Available online at www.sciencedirect.com From dialogues to action: commitments by African governments to transform their food systems and assure sustainable healthy diets Amos Laar1,1, Julia Tagwireyi2 and Habiba Hassan-Wassef3 The 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) and associated dialogues brought together diverse food system actors and stakeholders from across the globe to take action on transforming food systems. These actions included pledges and expression of commitments from both state and nonstate actors to transform their food systems. State actor commitments are visions of what governments expect of their food systems by 2030, and their aspirations to achieve those expectations. This paper reviews pledges made by African Heads of State at the 2021 UNFSS and examines how responsive those commitments are to three dimensions of sustainable healthy diets, namely, nutrition and health, socio- economic, and environmental. Second, the paper assesses how responsive the commitments are to the World Health Organization’s “priority food systems policy actions” that include nutrition labeling, marketing regulation, public food procurement, fiscal policies, food fortification, reformulation, and food safety. We operationally define responsiveness as alignment or relatedness of the commitments to the dimensions of sustainable healthy diets, or the priority policies. We contextualize our appraisals using available literature on the subject. Addresses 1 Department of Population, Family & Reproductive Health, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana 2 Africa Catalysing Action for Nutrition (AfriCAN), Harare, Zimbabwe 3 National Nutrition Sciences Committee, Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, Cairo, Egypt Corresponding author: Laar, Amos (alaar@ug.edu.gh) 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5557-0164 Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 This review comes from a themed issue on Sustainable Food systems Edited by Maria J. Darias, Mafaniso Hara, Israel Navarrete and Eric O. Verger Available online xxxx Received: 10 February 2023; Revised: 15 August 2023; Accepted: 15 October 2023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101380 1877–3435/© 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Introduction The world is facing an unprecedented challenge of a succession of global crises that include economic crises, pandemics, climate change-related crises, and recently, the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic with its disrup- tion of food supply chains, spiking of food prices, and income reduction. These have devastating con- sequences for humans, food systems, and the planet [1]. As with others, the African continent and its food sys- tems have been impacted by these crises [1]. These challenges, especially of the last few years, have laid bare the fragility and weaknesses of Africa’s food systems [2]. Home to more than half of the world’s acutely food-in- secure people [3], with an alarmingly high and increasing rate of obesity and other diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) [4], Africa has a colossal challenge. Urgent and decisive food system actions are needed. It has become increasingly apparent in the 21st century that the earth’s food systems are unsustainable for both humans and the planet, and hence need to be transformed. Many agree that food system transformation will require deep and radical shifts in the way food is produced, con- sumed, and how its associated by-products are disposed of or up-scaled. Such transformation must respond to the multiple intersecting challenges enumerated above. Building on existing initiatives for food system transforma- tion, the United Nations Secretary General in 2021, con- vened the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS), hoping to inspire urgency and action to- ward transforming food systems globally [5]. A summit that many believe offered an opportunity to collectively iden- tify bold new partnerships, actions, solutions, and strategies to deliver progress on all the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was held on September 23, 2021. At this summit, over 160 United Nations Member States (in- cluding 77 Heads of State) and representatives of regional blocks delivered statements and commitments to trans- form their food systems [5]. That notwithstanding, some food system actors expressed dissatisfaction with the summit process. The cited concerns included lack of suf- ficient and meaningful engagement. Others raised ques- tions bothering on equity, power asymmetry, conflict of interest, and legitimacy of the entire summit process [6–8]. A group of African Civil Society threatened to not engage with the summit without radical change [9]. ]]]] ]]]]]] www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18773435 mailto:alaar@ug.edu.gh https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101380 http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101380&domain=pdf http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101380&domain=pdf Although contexts and needs undoubtedly differ — globally, across the African continent, at the subregional or country level, the commitments to transform food systems were expected to respond to at least five action areas agreed upon as critical to informing the food system transitions needed to realize the vision of the 2030 Agenda (see Box 1). Whereas these action areas, which are aligned with the summit’s five objectives, do not give a comprehensive picture of the concept of food systems and food system transformation, they offer stakeholders from a wide range of backgrounds a space to share and learn, with a view to fostering new actions and partnerships and amplifying existing initiatives. Similarly, although this paper does not give a comprehensive picture of food system transformation, it makes a relevant contribution to extant discourses on the subject. The paper examines how responsive those commitments are to a) the dimen- sions of sustainable healthy diets that include nutrition and health, socio-economic and sociocultural determi- nants, and environmental and planetary health, and b) to the World Health Organization (WHO) “priority food systems policy actions” [10] (nutrition labeling, marketing regulation, public food procurement, fiscal policies, food fortification, reformulation, and safety) (see Box 2). We contextualize our appraisals using recent literature (pub- lished and gray) on the subject. The paper does not cover the impact of the Russia–Ukraine war and other global crises on the realization of these commitments. Before presenting the approaches we used in developing the paper, and our findings, we deem it appropriate to outline the WHO priority food system policies, and the concept of sustainable healthy diets. Currently, while there is no agreed definition of a sus- tainable healthy diet, there is a broad consensus that diets that are lower in meat, highly processed foods and beverages, and higher in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes can provide good nutrition at lower en- vironmental cost [11]. The FAO defines sustainable healthy diets as: “dietary patterns that promote all dimen- sions of individuals’ health and wellbeing; have low environmental pressure and impact; are accessible, affordable, safe and equitable; and are culturally acceptable” [11]. So defined, “sustainable