What is a food system - and can we actually transform it?

Food systems transformation has become an important banner in international development and CGIAR alike. It is hailed as a different approach to finally address persistent and interconnected problems such as hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, and climate change, once and for all. But so far, there is not a clear sense in the CGIAR that business is very different from usual.

The CGIAR Initiatives on Low-Emission Food Systems and Nature-Positive Solutions are joining forces to hold a series of webinars on “Taking transformation seriously: Implications for CGIAR.” In this series of webinars, we discuss with key scholars and practitioners what it actually means to incorporate food systems transformation in our work and what the implications are for research for development organizations.

The aim of the series is to start a serious conversation on the topic of food systems transformation, which serves as the first step to meaningful actions and changes. Although we dive deep into the case of the CGIAR, we expect that the discussions and learnings are valid far beyond the CGIAR.

We will kick off the series with a session titled “What is a food system —and can we actually transform it?” on 16 January 2024 at 09:00 EST. The session aims to provide clarity on what a food system is and the dynamics defining this system.

Cees Leeuwis is professor in the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (KTI) group at Wageningen University and will share his insights on socio-technical innovation and transformation.

Danielle Resnick is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and a nonresident fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings, and she will share her insights on the political economy of agricultural policy and food systems.

Louis Verchot is a research leader for Alliance Bioversity-CIAT and serves as Lead on CIGIAR's Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems (Mitigate+).

Lennart Woltering is a scaling expert at CIMMYT and GIZ and a PhD candidate at the Wageniningen University focusing on the relation between innovation, scaling and transformation. He will moderate this session.

Kristin Davis is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute and serves as WP5 lead for the Initiative on Nature-Positive Solutions. She will provide closing remarks.

We intend this and succeeding webinars in this series to be interactive. As such, we very much encourage participants to share their points of view on the topic during these events.