CFS54 Side Event | Local Solutions to Global Disruptions: Towards Healthy, Resilient and Agroecological Food Systems
How can agroecology help build healthy, resilient food systems in a time of multiple crises? From local initiatives and farmer-led innovation to policies, markets and investments, multiple solutions can transform food systems.
On 21 October 2026, at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, IFOAM – Organics International and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), in collaboration with the Agroecology Coalition and within the framework of the Agroecology Promotion Programme (APP), co-organised the side event “Local Solutions to Global Disruptions: Towards Healthy, Resilient and Agroecological Food Systems” during the 54th Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS54).
What happens when global food systems are disrupted? Communities turn to local resources, farmers rely on their knowledge, and people rediscover the importance of producing and accessing food close to home. Yet these experiences also reveal a deeper challenge: how can local solutions become the foundation of more resilient, equitable and healthy food systems?
The urgency of this question was reflected in the global food security picture. Opening the session, Sahar Brahim, Programme Coordinator of APP at IFOAM – Organics International, recalled findings from the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026 (SOFI). According to the findings, an estimated 645 million people experienced hunger in 2025, while 2.69 billion people could not afford a healthy diet. Despite some progress in food security, these figures underline the scale of the challenges that remain, further compounded by climate change, environmental degradation, conflict and economic instability.
Addressing these challenges requires looking beyond food production and understanding the food system as a whole, underscored Brahim. Drawing on the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) 2017 food-systems framework, she highlighted the importance of understanding the drivers shaping food systems and the connections between them.
Food insecurity cannot be addressed in isolation. Understanding the drivers and connections across the whole food system is key to seeing where agroecology can make a difference, not only in how food is produced, but also in how it reaches people, whether it is affordable, and whether it supports diverse, healthy diets."
IFOAM – Organics International APP Programme Coordinator
This framing set the stage for a discussion that brought together different perspectives on agroecology and food-system transformation. Diplomats, practitioners, civil society representatives and institutional actors explored where and how agroecology can contribute across the wider food system, and what enabling conditions are needed to sustain the transition.
The following resource persons brought perspectives from diplomacy, practice and institutions:
- H.E. Krisztina Bende – Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN Organisations in Rome
- H.E. Ngor Ndiaye – Ambassador of Senegal to Italy and Permanent Representative to the Rome-based UN agencies
- Rosinah Mbenya – Country Coordinator, PELUM Kenya; APP partner; IFOAM World Board member
- Patricia Flores – Senior Manager, Capacity Development and Global Academy, IFOAM – Organics International
- Pierre Ferrand – Agricultural Officer, FAO
- Oliver Oliveros – Executive Coordinator, Agroecology Coalition
Rather than beginning with policy discussions alone, the session opened with a concrete experience from Kenya of bringing agroecology from farmers' fields into the national policy landscape. From there, a three-round panel followed the food system journey: first, the conditions farmers need to transition; second, how agroecological food can reach markets and support healthy diets; and finally, what policies, investments and institutions can enable wider change. Experiences from Bangladesh and Benin brought further examples from the field, followed by an open exchange with participants and closing remarks.
Kenya offered a compelling example of how agroecology can connect local practice with national policy. Agriculture contributes 31.3% of the country's GDP, with 70–80% of farmers being smallholders, and approximately 80% of the country classified as arid or semi-arid.
Mbenya presented Kenya’s progress in advancing agroecology, including the National Agroecology Strategy for Food System Transformation 2024–2033. Ten counties have adopted agroecology policies or strategies, while another 13 others are developing them. Regional developments, including the Kampala Declaration and the East African Community Agroecology Bill, further support this policy momentum.
At community level, farmers are putting agroecology into practice through composting and biofertilisers, botanical pest management, farmer-managed seeds, water-smart approaches, home gardens and diversified livelihoods. Initiatives also connect agroecology with school meals and digital tools.
The growing interest in agroecology is reflected in Kenya’s National Agroecology Symposium, which expanded from around 200 participants in 2024 to nearly 600 in 2026.
The future of agroecology in Kenya will be shaped by what farmers practise, what communities learn, and what institutions choose to support.
Country coordinator, PELUM Kenya
Building on Kenya's experience, the discussion moved to a high-level panel exploring the conditions needed to support agroecology across the wider food system.
