The Food Policy Forum for Change aims to create an exchange space for policy makers engaged or interested in sustainable food systems. This space will  support the development and formulation of coherent national and local policies that will drive transformation of Agriculture and Food Systems based on the SDGs. In practice, the Forum will provide access to tools, case studies, experts, regional and international champions, community driven coaching and a discussion forum.

To register to the Food Policy Forum for Change, please fill out in the form via the following link https://bit.ly/signup-peer2peer.

If you encounter problems with the registration don’t hesitate to contact us at food.policy.forum@biovision.ch

The primary focus of the forum is Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. However, participants from other regions of the world are also welcome to participate.

The main target of the Food Policy Forum are policy makers and official advisors in relevant ministries, departments, commissions etc., at national and subnational levels in the agriculture, nutrition, rural development, environment, finance and planning sectors.

The forum welcomes civil servants, staff of government agencies, parliamentary committee members and officials of regional organizations who have expert knowledge in particular areas and have an active role in the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies.

If you belong to the target audience of the forum, you will not need any pre-approval to join the forum.

In case you are not part of the main target group, you can still join the forum and participate in the events that are open to a broader audience

We welcome members from Civil Society Organizations to participate in the broader activities of the forum. We also welcome and seek for opportunities to capitalize on synergies  with other initiatives or projects. We foresee members from Civil Society Organizations can support the forum by:

• Helping us connect with policy makers in the regions and countries where they work.
• Bringing successful experiences to the policy makers participating in the forum (or supporting us identifying “champions”).
• Participating in the matchmaking process to connect policy makers with experts or peers to enable an exchange of support/coaching.
• Exploring partnerships for co-organizing potential events (e.g. with a particular theme or geographical focus).

The principal language of the Food Policy Forum for Change is English.
However, some of the exchanges would be held on French and Spanish based on demand.

The Food Policy Forum for Change will be launched in October 2020 and the first phase will be active until end of 2021.

A second phase is planned after 2021 depending on funding and resources available.

The main benefits for participating to the forum are:

• Learning and capacity building for designing and implementing effective food system policies that contribute to achieving the SDGs.
• Sharing experiences: Enrich your perspective on how to overcome obstacles to strengthen your transformation agendas.
• Knowledge exchange: Access/contribute evidence, instruments and approaches that can support governments making food systems more sustainable.
• Guidance and coaching Receive support from policy makers and experts that can enhance your policies.
• Visibility Become a driving force in transforming food systems in your country and among your peers.
• Cooperation: Strengthen your network and create new collaborative partnerships at subnational, national, regional and international levels.

The Food Policy Forum for Change is a for-free initiative, meaning there is no participation fees. However, participants must be aware that the forum does not cover any travel expenses in case of in-person events connected to the forum.

No, the information exchanged in the forum will be generally treated as confidential among the members unless explicitly communicated, and always upon approval of the participants

The forum does not require a specific level of commitment from its participants, who can decide independently how much time they want to dedicate to the initiatives of the forum and how many exchanges they want to participate in.

The forum will focus on policy processes connected to agriculture and food systems, aimed to implement agroecological principles at the national and subnational level, that emphasize long-term productivity, greater resource-use efficiency, enhanced ecological functions, improved resilience, soil restoration/protection, biodiversity promotion, improved rural livelihoods, and equity and social well-being.

However, the forum will be based on a self-driven approach, which means that the content will be developed based on the participants’ needs and interests.

The format of the forum will mostly entail:

• A mailing list as the primary communication channel among participants in the forum
• Online exchanges in the form of
  • Webinars: focussed on specific themes, open to external participants, eventually co-hosted by various institutions and showcasing champions or participants of the community
  • Exchange calls: more informal exchange discussions among participants of the forum. Calls would be structured around more specific topics (e.g. a type of policy intervention), and would highlight examples from participants of the community, exchange of knowledge and experience, and follow up discussions. Allow for confidential exchanges.
  • Informal exchanges and matchmaking: between smaller groups of participants, based on needs and demands on specific aspects.
• Face to face exchanges if the situation with COVD19 makes it possible in the next months.
• A shared repository where to store useful documents, outputs, and other supporting materials for the members.

The members of the forum will have the possibility to exchange as a whole community, through the mailing list and online exchanges (i.e. webinars). Additionally, there will be the possibility to form sub-groups of members, which can be based for example on geographical area or the interest in a specific policy tool. Smaller groups will facilitate the exchange and the communication between the members.

As part of the initiative, (in person) events are planned where the participants of the forum would have had the possibility to meet and directly connect with each others. However, due to the current Covid19 situation, some of the in person event might be cancelled or held virtually. In case the situation unfolds positively, we will inform the participants accordingly.

The Forum will be launched during the CFS High-Level Special Event on Food Security and Nutrition (13-15 Oct 2020). The exact day of the launch will be soon communicated.

The next planned events are:

• a first webinar in November 2020 in partnership with the One Planet Network
• other webinars in February 2021 as part of the CFS event in Rome and/or the UNEA5 event in Nairoibi.

Other events, webinars or other forms of exchanges will be communicated to the members as soon as more information is available.

This initiative is led by Biovision Foundation, IFOAM – Organics International, the Millennium Institute, with the technical support of FAO (Scaling up Agroecology Initiative) and financed by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

The Food Policy Forum team will act as moderator and facilitator of the forum, by supporting the exchange among the participants and by ensuring the technical functionality of the forum. The team will also be involved in the overall administration and in the organization of the events.

We would be very grateful if you could support us enlarging the number of participants of the forum, by reaching out to your network. Please use the official flyer of the forum, available in English, French and Spanish at the following links:

• Flyer in English
• Flyer in French
• Flyer in Spanish