Actors of the food system
Engaging relevant stakeholders and facilitating their collaboration is essential for implementing a systems approach and achieving transformative change.
A wide range of actors need to be at the table to achieve systemic change. In the recent publication “Rethinking Our Food Systems: A Guide for Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration”, UNEP, FAO and UNDP identified the following groups of stakeholders:
- public sector, including national and subnational institutions;
- private sector, including associations of small and medium-sized agrifood enterprises, large agribusinesses and inputs, business and financial service providers;
- civil society, including community-based, grassroots, Indigenous Peoples' groups and non-governmental organizations, consumers and citizens’ associations;
- organizations representing small, medium and large producers (farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, forest dwellers);
- other food systems workers, including informal actors;
- international community, including development partners and donors;
- academia and knowledge institutions, including those funded by and responding to the research interests of the other stakeholders;
- media.
A stakeholder mapping process is a valuable tool for identifying relevant actors across these groups and throughout the food system and adjacent systems. This process serves as a valuable tool to understand and clearly define the roles of people and institutions, as well as their level of influence and interest in the food system. The exercise also aids in establishing how different people and institutions are interconnected and highlights potential areas of conflict and misunderstanding to help proactively navigate and address these from an early stage.
Key considerations for a stakeholder mapping process include:
- Define the purpose of the mapping. In this case, the issue at hand is food systems transformation. The specific purpose should be focused on the specific food system issue that you are addressing. This helps to narrow the scope of stakeholder involvement to those most relevant to the issue, or related entry points, on the agenda.
- Identify who your stakeholders are. This is the most critical part where you must carefully think of everyone who may be potentially involved at every stage of the process, ensuring that marginalized groups relevant to the food system issue are meaningfully included and heard. Click here to learn how stakeholders at the national, district and community levels were considered for a project to build resilient food systems in southern Egypt.
- Determine the potential level of involvement, role and responsibilities of each stakeholder, including the potential of real and perceived conflicts of interest engagement with stakeholders present, and the processes to mitigate or manage these conflicts of interest. You can make use of the power/Interest matrix, as shown in the case study about the Plurinational State of Bolivia, as well as UN agencies’ existing private-sector engagement guidelines and the upcoming UN Food Systems Corporate Accountability Roadmap.
- Link. Start identifying the relationships that your stakeholders may have with each other.
- Engage. What is your strategy for engaging with each of these stakeholders?
Tip: Consider incorporating a political economy analysis into the mapping process (check out the examples and tools provided in the Resources and tools section below). This entails assessing power dynamics and stakeholders' interests in either preserving or altering the existing status quo. Such analysis provides insights into potential resistance.
Each UN agency operates within a specialized mandate (see full list below), focusing on specific global issues, which may result in varying priorities and approaches. Limited resources, including funding and personnel, can contribute to competition among agencies, intensifying conflicts over resource allocation. The agencies' specific policy perspectives, strategies, and areas of expertise can also lead to fragmented support, overlaps and duplications. In order to strengthen coordination and reduce competition, collaborative efforts are ongoing across the UN (section 5 presents how CCAs, UNSDCF and joint programmes are key in addressing this). It is also important to note that while agencies have clear global mandates (presented in the list below), their roles and priorities at the country level vary between countries.
Tip: The first step towards finding common ground where goals intersect, unlocking potential dependencies and synergies between UN agencies, is to dispel the “us versus them” mentality. Within the framework of systems thinking, us and them are part of the same system and are responsible for the problems and solutions in the system. Systems thinking expands the boundary of thinking and recognizes the interdependencies and interconnectedness of the organizations and other stakeholders. This is helpful in considering the broader implications of each actor’s actions towards the collective goal.
How can the UN system support the engagement of stakeholders at country level to transform food systems while avoiding duplication and fragmentation?
- Common vision and trust: The UNCT can support national stakeholders in developing a shared group identity and common vision based on trust to enable collective action and manage potential conflicts, including conflicts of interest, around food systems. For example, by convening and facilitating dialogues, such as the ones held in preparation and follow-up to the UN Food Systems Summit. This process often involves a shared reframing of problems and how to address them together, including finding entry points (see section 4) for collaboration.
- Diverse perspectives: Facilitating the involvement of diverse stakeholders (from dialogue to policymaking) to explore unique perspectives, expertise, resources, and relational aspects such as power dynamics. Ensuring mutual respect.
- Ownership and buy-in: Fostering stakeholders' involvement to enhance ownership, commitment, and buy-in for food systems transformation.
- Behavioural change: Focusing on behaviour change among the stakeholders, clearly identifying their roles and responsibilities in addressing a problem or applying a solution, navigating different interests and conflicts and engaging in the process of making collective compromises related to the overall direction.
- Accountability: The UNCT can support stakeholders in holding each other accountable for progress toward transforming food systems as well as in developing monitoring frameworks (including through UNSDCFs).
- Conflict resolution: Engaging diverse actors to manage conflicts and trade-offs and facilitate inclusive decision-making. Stakeholder mapping is a valuable tool for understanding and addressing these potential sources of conflict and to ensure a more effective and collaborative engagement that drives collective solutions leading to positive outcomes for the overall food system, rather than favouring one group over another.
Previous section
