Strengthening the science-policy interface: Food value chain consultations

Building on the findings of the joint task group of the International Resource Panel and the One Planet network presented in the report “Catalysing science-based policy action on sustainable consumption and production: the value-chain approach and its application to food, construction and textiles”, the One Planet network is holding consultations to collectively define a common agenda for action.

The aim is now to continue the application of the value-chain approach in the high-impact sectors of food, construction and plastics and thereby ensuring its scientific foundation. These three sectors are prioritised based on the Fourth UN Environment Assembly Resolution, and the One Planet recommendations to the High-Level Political Forum.

The future discussions will also consider how best to extend the uptake of the value-chain approach to other key sectors.

Turning science into action: the Value-Chain Approach

The value-chain approach is a methodology for science-based policy action on sustainable consumption and production. Its purpose is to identify key points of intervention within economic systems to reduce natural-resource use and environmental impacts caused by production and consumption, and to define a common agenda for action.

Critically, the value-chain approach goes beyond an understanding of where resource use and environmental impacts occur, to understand why this is happening and what the key points of intervention are for science-based policy action.

Read the report here

Help shape the common agenda for action in the food sector

Through consultation and collaboration, the Value-Chain Approach identifies where solutions already exist at key intervention points, and where there are gaps and opportunities, and defines a common agenda for concerted actions that can transform the system. This participatory approach taps into the bodies of lay and practical knowledge that are collectively held among SCP practitioners, as well as ensuring their crucial buy-in for the implementation of this common agenda.

The first set of consultations will focus on the sector of Food and will be organized in three series:

1. Innovative business and policy solutions
2. Defining common agenda
3. Developing roadmap for action.

The consultations series 1 on innovative business and policy solutions will be undertaken in April 2021 in the form of 5 expert workshops, each focusing on the prioritized stage of the food value-chain:

1. Food services and tourism: 8th of April 
2. Agricultural inputs, food traders and primary production: 15th of April
3. Food processing/manufacturing and retail: 22nd of April
4. Individual consumption: 29th of April
5. Food-related policies and policy instruments: 6th of May

All workshops are foreseen to take place at 14:00-16:00 CET

If you want to get involved, you can:

• Nominate an expert to participate in the workshops.  The experts are expected to: 1) Participate in up to 2 workshops: approximately 2 hrs each; and 2) Undertake preparatory readings and provide feedback: max 4 hrs in total.

Click here to nominate an expert

• Submit existing initiatives and solutions to have the most comprehensive mapping of initiatives and solutions along the food value chain that aim to improve natural resource use and decrease environmental impacts of the food sector.

Click here to submit initiatives and solutions

The objective is to understand what initiatives and solutions currently exist at different stages of the food value chain and to define gaps, opportunities, interlinkages, and trade-offs as the basis for the development of the common agenda and roadmap for action for the food sector

For any questions, please contact Yulia Rubleva (yulia.rubleva@un.org), and help shape the common agenda for action in the food sector.