Guiding question: If we start with farmers and producers, and looking at the different parts of the food-system framework, what conditions are needed for them to successfully transition towards agroecology and sustain that transition over time?
Ambassador Bende stressed that farmers need an enabling environment that makes the transition both technically feasible and economically viable. This means access to knowledge and advisory services adapted to local conditions, economic security and reliable markets to cope with the upfront costs and risks of transition. Supportive policies in which farmer organisations have a strong voice is also part of this environment. Development cooperation must therefore be flexible and long-term to help support this transition, something that is reflected in Switzerland's commitment to the APP.
For Patricia Flores, farmers do not need top-down, technocratic packages, but knowledge systems that foster autonomy and systems thinking. Evidence comes from the SDC-funded Nutrition in Mountain Agroecosystems programme, which reached 2,000 families in eight countries. The programme combined low-cost productive infrastructure with women's education and agency, which increased the dietary diversity of women of reproductive age by 30%.
In today’s complex world, capacity development is about turning local actors into systemic leaders who can strengthen their food communities through robust food systems.
IFOAM – Organics International, Senior Manager Capacity Development & Academy
Ambassador Ndiaye brought Senegal’s national policy perspective, noting that agriculture is still not always given the value it deserves. For the transition to succeed, national policies should be coherent and shaped together with farmers from the outset, rather than designed in offices and then applied to the farmers. The Ambassador also pointed to the importance of financing and fair remuneration, agricultural advice and participatory research, as well as access to land and equipment suited to agroecology rather than to agro-industry alone. Since many farmers may not yet be familiar with the term “agroecology,” explaining its benefits is an important first step. Access to markets and social inclusion were highlighted as equally important so that farming can be recognised as a valued profession.
We cannot have policies prepared in offices and then imposed on agriculture. Farmers must be at the basis of defining the policies that concern them.
Ambassador of Senegal to Italy
The second round shifted the focus from the field to the market, looking at how agroecological food reaches consumers.
Guiding question: Moving beyond production, how can agroecological food systems create viable markets while also improving the availability, accessibility and affordability of diverse and healthy food?
Flores pointed to a painful paradox: the smallholders who produce our food are often the first to suffer from malnutrition and anaemia. Nutrition-sensitive agroecology can reverse this. In potato-producing communities in Kenya, diets shifted from a single staple to diversified healthy eating, while in Peru women's dietary diversity rose from two to five or six food groups, at a fraction of the cost of national anaemia-reduction programmes. The way forward is diversifying supply chains and rethinking market governance through participatory guarantee systems linked to territorial markets, public procurement for school meals and alliances with the private sector, including gastronomy.
Ambassador Bende stressed that sustainable production alone is not enough if farmers cannot sell at a fair price, or if nutritious food remains too expensive. Three priorities were identified: strengthening local food markets through investment in storage, processing, transport and market information; mobilising investment in agroecological value chains; and creating the right market incentives through public procurement, appropriate policies and consumer awareness.
We need to shift from funding individual projects to transforming the systems that determine what farmers produce, what markets offer and what food consumers can access.
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN Organisations in Rome
Ambassador Ndiaye highlighted the value of acting across the whole chain, from production and demand to processing, marketing and farmers’ bargaining power, so that farmers can be paid fairly while food remains accessible to the population. Among the measures suggested were re-orienting subsidies towards agroecology and creating local demand. In Senegal, for example, a school canteen programme already exclusively serves agroecological products, an approach that could also be extended to hospitals, universities and international conferences. Investment in logistics, processing and conservation was also seen as important, as crops in Senegal are grown only three months a year but consumed throughout the year. Finally, the ambassador pointed to the role of protecting the domestic market and of certification mechanisms, which could help consumers know what they are buying and distinguish agroecological products from imported ones.
The proposal on certification prompted further discussion among panelists. Flores recalled that agroecology emerged in Latin America as a social movement rather than a market standard: tools such as FAO's Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation or TAPE assessed the performance of agroecological systems, while organic standards already offer market recognition. The debate remains open, notably in East Africa, and Ambassador Bende added that the larger the scale, the more relevant it becomes to discuss certification.
The final round looked at the bigger picture: how to turn successful local experiences into lasting, system-wide change?
Guiding question: Finally, if we want to move from successful local initiatives towards wider food-system transformation, what policy, investment and institutional changes are most important?