healthy diets aim to achieve optimal growth and development of all individuals and support functioning and physical, mental, and social wellbeing at all life stages for present and future generations; contribute to preventing all forms of malnutrition; reduce the risk of diet- related NCDs; promote planetary health, and support the preservation of biodiversity” [12]. Many indicators have been proposed for monitoring sus- tainable healthy diets [13–15]. Such indicators are yet to be validated, especially in the African setting. Amidst cautions on the politics of indicators [16–18], there is currently no consensus as yet on which set of indicators to use, when, and where. Referred to as a paradox of mea- surement, Merry and Wood note that to make something known, it must be countable, but if it has not already been translated into commensurable and quantifiable terms, it is difficult to count and may remain unnoticed and uncounted. Issues uncounted in the past tend to re- main ignored or poorly counted in the future [18]. Box 3 presents examples of indicators for monitoring sustainable healthy diets that cover health and nutrition, environmental, and socio-economic viewpoints [13]. As defined by the FAO [11], and outlined above, sus- tainable diets need to combine environment, nutrition, and affordability dimensions, and yet, these dimensions may not be compatible or may be weighted differently by different food system actors. Masset et al [19] provide useful insights into the relationship between the en- vironmental impact, nutritional quality, and price of in- dividual foods. They show that the foods that had the greatest environmental impact had lower nutritional quality and a higher price per kilogram, suggesting that these three dimensions of sustainable diets may be generally compatible. Ehgartner has shown how the environmental dimension is marginalized in the United Kingdom’s food policy [20]. In the context of food sys- tems, sustainability — both as a construct and a nor- mative principle, is highly contested [20]. A more holistic approach that integrates all of the dimensions is Box 1 The five agreed action areas to inform food system transition and transformation. “Nourishing all people” (including ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all, promoting and creating demand for healthy and sustainable diets, and reducing waste). “Boosting nature-based solutions” (acting on climate change, reducing emissions and increasing carbon capture, regenerating and protecting critical ecosystems, and reducing food loss and energy usage, without undermining health or nutritious diets). “Advancing equitable livelihoods, decent work and empowered communities” (raising incomes, distributing risk, expanding inclusion, creating jobs, and adding value). “Building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses” (ensuring the continued functionality of healthy and sustainable food systems). “Accelerating the means of implementation” (including finance, science and innovation, data, governance, and trade). 2 Sustainable Food Systems www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 needed to derive and drive sustainability actions that are meaningful to all food actors and address the sustain- ability both on the production and consumption of the food system. Methods The paper draws on a review of multiple sources of ‘evidence’ associated with the UNFSS. The sources include the official statements and commitments made by African Heads of State and Government, and by the African Union — at the UNFSS held on September 23, 2021. The African Union submitted to the UNFSS the Africa Common Position Paper on Food Systems [21]. The paper also makes use of recent literature — pub- lished and gray — covering the same subject. The ana- lysis principally focuses on African countries whose statements were lodged on the summit website (https:// www.un.org/en/food-systems-summit/documentation). We identified an initial list of 36 African countries out of a global total of 149 countries. Of the 36 African coun- tries, 26 National Statements were accessible and were thus included in the study. All commitments expressed in these Governmental and Presidential Statements were culled and analyzed (see Table 1). Following the compilation and collation of the commit- ments, the analysis of the pledges (n = 219 statements) entailed comparing each commitment to ten domains — the three dimensions of sustainable healthy diets, and to the seven WHO food system priority policies. This was done by two independent coders using a data charting spreadsheet. The coders rated and categorized each commitment as fully responsive, partially responsive, or not at all responsive to each of the 10 domains. For definitions of these categories, see footnote beneath Table 1. This process facilitated the generation of a draft Table 1 for validation. Validation comprised comparing data charted by the coders for concordance or lack thereof. Where discrepancies were identified, the input of a third expect was invited. Beyond appraising in- dividual country commitments, we went further to ex- amine the collective continental commitment [21] — using the same process. To help contextualize our review of the commitments — in relation to whether or not the commitments are re- sponsive to the concept of sustainable healthy diets and to the WHO priority food system policy actions — we considered recent literature that shed light on these subjects. To do this, we first searched for recent Box 2 The WHO “priority food systems policy actions” are briefly described. Regulating the marketing of food and beverages to children of all ages: this aims to reduce children’s exposure and protect them from the harmful impacts of marketing. Nutrition labeling: this policy action aims to ensure that there are clear and accurate front-of-pack nutrition labeling to help inform consumers to make healthier food purchases, and to encourage food companies to make positive changes to the nutritional composition of their products. Reformulation of food and drink products: to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply, reducing the content of salt, sugars, and harmful fats as needed. Fiscal policies/food taxes and subsidies: levying taxes on unhealthy food options (such as foods that are high in fats, sugars, and/ or salt) to increase their price and discourage their purchase and consumption, while subsidising to reduce the price of healthy options (e.g. fruits and vegetables) to encourage their consumption. Food fortification: fortifying foods by adding extra vitamins and minerals to supply the needed essential micronutrients to entire populations to combat micronutrient deficiencies. Food safety: building the capacity to detect, monitor, and respond to foodborne diseases caused by both microbiological and chemical risks. Ensuring coherence of trade policies with nutrition and food safety: committing to ensuring coherence between trade and nutrition policy ob- jectives so that international trade promotes rather than undermines affordable/sustainable healthy diets. Of note, this trade-related cross-cutting theme is not included in the current analysis. Box 3 Sample indicators for monitoring sustainable healthy diets. Nutrition and health dimensions: These include indicators such as the prevalence of diet-related morbidity and mortality, dietary energy con- tribution, nutrient and biocompound requirements, food