GFG - SYNTHESIS - Thinking forward in global food governance

Abstract

Global food governance is ever evolving as political leaders become increasingly aware of the complexity and dynamic nature of managing the global food system in a sustainable manner. Calls for reform of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the early 2000s (McKeon, 2009) were reinforced by the severity of the 2007–08 global food crisis, which prompted the reform to the Committee for World Food Security (CFS) in 2009. A related (and novel) development was the establishment of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) at the CFS to provide policymakers with interdisciplinary academic knowledge (Duncan, 2015). These developments mark an important step towards more inclusive and evidence-based global food governance. Now is an excellent time to critically assess the progress made at the CFS in the first five years and evaluate the role that these institutions may come to play in the coming years.