SAVE THE DATE: 1st Global Conference SFS Programme
1st Global Conference of the Sustainable Food Systems Programme
hosted by Lionel October, Director General of the Department of Trade and Industry, Republic of South Africa and with a keynote address of the Honourable Deputy Minister Mr. Bulelqni Gratitude Magwanishe
21-23 June 2017
Pretoria, South Africa
VENUE: Sierra Burgers Park Hotel
Theme
The theme of the conference was “Sustainable Food Systems for all – Catalyzing Change through MultiStakeholder Action”. The conference explored innovative multi-stakeholder approaches to tackle food systems challenges in general, and discussed the need of ensuring sustainable food systems in the face of a changing climate and growing urbanization in the African context more specifically.
Agenda
A high level panel discussions was chaired by Ms Ncumisa Mcata-Mhlauli, Chief DirectorAgro-Processing, Department of Trade and Industry, Republic of South Africa, and with panelists Mr. Lê Quôc Doanh, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam (tbc); Ms. Carol Gribnau, Director Green Society Department, Hivos; Prof. Bernard Lehmann, Director General, Federal Office for Agriculture, Switzerland; Mr. Morné du Plessis, CEO, WWF South Africa; Mr. Lewis Hove, FAO Representative in South Africa.
For more details, please see the 
Conference Agenda
Objectives of the Conference
The purpose of the conference was to build new partnerships and create synergies among stakeholders to accelerate the shift towards more sustainable food systems. In this context, the objectives were defined as follows:
- Offer a dialogue platform to share experiences and exchange ideas;
- Encourage participants to transition into a crafting and decision-making mode, by proposing concrete collective actions and initiatives, and highlighting relevant tools, approaches and good practices;
- Underline the importance of a multi-stakeholder, systems-based approach to make food systems more sustainable; and
- Lay the foundations to kick-off cooperation on collective action(s) and initiative(s) to address the critical challenges in food systems and accelerate the shift to sustainability.
The conference provided a spring-board to jumpstart new collaborative initiatives and consolidate existing alliances, and empower organizations to take action and achieve a real impact to accelerate the shift towards more sustainable food systems.
Learn more by reading our Information Note
Supporting document(s)
