Opinion: Italy’s G7 plan must deliver on food and climate in Africa

This month, the Group of Seven advanced countries’ development ministers released a communiqué reaffirming their governments’ commitment to addressing global food security, with a clear emphasis on Africa. Held in Pescara, Italy, the meeting provided more details on the Apulia Food Systems Initiative launched by G7 leaders in June. This renewed focus on food systems and food security in Africa is timely, especially as the region faces the combined pressures of climate change, economic instability, and persistent hunger. Yet, while the words of the communiqué are encouraging, the path from ambition to actual results remains uncertain. The G7 food systems initiative in a nutshell The Apulia Food Systems Initiative, or AFSI, centers on two interconnected priorities: Addressing the climate-food systems nexus through coherent policies and investments, and promoting innovative approaches to increase both public and private funding for food security and food systems. Each of these priorities is operationalized into a set of deliverables outlined in the communiqué. These include support to existing initiatives like the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action and its Technical Cooperation Collaborative, aiming to help countries reduce food-related carbon emissions and adapt to climate change; and the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils, which promotes healthy soils and traditional crops. AFSI also includes new initiatives: a global, public-private coffee sustainability and resilience fund, a G7 sustainable food systems collaborative of public development banks, or PDBs, and development finance institutions, or DFIs, to mobilize public and private investments, and a facility for disaster-risk financing to address emerging food security crises and support anticipatory action. In last week’s communiqué, G7 ministers also reaffirmed their commitment to multistakeholder partnerships like the School Meals Coalition and the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement. Merits and shortcomings of the initiative The AFSI has some clear merits. It benefits from strong political backing from Italy, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni eager to strengthen bilateral ties with Africa under the Mattei Plan. Moreover, it has elevated the climate-food nexus to the top of the global agenda — a significant achievement given their historical siloing. G7 ministers also explicitly linked the AFSI to the G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, announcing pilot projects that will promote investments in sustainable food value chains alongside critical infrastructure. However, several gaps and uncertainties remain. First, there is a lack of clarity on financial commitments. While Italy will likely invest part of its €4.2 billion climate fund in the AFSI deliverables, it remains uncertain whether other G7 nations will match this commitment. Secondly, given the significant debt burdens and limited fiscal space in many low- and middle-income countries in Africa, if G7 leaders were serious about increasing investments in food security, they would prioritize debt relief measures. Instead, the communiqué merely stated an intention to assess “the costs and benefits” of debt swaps for food security to potentially apply them “bilaterally and voluntarily” — despite a growing body of evidence of successful examples. There is also no mention of critical financing tools such as rechannelling Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, for food security and food systems investments. SDRs, an International Monetary Fund asset, could provide much-needed cash to countries facing severe food crises, enabling investments in adaptation and resilience. Similarly, the communiqué is vague about climate finance, only stating that leaders will “work to improve access” without specifics about the how. This is concerning given how vastly inadequate current climate finance flows to agrifood systems are. Third, implementation mechanisms for the new initiatives announced remain to be clarified. Details on the governance structure and funding sources for the proposed global coffee fund have not been disclosed. Similarly, concrete discussions on financing mechanisms of the G7 PDBs and DFIs collaborative are still in early stages, leaving questions about how quickly the initiative can progress from information-sharing to real, coordinated action and co-financing. Finally, there are some key process-related gaps worth noting. While African governments were consulted, with several heads of state and representatives of the African Union participating in the G7 working groups, small-scale food producers — those most affected by food insecurity and the climate crisis — were largely left out of the AFSI design. This exclusion risks landing on solutions that don’t fully address the on-the-ground realities of Africa’s farmers. Additionally, though the communiqué mentions synergies with other global efforts, such as the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty launched by the Brazilian presidency of the Group of 20 largest and emerging economies, these connections seem rhetorical rather than substantive. Turning ambition into action To turn the G7's ambitious commitments into tangible outcomes for Africa's food systems, leaders must make clear financial commitments, and take bolder steps to improve the international financial architecture and enhance fiscal space of low- and middle-income countries. This includes ensuring access to adequate and high-quality development and climate finance, especially in fragile regions often overlooked by private capital. Aligning initiatives with African priorities and engaging nonstate players will also be crucial. In the words of Stephen Muchiri, CEO of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation, representing over 20 million farmers in the region, farmers across Africa, in particular, cannot be left out: “As the G7 moves from planning to implementation, it is critical that they deliberately work with family farmers, and the organisations which represent them, and provide dedicated direct channels of support.” Establishing clear mechanisms to track progress and ensure mutual accountability is also essential if the AFSI is to avoid being just one of many food and climate commitments lacking follow-through. Finally, sustaining the momentum beyond Italy's G7 presidency will require robust collaboration with Canada’s upcoming presidency and enhanced coordination with global efforts like the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. Unified action in key forums such as the U.N. COP29 climate conference, the U.N. Food Systems Summit+4, the South African G20 presidency, and COP30 will be crucial to maximize impact and ensure a cohesive approach to food security and climate resilience.