rations adjusted to nutrient/energy requirements, such as serving size by age and physical activity, dietary diversity including by composition and level of processing, and energy intake from sustainable sources. Environmental dimension: Environmentally, a sustainable diet may be assessed using two main approaches, life cycle analysis and environmental footprints. The latter includes carbon footprint, water footprint, land footprint, nitrogen, phosphorus and particulate matter footprints, chemicals and pesticides footprint, and biodiversity footprint. Socio-economic dimension: Socio-economic viewpoint of sustainability is based on indicators that affect supply (indicators include production costs, scalability, and societal factors) and demand (including availability, affordability, and acceptability), and the necessary value chains that connect them [13]. Commitments to transform Africa’s food systems Laar, Tagwireyi and Hassan-Wassef 3 www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 https://www.un.org/en/food-systems-summit/documentation https://www.un.org/en/food-systems-summit/documentation Table 1 Responsiveness of commitments pledged by African Heads of States to dimensions of sustainable healthy diets, and WHO’s “priority food systems policy actions”. Sustainable Health Diets (Dimensions) WHO Priority Food Systems for Health Policy Actions Country Commitments Health / Nutriti on Env’ t Socio- econo mic Nutriti on labellin g Mar ketin g regul ation Public food procure ment Fisca l polic ies Forti ficati on Reform ulation Food safety Benin 1. Improve National Integrated School Feeding Program 2. Strengthen food and nutrition security for all 3. Play a leading role in the Global Coalition for School Feeding under the aegis of the World Food Program. 4. Strong mobilization of resources to ensure the financing of food systems transformation Botswana 5. Increase sustainable climate resilient food production 6. Increase sustainable value creation and private sector development 7. Promote regional and international trade in agriculture commodities. 8. Improve nutrition and sustainable consumption, 9. Promote decent employment in agriculture, 10. Develop & deploy new technologies that help agriculture to adapt to changing environmental conditions 11. Strengthening institutional capacity for food system governance 12. Control food losses from production to consumption 13. Inclusion of indigenous foods in the local food system 14. Intensify collaboration with other nations for mutual benefit. DRC 15. Invest in research and innovation to help double food production by sustainably increasing productivity through the adoption of high-yielding agricultural varieties – 16. Valorise inter-Africa trade and with the rest of the world in a mutually beneficial way. 17. Invest in infrastructure and improve food safety compliance and standards 18. Reducing endemic non-tariff barriers at the border in order to stimulate trade. 19. Adopt multi-sectoral approach to transform food systems 20. Advocate for the establishment, under the initiative of the African Development Bank, of a financing mechanism for food and nutrition security in Africa. 21. Advocate for Africa/regional monitoring system to measure progress and hold each other accountable for the outcome of the Summit, 22. Integrate the food systems approach into monitoring progress towards 2030, and to share DRC lessons and experiences with the rest of the world. 23. Join coalitions being created to advance solutions favourable to Africa’s Common Position and national interests. Egypt 24. Formulate a practical and implementable national system for the transforming Egypt’s food systems into a sustainable one 25. Integrate and the use of international visions and solutions toward Egyptian food systems transformation 26. Develop a creative financing mechanism that helps developing countries achieve sustainable development and adapt to climate change, 27. Advocate for greater investment in capacity building and technology transfer to least developed countries 28. Establish a follow-up mechanism at the national level based on clear and measurable criteria and indicators that contain tools to modify and develop existing implementation plans and programs as needed 29. Establish of a national council for food systems 30. Create awareness on the need to reduce food losses 31. Promote healthy nutrition 32. Develop food transport chains Ethiopia 33. Improve nutrient-dense food production; food safety, fortification 34. Enhance rural electrification and appropriate climate smart technologies 35. Supply and value chain development 36. Develop and implement national food based dietary guidelines, and use them for nutrition literacy and awareness creation 37. Integrate policymaking, land reform, and improved government finance provision for agricultural and rural transformation 38. Invest in agricultural technologies, innovation and input supplies 39. Ensure access to markets, market information, infrastructure, 40. Manage and Mainstream risk and protect the poor. 4 Sustainable Food Systems www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 Table 1 (continued ) 49. Put requirements in place in terms of nutritional quality, quantitative production needs, preservation of animal health 50. Limit the environmental impact of productive activities 51. Consolidate the legal and financial framework to support the private sector Gambia 52. Increase access to agricultural land, financing and other productive resources for women youth and differently abled persons 53. Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the health delivery system 54. Exploit sustainably the country’s natural resource base 55. Double Gambians’ food production 56. Coordinate a harmonized policy environment that affects food systems 57. Contribute to better understanding and communication within the government circles to eliminate the conflicts among policies (policy coherence) 58. Increase private sector investment in food systems: 59. Contribute to developing livelihoods and reducing the gaps between regions and different strata of society by creating employment opportunities and developing infrastructure 60. Respect regional and international fiscal obligations 61. Contribute to building partnerships with our UN and regional partners, particularly, toward realizing the commitment to the African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) 62. Contribute access to safe and nutritious food, improve consumption patterns, reduce malnutrition, 63. Protect the environment 64. Build resilience through Smart Agriculture, 65. Improve quality education, 66. Improve gender equality 67. Create jobs 68. Enhance the sustainable use of the blue and green economies 69. Gambia is committed to the importance of the school feeding program in providing safe and nutritious food to our children and will therefore, support the coalition on school feeding and commit ourselves to achieving the goals Ghana 70. Increase by 40% the production of climate-resilient varieties of diverse vegetables and legumes, fruits, and bio-fortified staple crops using sustainable agricultural practices 71. Develop and implement food-based dietary guidelines by 2022 72. Update and consolidate local food composition databases 73. Develop a nutrient profiling system to facilitate implementation of food- based policies; Gabon 41. Intensify the process of diversification of Gabon’s economy, based on the inclusion of women and young people and on the preservation of the environment 42. Place the agricultural sector at the heart of the priorities of our new development model 43. Provision of the greatest number of agricultural lands whose land titles are secured 44. Facilitate access to inputs or quality technical support, both for small producers and foreign investors 45. Gabon will continue its policy of combating climate change. To further preserve our environment, Gabon will adopt at the legal level, an ordinance on climate change. 