highlighting successful examples of country food systems transformation, as well as future needs of countries along with tools available to governments to meet these needs.
• A Global Questionnaire for National Convenors, gathering data on national progress.
• Private sector engagement efforts, led by the UN Global Compact and WBCSD, to align business strategies with sustainable food systems.
• A Preparatory Youth Conference to develop youth recommendations for UNFSS+4 discussions.

The outcomes of UNFSS+4 will feed into major global processes, including:

• The UN General Assembly (September 2025)
• The Stockholm Food Forum (October 2025)
• Committee on World Food Security - CFS 53 (October 2025)
• World Food Forum (October 2025)
• COP30 (November 2025, Belém, Brazil)
• The Second World Summit for Social Development (November 2025)
• UN Environment Assembly (December 2025)