Greetings from Ethiopia — homeland of coffee, this author, and, for the first half of this week, what felt like the entire food systems universe. Nearly 3,000 delegates gathered for the United Nations Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktake, aka UNFSS+4 — a global check-in on whether efforts to transform how food is grown, shared, and consumed are actually working.
The summit, co-hosted by Ethiopia and Italy, opened with remarks from both countries’ leaders. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took the stage to tout his country’s wheat production gains but warned that natural disasters and declining overseas aid were threatening “trade and production, supply, and the dignity and stability of nations.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for a broader framing of food: “We would be making a serious mistake if we limited ourselves to looking at food systems through the face of poverty, suffering, and hunger,” she said. “Food systems are an engine of growth and development.”
Ministerial-level discussions dominated the agenda — with government representatives laying out progress updates, investment needs, and implementation hurdles. And while this wasn’t the kind of summit where donor-recipient lines were quite so sharply drawn — wealthy nations have their own food system challenges — some traditional donors reaffirmed their support to lower-income countries. Phillipp Knill from Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, or BMZ, said: “We have renewed our commitment to agrifood system support. It’s about €2 billion per year and we intend to remain strong on that one.”
On the multilateral side, United Nations agency heads weighed in. World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain warned, “Where food systems collapse, instability rises.” Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Qu Dongyu emphasized that “transformation is not a distant ambition. It is already happening,” repeatedly pointing to three critical levers: youth inclusion, science and innovation, and scaling up investment — fast.
But how to scale? That’s the billion-dollar question. Shobha Shetty, global director of agriculture and food global practice at the World Bank, framed the stakes starkly: “When agriculture employs 60% of the population, as it does in many regions, food system failure equals state failure.” She laid out how the bank is shifting away from one-off projects and toward “food systems preparedness plans” in 26 countries — frameworks that combine early warning, social protection, and market tools designed to rewire how stakeholders think about food.
Financing innovation came up repeatedly, including green bonds, blended finance, and even debt swaps: Afshan Khan, U.N. assistant secretary-general and coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, told a panel that “there are opportunities for debt swaps — Somalia is currently discussing this with Spain.”
The private sector also had its say. More than 300 business leaders joined the summit, according to Peter Bakker of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development who announced a new compendium of 15 co-investment models showing how businesses can help scale food systems transformation. He also called for greater international coherence in policy and accountability standards.
The role of business in fragile environments was also a major theme. Mutaz Mohamednour of 249Startups — a Sudanese startup network — described the whiplash of working through war. “Overnight, we found ourselves from planning investments and having discussions around local equity structures to asking ourselves, ‘Does any of this still matter?’” And yet, it did. As entrepreneurs filled food supply gaps and enabled digital payments when cash vanished, their role became clear. “In fragile settings, it’s not aid or market — it must be both,” he said. “And transformation must not wait for peace. It can help achieve it.”
Which brings us to Gaza. “The country that worries me most in terms of food security and access to food is Palestine,” said Amina Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations. “There’s absolutely no reason today why we should be seeing children and people starving in what is quite clearly a manmade event.”
Related: Who is funding food aid, and why should we be keeping track? (Pro)
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UNFSS+4 also marked the official launch of the U.N.’s flagship State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report — and this year’s edition offered a rare bit of positive momentum. Global hunger numbers dropped by an estimated 15 million people last year, the biggest decline in several years.
The progress, however, is uneven, my colleague Tania Karas writes. The headline gains came from South America and South Asia, where governments have ramped up social protection — particularly school meal programs and cash transfers — alongside investments in agriculture. “In Asia, especially in India, there has been a significant increase in social protection,” says FAO Chief Economist Máximo Torero, adding that Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Chile also stand out for combining safety nets with agricultural productivity.
But hunger is rising in Africa and western Asia, where conflict, inflation, and unsustainable debt continue to erode food access. The report estimates that between 638 million and 720 million people experienced hunger in 2024 — and warns that nearly 60% of those projected to remain chronically undernourished by 2030 will be in Africa.
The data predates this year’s foreign aid cuts from donors such as the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Belgium. Torero cautioned that while countries such as India and those in South America are unlikely to backslide, the cuts will hit African countries hard — not just on food assistance but across health and nutrition systems.
Other red flags: Food price inflation is outpacing wage growth, especially in low-income countries, and is linked to rising child wasting. The cost of a healthy diet remains out of reach for many — especially rural populations and women. That’s why players such as the Gates Foundation say they’re doubling down on support for smallholder farmers and local nutrition solutions.
Read more: The number of hungry people worldwide is falling, says UN report
Related: Inside Brazil’s plan to cut world hunger by 2030
See also: Inside Indonesia’s plan to feed 83 million people for free
At the launch of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report — and throughout the U.N. Food Systems Summit Stocktake — moments of silence, choked-up tributes, and handwritten condolence books marked the sudden loss of Dr. David Nabarro. The 75-year-old global health veteran passed away last week, just as he was preparing to travel to Addis Ababa, where he had been scheduled to moderate sessions and join in the conversations he so deeply believed in.
Nabarro spent his career confronting the world’s toughest health challenges. He was instrumental in the creation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement. Long before that, he worked alongside NGOs in some of the world’s poorest communities. He was a champion of systems thinking — a phrase he often used — and of the power of bringing people into dialogue, even when the problems seemed impossibly complex.
To me, he was a generous source who showed real kindness. When I was new to this beat 10 months ago, he carved out time to walk me through the landscape — patiently, thoughtfully — in a way that helped me find my footing. Judging by the full pages of tribute messages and the constant stream of stories shared on the sidelines of the summit, it’s clear he was that and more to many: a mentor, a connector, a friend. How he found time for it all is still a mystery.
Just last week, on a call as we talked about the summit and made plans to grab a coffee, he told me, “It’s an extraordinary thing. I’m very pleased. Gosh, I sound so excited … You want me to tell you things that I’m worried about. But I’m a systems thinker. And I believe that you work with what you’ve got.” That he did.
Read: David Nabarro, who led fight against pandemics, malnutrition, dies
2024 World Food Prize winner and former U.S. special envoy for global food security Cary Fowler launched the Food Security Leadership Council last week — a new nonpartisan policy outfit aimed at strengthening U.S. leadership on global hunger.
Bringing home the bacon
Your next job?
Energy-Smart Agrifood System Programme Specialist
Food and Agriculture Organization
Italy
The roster is stacked: Former WFP chief Ertharin Cousin, philanthropist Howard Warren Buffett, former CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Alice Albright, and former USAID humanitarian bureau lead Sarah Charles are all on board. The council’s chief scientist is Robert Bertram, who spent over a decade leading agricultural research at USAID under the Feed the Future program.
The goal? “To formulate an actionable blueprint for strategic U.S. leadership in global food security, to shed light on the impact of U.S. public policies on global food security, and to build and energize the next generation of food security policymakers,” Fowler said in a press release.
Background: Scientists behind arctic 'doomsday' seed vault win World Food Prize
See also: A successful US food aid program needs agriculture investment, experts say (Pro)
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Worst-case scenario in Gaza: Half a million people could face famine (IPC Phase 5) by September, with famine risk across the entire strip. In Gaza City, acute malnutrition has reached 16.5%, and 40% of pregnant and breastfeeding women were acutely malnourished in June. [IPC]
What will it take to stave off famine in Gaza? [Reuters]
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff could devastate Brazil’s small-scale coffee producers. [Al Jazeera]