46. Gabon will transform the human-wildlife conflict into peaceful and harmonious cohabitation between man and fauna 47. Develop short supply chains to ensure national production systems are resilient to shocks 48. Offer national producers decent remuneration 74. Develop and implement well-structured training programmes for agricultural extension workers in nutrition and sustainable agronomic practices; 75. Increasing women’s empowerment in agriculture index by 20%; 76. Support increased production of fruits and vegetables by expanding the proportion of land area under irrigated agriculture from 24% to 30%; 77. Promote seed security, breed security, and land security for Ghanaian farmers, especially women and youth in agriculture; 78. Strengthen the integration of essential nutrition actions into the primary healthcare system. Commitments to transform Africa’s food systems Laar, Tagwireyi and Hassan-Wassef 5 www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 Table 1 (continued ) Kenya 79. Ensure 100% food and nutrition security in Kenya 80. Develop data driven, inclusive, and innovative Kenya food systems which provide a rich and diverse diet and builds climate resilient livelihoods 81. Avail relevant information to farmers, and traders through an existing national e-voucher programme, market information systems and commodity exchanges. 82. Engage youth in agriculture. 83. Increase access to nutritious food and diversify the diet by bringing back forgotten and neglected traditional foods 84. Invest in fisheries, aquaculture, livestock, fruits, and vegetable farming 85. Enhance existing School Feeding and School Milk Programme; and take a leadership role in the School Meals Coalition 86. Harness the power of innovation and digital technologies in agriculture and foster an environment that allows our innovators to thrive and contribute to agricultural transformation 87. Develop climate smart agriculture programmes; expedite ecosystems restoration efforts through agroforestry, reforestation, and ensure sustainable use of our natural resources. 88. Challenge global financial institutions to innovate and design appropriate de-risking and financing instruments for increased investment in agriculture. Liberia 89. Ensure that women, who are widely considered as a driving force of local food production, have direct access to basic support and resources, access to arable land through titled ownerships, financial loans and grants, market links, technology, training and extension services to ensure viable food systems 90. Encourage youth to get more involved in food systems to reduce unemployment and enhance well-being 91. Have small-holder farmers and agri-businesses supported with machinery andfinancial grants needed to expand food production and processing 92. Commits to enlist and advance, the following “Summit’s Coalitions of Action”: Youth Employment; making Food Systems work for women and girls; School Meals: Nutrition, Health, and Education for Every Child; and Resilient Food Supply Chains. Madagascar 93. Promote access to a diversified, healthy and nutritious diet with the involvement of the private sector and civil society 94. Promote governance that promotes equitable and resilient livelihoods 95. Promote youth and women's entrepreneurship 96. Promote climate resilient production, with local transformation, agri- business, the landscape approach and the use of renewable energies 97. Accelerate the process of effective decentralization in order to establish a territorial balance and guarantee equity in the distribution of public resources 98. Develop agricultural infrastructure and scaling up innovative mechanisms to improve access to local agricultural services in terms of advice, extension, training, technical supervision and funding. 99. Madagascar has already joined three Coalitions including Zero Hunger, Coalition for food systems transformation through Agroecology”. Malawi 100. Improve road infrastructure that makes the transportation of food difficult, raises food prices, and reduces food quality 101. Address post-harvest losses that expose households to food insecurity 102. Diversify the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) and scaling up investments in integrated nutritious value chains 103. Invest in medium and large-scale farm mechanization nationwide 104. Promote nutrient rich foods and invest in frontline nutrition workers 105. Adopt technologies and innovations for value addition and food preservation 106. Invest in digitized and localized early warning systems 107. Construct disaster preparedness infrastructure and review disaster risk management laws 108. Pursue a multi-sectoral approach in the transformation of food systems 109. Various Stakeholder pledge technical and financial support towards this vision of transforming Malawi’s food systems, e.g. the donor Committee on Agriculture and Food Security, the UN System, Academia, Malawi Bureau of Standards, and civil society organizations Mauritania 110. Invest and prioritize improvement of agricultural production, animal resources, and the rationalization of the management of our fisheries. 111. Create the conditions for the development of small-scale farming 112. Promote a national industrial fabric to add value to local food production and its derivatives, in order to reduce our dependence on imports and lay the groundwork for meaningful economic and social development for our country 6 Sustainable Food Systems www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 Table 1 (continued ) 115. Pledges for a New Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture 116. Pledges to come together with renewed vigour with the solemn aim of finding nature-based solutions to man-made calamities 117. Pledges to look at their food systems through the farmers’ eyes Morocco 118. Morocco has been able to put in place an integrated approach, which aims to guarantee food availability, promote sustainable agricultural and rural development 119. Give priority to the protection of natural resources and adapt to climate change 120. Invest in the new agricultural strategy - Generation Green 2020-2030, to improve the resilience and sustainability of food systems in Morocco 121. Morocco is committed to international coalitions: including the School Meals Coalition, the Coalition of Food and Nutrition Security; and the Coalition for food systems transformation through Agroecology Namibia 122. Protect local environments, including oceans by enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and oceanic resources 123. Implement international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 124. Mobilize resources from a variety of sources including through enhanced development cooperation in order to provide adequate and predictable means of financial support 125. Design and implement resilient agricultural practices to increase productivity 126. Restore