ABOUT
Context
Today, countries and populations across the Mediterranean are facing interdependent and unprecedented challenges linked to the cascading effects of conflict, climate emergencies, and demographic pressures. Driven by shifts in dietary patterns, countries are also increasingly affected by problems of obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases. At the same time, climate change affects the Mediterranean region significantly more than the world average, leading to competing demands for land, water and energy, in a region already deeply impacted by shrinking natural resources.
In the face of compounding challenges, and taking into account the strong interdependencies among Mediterranean countries as well as the particularities of each context, a systemic response is needed to achieve multiple benefits in shifting agrifood systems towards environmental, economic and social sustainability. The engagement of Mediterranean countries in the United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) process, and more recently in the UN Food Systems Summit + 2 Stocktaking Moment (UNFSS+2), has been key in highlighting the need for enhanced regional cooperation and identifying common approaches to address shared agrifood systems-related challenges.
The SFS-MED Platform
Against this background, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA) joined forces to develop a multistakeholder initiative for Sustainable Food Systems in the Mediterranean (SFS-MED Platform), as an affiliated project of the One Planet Network’s Sustainable Food Systems Programme.
The Platform is a forum for dialogue and collaboration, which aims at leveraging cross-country and multistakeholder collaboration as a way to advance a sustainable transformation of agrifood systems in the Mediterranean region. Key pillars of the initiative include promoting shared learning around key levers for agrifood systems transformation and facilitating dialogue and technical knowledge exchange among diverse stakeholder groups – including private sector, civil society, research and government.
A closer look into agrifood systems transformation levers
This interactive tool compiles expert knowledge about a series of catalytic levers for agrifood systems transformation, while telling inspiring stories from the ground about the people striving to transform the region’s agrifood systems through multistakeholder collaboration and innovative ideas.
These transformation levers reflect the trends, priorities and challenges emerged as common to most countries in the Mediterranean, as illustrated in the study carried out by the SFS-MED Platform in 2021 as part of the UNFSS process. These key themes have then inspired a series of technical webinars started in 2022, which has allowed to collect much of the information presented in this digital tool.