degraded land and combat desertification 127. The Namibian Government will continue to prioritize land redistribution 128. Prioritize capacity building, financial support and opportunities for value addition to realize agricultural potential Niger 129. Ensure that the efforts undertaken in the transformation of local food systems lead to greater resilience to mitigate threats and crises, and on the other hand contribute to reducing the pressure on natural resources and better social inclusion 130. Ensure the modernization of the agricultural sector to obtain more significant results in increasing and diversifying the production and in creating trade and job opportunities, especially for youth and women 131. Ensure social protection measures for vulnerable households, which will help to strengthen peace and social cohesion 132. To implement the right to food provision as enshrined in the constitution of the Republic of Niger 133. Mobilization of substantial financial resources for food systems transformation 134. Niger commits to various coalitions for the implementation of numerous and better investments Mauritius 113. Support the call for coordinated action for resilient, fair, sustainable, and more inclusive economies. 114. Pledges, through resilient agri-food systems, to increase productivity sustainably and decrease adverse effect on the environment and by addressing malnutrition and mitigating climate change Nigeria 135. Setting up of food systems focused on addressing existing gaps while prioritizing healthy diets and affordable nutrition so as to improve lives and livelihoods of the over two hundred million Nigerians 136. To have an efficient, inclusive food system, which is viable especially taking into account the impact of climate change 137. Following the recommendations from the dialogues and Nigeria’s plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within a decade 138. Committed to investing in food security and nutrition knowledge dissemination, skills’ development, and information management systems to enhance agricultural productivity 139. Committed to building sustainable, responsive, and inclusive food systems 140. Committed to enhancing the productivity of smallholder farmers; and empowering women and youths for greater access to food production and processing Rwanda 141. Greater investment in digital technologies, biotechnology, accessible financial services, and other proven innovations 142. Adopt nutritious food policies, establish food reserves, and expand school feeding programs. 143. Support local markets and food supply chains, and expand trade within Africa 144. Work to increase agricultural financing to 10% of public expenditure 145. Facilitate smallholder farmers, and ensure women’s access to productive resources 146. Expand social safety nets and climate data systems 147. Support broad global partnerships in order to transform food systems, and meet the sustainable development goal 148. Promote accountability for advancing these actions including regular reviews under the CAADP. Rwanda supports the Africa Common Position on Food Systems Transformation Commitments to transform Africa’s food systems Laar, Tagwireyi and Hassan-Wassef 7 www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 Table 1 (continued ) 158. Continued partnership to harness our collective resources and know-how to build a network of coalitions in the spirit of a win-win strategy and greater synergy to address the challenges of the food systems transformation Somalia 159. Investment in agri-business and food systems by promoting basic infrastructure services, irrigation technology, and mechanization of all stages of production 160. Commit to promote durable solutions to prevent the negative impacts of migration and displacement on food systems 161. Intensify efforts to combat climate change effects such as famine, floods, pests, and promote disaster risk reduction (approaches) that are context specific to Somalia 162. Scale up Early Warning Systems, which will support early decision making, risk mitigation and reduce magnitude of displacement 163. Commit to minimize the impact of shocks and scale up social protection programming within the country 164. Advocate for the adoption and scaling up of nutrition sensitive, government led social protection programmes to ensure no-one is left behind 165. Stimulate markets, provide livelihood opportunities and more local nutritious food options by increasing investments in diversified nutrition sensitive value chains 166. Encourage and create an enabling environment to support women’s access to productive resources such as land, technology, active engagement, and involvement in leadership positions 167. Engage the youth in designing and developing digital innovative solutions while creating youth centric opportunities for meaningful engagement, participation and access to resources so as to enhance and scale up digital practices and innovations Sudan 168. Ensure food safety by modernizing laboratories and traceability systems 169. Standardize channels and implement quality indicators 170. Enhance agricultural diversity, supporting biodiversity, and supporting bio-fortification and food fortification (e.g. through school feeding and home gardens). 171. Improve consumption and enhance good food cultural practices, positively changing consumption patterns 172. Improve productivity and production by applying innovations and technology transfer 173. Reduce food loss and waste 174. Raise the efficiency of producers’ organizations and encourage adaptive agriculture to climate change 175. Improve and develop food processing, quality control and benefit from the value added by product export. 176. To provide fair and equitable livelihoods in terms of assets and strategies, mainly for segments of women, youth and vulnerable groups. 177. Involve rural communities in food systems transformation Senegal 149. Senegal's commitments for sustainable food systems is in line with the Plan Sénégal Emergent (PSE) 150. Ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all is fully guaranteed 151. The functioning of consumption patterns remains to be perfected 152. Improve the production, processing, marketing and consumption of agro- sylvo-pastoral and fisheries products 153. Strengthen the legislative and regulatory framework for food systems 154. Strengthen the resilience of food systems 155. Pledges to join Agroecology Coalition Seychelles 156. To the global call to reform the food systems, we will build on the outcomes of the dialogues, articulate the findings and project ideas in the country’s food system transformation strategy 157. Invest within the possibilities of our economic resources to bring to life the vision for a domestic food system less dependent on imports 178. Build resilience for the communities, improving access to adequate income, and managing disaster to build communities capacities to address them 179. Pledges to join Coalitions that promote the transformation of food systems Tunisia 180. Adopt effective, fair and multi-dimensional global governance which takes into account the specificities of developing countries and the challenges they face at the developmental and financial levels 181. Implement Resolution 2532 (2000), adopted by the Security Council at the initiative of Tunisia and France, which calls for a cessation of military operations in order to secure the delivery of humanitarian aid in the areas of crisis and conflicts 182. Mitigate several challenges, especially monopoly, speculation, inflation and the rise in food cost 183. Ensure access to safe foods for all, in a sustainable manner and at appropriate cost 8 Sustainable Food Systems www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 Table 1 (continued ) Uganda 184. Improve supportive infrastructure across the country including, improvement of the road network, irrigation infrastructure, increased rural electrification, development of sub-national and cross-border markets, supporting digitalization and e-commerce 185. Ensure an enabling policy environment exists and SDGs have been fully integrated in national development 186. Increase investment in research as a critical enabler to resilient, sustainable food systems development. 187. Committed to taking bold and accelerated steps to fast-track implementation of resolutions and plan of actions from the Summit. Zimbabwe 188. Develop more sustainable ways of producing, processing, accessing and utilising food 189. Implement a food systems approach that aims to achieve safe and nutritious food and consumption patterns for all in its quest to meet the SDGs 190. The government of Zimbabwe is implementing the agricultural and food systems transformation strategy towards reviving, restructuring and transforming agriculture. 191. Zimbabwe seeks to improve climate resilience through accelerated irrigation development, farm mechanisation and technology-based crop, livestock, land and water management systems 192. Accelerate rural development as well as result in equitable access to safe and nutritious food for all, 193. Build resilience to vulnerabilities and shocks 194. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in line with the country's nationally determined contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. 195. Increase production and productivity by small-holder and communal farmers, inclusive of women and the youth; 196. Promote sustainable utilisation of land and improved incomes for rural communities 197. Zimbabwe places urgent emphasis on the nexus between food and the health of our planet, given that climate change is both a driver and a consequence of hunger. 198. Concerted efforts must be made to enhance the resilience and sustainability of agricultural and food production systems. 199. Partnerships remain critical as we reach out and draw from the various competencies in our respective countries. Africa Common Position (ACP) To catalyse rapid expansion in agricultural and food productivity and production 200. Paragraph 54 of the ACP: Access to basic means of production especially by frontline players in the food systems value chain – most of whom are women-operated SMEs 201. Paragraph 55. Boosting nature-positive production and processing-value addition, at scale Boosting investment financing for Africa’s food systems transformation agenda 202. Paragraph 56. AU’s ambition is to increase domestic public-private investment financing for Africa’s economic growth and development agenda. Foreign finance should progressively move towards direct investments taking the form of financing for capital infrastructure, technology transfer and market share. Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all: Under this area, Africa is committed to: 203. Paragraph 57. Promote bio-fortification of staple foods and industrial fortification of complementary foods to deliver better diets for all. 204. Paragraph 58. Facilitate the expansion of cash transfer programmes and use expanding cash transfer platforms to reach families with nutrition services and programmes that focus on producing nutritious foods. 205. Paragraph 59. Promote and enforce food safety standards in both formal and non-formal food markets to protect consumers. 206. Paragraph 60. Expand domesticated school feeding programmes to improve 207. nutrition for school children and create markets for locally produced foods to increase farmer incomes. 208. Paragraph 61. Design and implement innovative Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) campaigns and nutrition education to improve food and feeding practices for children and society at large, and to influence food supply and food environments. 209. Paragraph 62. Adopt and implement coherent nutritious food policies and strategies that are evidence-based, along with enhanced institutional capacities and capabilities for accelerated transformation of sustainable food and nutrition systems 210. Paragraph 63. Identify, renew, and implement longer-term actions across multiple systems – food, health, water and sanitation, education and social protection – in the food system to facilitate sustained access to affordable and nutritious foods, essential nutrition services and positive nutrition Commitments to transform Africa’s food systems Laar, Tagwireyi and Hassan-Wassef 9 www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 systematic reviews in Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar that focused on the commitments to transform food systems in Africa. We found none. Next, a systematic search was conducted in the same data- bases, and considered articles for inclusion if their geo- graphic focus was delimited to or included Africa. In addition, the articles that focused on the UNFSS and related dialogues or commitments, or on sustainable healthy diets, or the WHO priority food system policy actions, were considered. Publications were excluded if they were older than 2020 as per guidelines from the journal, and also to coincide with the period during which the UNFSS, and its associated dialogues were convened. Publications were also excluded if Africa and/ or African countries were not the main focus. Findings There are currently 55 countries in the African con- tinent, which differ significantly in terms of economic and social development, culture and religious beliefs, models of political governance, availability of natural resources, demography, ethnic cleavages, and colonial history. Given the existing wide variations in climate and ecological zones. it is expected that the food challenges facing these countries will be different. That notwith- standing, a rising burden of obesity and diet-related NCDs amidst prevalent undernutrition is a common denominator [1]. Across Africa, the population is pro- jected to increase, reaching 2.5 billion by 2050 [22]. Agriculture continues to be the main provider of jobs, and yet African food workers’ incomes remain generally Table 1 (continued ) practices in all contexts; and to promote diversification, including in nutritious indigenous foods. 211. Paragraph 64. Adopt policy and fiscal measures across government ministries to support food affordability (i.e. subsidies for healthy and sustainable foods, expansion of social protection programmes, taxation for unhealthy foods, and procurement policies for healthy school meals) 212. Paragraph 65. Implement long-term inclusive strategies that foster multifaceted investment in agriculture, agribusiness, and agro-industries; and ensure food safety, micronutrient content, and sustained food quality and standards that enable micro and medium agro-SMEs to compete in domestic, regional and international value-added food markets. 213. Paragraph 66. Promotion of national, regional, and continental food information systems to share information on the availability of food and food prices at all levels, and how it could be accessed 214. Paragraph 67. Ensure adequate regional strategic emergency food reserves and storage facilities 215. Paragraph 68. Incentivise national and trans-national trade corridors for food commodities and services and ensure dedicated attention to regional food markets and trade in all Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provisions and protocols. Strengthening and harnessing Africa’s growing local food markets 216. Paragraph 69. Shifting to sustainable consumption patterns 217. Paragraph 70. Advancing equitable livelihoods and value distribution: 218. Paragraph 71. Building resilience to shock, and stress 219. Paragraph 72. Facilitating and building local implementation capacities at all levels with focus on frontline players and decentralised structures: Algeria Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Burkina Faso Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Burundi Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a CAR Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Côte D'Ivoire Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Equatorial Guinea Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Eritrea Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Eswatini Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Lesotho Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a South Africa Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Tanzania Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Zambia Data not accessible n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a Legend (n/a = data not accessible from the UNFSS website) fully responsive partially responsive not responsive 10 Sustainable Food Systems www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 low and wealth is poorly distributed across society [23]. Climate change remains the greatest challenge. Africa’s food systems are not all resilient. Until recently, health and development policy and strategies in Africa have, for several decades, focused mainly on addressing under- nutrition, communicable diseases, and maternal and child health challenges. High-level continental agri- culture, nutrition, health, and development policy and strategy frameworks such as the 2003 Maputo commit- ments, the 2014 Malabo Declaration, the Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy 2015–2025, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, have all focused more on hunger and food insecurity. Africa needs transformative food system po- licies that regional, national, and local actors can use to promote sustainable healthy diets [12] within a com- prehensive vision of integrated sustainable human de- velopment. The present analysis of the political commitments made by African Heads of State and Government may serve to amplify appreciation of the multiple challenges and food system needs of the continent. The dominant commit- ments were found to be focused on addressing hunger and food security, promote sustainable production sys- tems, and build resilience to climate change and other shocks (see Table 1). Very few countries featured the health and nutrition, the environment, and the socio- economic dimensions of sustainability in their commit- ments. Regarding responsiveness to the WHO priority policies, even fewer country commitments featured them (Table 1). Regarding the commitments’ alignment with the five action areas of the UNFSS, our finding compares with recent reports showing that most African countries are aligned. For instance, Kalibata observed that several African countries had committed to partici- pating in the coalitions on Zero Hunger (n = 14 coun- tries), School Feeding (n = 10), and the Healthy Diets for Children and All (n = 16). A number of other countries had commitments featuring ‘Nourish All People’ (zero hunger, healthy diets for children and all, and school feeding) and boosting nature-based solutions, especially in the areas of sustainable production, resilience, and attention to climate change [24]. Following extensive engagement and wide consultations with various stakeholders across the continent, African countries collectively pledged through the Africa Common Position on Food Systems [21], a clear con- tinental vision and a common framework on food sys- tems. They pledged to pursue a number of game- changing solutions deemed critical to transforming Africa’s food systems. As with country-level commit- ments, the continental position paper responded to some of the dimensions of sustainable healthy diets, as well as to the WHO priority policy actions (see Box 2). Boosting nature-positive solutions and processing-value addition at scale (see paragraph 55 of the Continental position paper) is responsive to the environmental dimension of sustainable healthy diets. Promoting biofortification of staple foods and industrial fortification of com- plementary foods to deliver better diets for all (para- graph 57) is responsive to both WHO priority policy actions and the concept of sustainable healthy diets. The same applies to facilitating the expansion of cash transfer programs and of the reach to families with nutrition services and programs that focus on producing nutritious foods (paragraph 58), as well as expanding domesticated school feeding programs to improve nutrition for school children and create markets for locally produced foods to increase farmer incomes (paragraph 60). Promoting and enforcing food safety standards in both formal and nonformal food markets to protect consumers (paragraph 59), as well as adopting policy and fiscal measures (paragraph 64) across government ministries to support food affordability (i.e. subsidies for healthy and sus- tainable foods, expansion of social protection programs, taxation for unhealthy foods, and procurement policies for healthy school meals), are responsive to both the WHO priority policy actions and the concept of sus- tainable healthy diets. With the exception of environmental resilience, we found little attention to environmental aspects of food systems in the commitments, especially when we com- pared them with nationally determined contributions (NDC) — as per the Paris Climate Agreement (PCA). Although multiple references to climate change are made in the commitments, there is little articulation in terms of efforts by countries to reduce national emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Few countries (n = 14) make specific references to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change as detailed in Table 1, and summarized below in Box 4. The PCA is also referred to in the Africa Common Position Paper: “Africa also expects that the rest of the world will play their part — enabling to Africa attaining her own goals and targets as well as Africa playing her role in addressing and realising agreed goals and targets at global level in the pursuit of our shared purpose and goals for resilient, viable and inclusive food systems and the impacts across; the SDG goals. In this light, Africa expect that through relevant institutions, agencies and instruments, the world will expand and accelerate in- itiatives on: a) Climate change mitigation and adaptation measures based on the PCA” [21]. Discussion and contextualization of findings At both the country and continental level, the respon- siveness of African governments’ commitments to transform their food systems is found to be generally not responsive to the dimensions of sustainable healthy diets Commitments to transform Africa’s food systems Laar, Tagwireyi and Hassan-Wassef 11 www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 or the WHO priority food system policy actions. Gaps in these areas remain to be addressed. While all the com- mitments do have a real potential to contribute to food system transformation, many tended to be productive, agriculture-facing, and may end up being successful at feeding the African continent and its people but not necessarily nourishing them. Toward transforming the African food systems, calls exist for including changes in the spatial structure of food supply chains to address the increasing pressure on natural re- sources, and promote changes in food consumption habits [25,26] we agree. Indeed, any food system that is not sup- portive of public health cannot be said to be sustainable. As Sibanda et al [27] averred, “food systems can only be fully functional if they are made to provide diverse, accessible, affordable, and nutritious diets”. They further note that African policymakers need to acknowledge that nutrition insecurity is not food insecurity. The commitments re- cognize that most African food systems are not resilient. In this regard, Shilomboleni [28] has called on African gov- ernments to pay attention to and support the following elements of resilience: offer low-cost or cost-effective agri- cultural innovations to hedge safely against risks in en- vironments where they are routinely subject to multiple unpredictable shocks and outcomes (e.g. crop loss, market failure), build the agency of individuals and communities to foster ownership in the management and control of such agricultural innovations. Recognizing that resilience is a prerequisite for long-term sustainability of food systems, the Food Systems Countdown Initiative included in its suite of monitoring indicators, indicators of resilience across five domains: exposure to shocks, resilience capacities, agro- and food diversity, resilience responses/strategies, and long-term food-relevant outcomes [29]. Other calls exist to exploit indigenous and traditional foods crops (ITFCs) as a means to enhance food system sustainability. Akinola et al [30] argue that ITFCs have the potential to transform the African food system through four main modes — nutritional, environmental, economic, and social and cultural. Nutritional benefits (nutrient density can be higher than in other foods), en- vironmental benefits (ITFCs can be drought- or heat- tolerant in the face of climate change), and social and cultural benefits (the interaction between local knowl- edge and nutritional value of indigenous foods) [30]. African food system actors, especially policymakers, need to recognize and appreciate the value of the WHO policy actions in transforming African food environ- ments. Informed by extant evidence, we have recently hypothesized that if African governments implement a mix of low-agency and high-agency policy actions to inform and empower, guide and influence, incentivize consumption of healthy foods, and discourage con- sumption of unhealthy foods, then, food environment actors are enabled to make immediate or strategic deci- sions that significantly reduce the import, production, processing, retail and/or marketing, and consumption of unhealthy foods [31,32]. This will ultimately make un- healthy foods unavailable, unattractive, and unaffordable [18]. That said, we are cognisant of the fact that policy commitments and actual implementation are two dif- ferent things. Having policies that address all the WHO policy actions, or the various dimensions of sustainable healthy diets, does not necessarily mean it will result in a transformed food system. Building the requisite capacity to not only generate commitments, or formulate the policies, but to implement them ought to be an im- portant consideration by African governments. On NDC, global evidence shows that few countries are making good progress to achieve the Paris Agreement. In November 2021, 151 of the 193 Parties to the Paris Agreement communicated new or updated NDC. But quality and ambition vary, for many reasons, including a lack of adequate finance, capacity, and, in some cases, insufficient political commitment [33]. To illustrate, Morocco boosted its planned emission cuts to nearly 46% by 2030. The plan adds nine new mitigation actions for a total of 61 across seven core sectors, some of which Box 4 Specific references to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Botswana (climate-resilient food production). Egypt (adapting to climate change). Ethiopia (climate-smart technologies). Gabon (ordinance on climate change). Ghana (climate-resilient varieties). Kenya (climate-smart agriculture and climate-resilient livelihoods). Madagascar (climate-resilient production). Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan (all make references to climate change). Rwanda (climate data systems). Zimbabwe (climate resilience; reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in line with the country’s NDC under the Paris Agreement). 12 Sustainable Food Systems www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2023, 65:101380 are articulated in her commitments (see Table 1). Rwanda was the first country in Africa to revise its initial NDC, with a bold goal to cut emissions by 38 percent by 2030. It will pursue reductions across key sectors of its economy and has set up a system of indicators to track adaptation in water, agriculture, land and forestry, human settlements, health, transport, and mining. This paper has a number of noteworthy limitations. First, given that we relied on Commitment Statements, which are usually tightly written, high level, and future-facing statements, those pledges may not have prioritized in- itiatives already being implemented. Second, following the summit, some countries have developed food system transformation pathways — detailing what needs to be done, when, and by whom. These pathways were not included in the current analysis due to data unavail- ability. While the commitments, without a doubt, re- present the topmost food system priorities for the countries, the scorecard we produced may not have taken into account the totality of a country’s food system trans- formation ambitions or initiatives. Countries that were already advanced in their food system transformation ef- forts — before the UNFSS may have presented a shorter list of commitments than a longer list for countries about to launch their food system transformation programs. CRediT authorship contribution statement Amos Laar: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, and writing of the first draft. Julia Tagwireyi: Validation, reviewing, and editing of the first and final drafts. Habiba Hassan-Wassef: Validation, reviewing, and editing of the first and final drafts. Data Availability The data used in the paper are publicly available. Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Silver Nanema and Gideon Amevinya for their help with data charting and tabulation. References and recommended reading Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as: •• of special interest •• of outstanding interest 1. 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Introduction Methods Findings Discussion and contextualization of findings CRediT authorship contribution statement Data Availability Declaration of Competing Interest Acknowledgements References and recommended reading