For Ambassador Bende, promising approaches already exist, what matters now is creating the conditions for them to take root, expand and endure. Three priorities stand out: policy coherence across agricultural, trade, nutrition, environmental and climate policies; more investment in local value chains, producer organisations, research and advisory services; and long-term partnerships with established institutions. Ultimately, this means shifting from funding individual projects to transforming the systems that determine what farmers produce, what markets offer and what food consumers can access.
Ambassador Ndiaye shared that Senegal is currently drafting its national agroecology strategy, and underlined the importance of a clear and visible commitment from the state, so that people know agroecology is being actively promoted. Existing local dynamics, such as the Dynamic for an Agroecological Transition in Senegal (DyTAES), are already doing excellent work but remain concentrated in certain villages and towns. These local dynamics could reach greater impact with government support to scale up across the country. Other important changes mentioned include stronger inter-ministerial governance as agroecology also encompasses environment and health; territorialised public policies, allowing each region to focus on what it produces best; and land tenure security, as most of the cultivated land in Senegal still lacks a formal property title. Land tenure security would help farmers in many ways, including to access bank loans.
Flores observed that local action is ready, with countless experiences worldwide, but scaling up requires transforming the food environment itself. Three institutional shifts were proposed: repurposing public budgets to support smallholders through their multi-year transition, since local production that reduces anaemia also saves on healthcare; modernising and accrediting extension services; and institutionalising co-governance through food policy councils that include civil society, farmers and consumers.
Pierre Ferrand, Agricultural Officer at FAO, presented two of the 10 case studies featured in Agroecology in Action: Stories from the Ground, the third edition of the yearly publication of the Agroecology Coalition's Working Group on Implementation. Across all cases, a few lessons stand out: local ownership is the foundation of lasting change, transitions endure only when linked to viable markets, and women's economic empowerment is a key driver of resilience.
Bangladesh: from farms to healthier cities. The NICE project (2021–2028) links agroecology, nutrition, markets and local governance through multi-sectoral city platforms that connect producers, services, markets and consumers. It has set up 100 Farmers' Hubs, half of which are women-led, supported 32,596 farmers and linked more than 3,000 directly to urban markets. The experience showed that secondary cities are a workable scale for food system transformation, and that embedding nutrition in local plans and budgets strengthens ownership beyond the project.
Benin: growing the organic cotton sector. Implemented by PAN UK and OBEPAB (2021–2027), this initiative supports farmers in shifting from pesticide-dependent cotton to profitable, soil-restoring organic systems, combining farmer field schools, participatory research, strong cooperatives and premium value chains. It has supported 9,470 farmers, 30% of them women and 43% youth. Organic farms earn 65% more than non-organic ones, and soil organic matter has increased by 75%. With the current phase targeting nearly 30% of the country's cotton producers, the case shows that agroecology can be economically competitive even for major commodities.
These examples demonstrate how agroecology can be strengthened through the combined efforts of farmer organisations, extension services, research, certification and market development.
Agroecology as a compass in times of crisis
The audience exchange broadened the discussion to the responsibilities of different actors across food systems, including public institutions, the private sector, collective catering and gastronomy.
Questions raised include: how can public finance better support agroecology, how can extension services reach farmers, and how can food systems ensure both fair remuneration for producers and affordability for consumers.
The exchange also highlighted the importance of strengthening local value chains and addressing the challenges faced by communities affected by conflict and displacement.
In his closing reflections, Oliver Oliveros reflected on how communities relied on backyards, balconies and local food sources during crises, highlighting the fragility of food systems that depend heavily on global supply chains. The Agroecology Coalition executive coordinator also underlined the importance of agroecology as a guiding framework.
Policy, finance, markets and knowledge are all levers that can be used for good or for bad. When everything else fails, the principles of agroecology, from co-creation and equity to soil health and biodiversity, can guide the way.
Agroecology Coalition Executive Coordinator
From local solutions to systemic change
The discussions at CFS54 reaffirmed that agroecology is already being practised across diverse contexts, offering pathways to strengthen food systems and respond to interconnected challenges. Local initiatives demonstrate its potential, including its economic competitiveness, but sustaining and scaling these experiences requires coherent policies, long-term investment, supportive markets and partnerships that recognise farmers, women and young people as actors shaping food systems.
The challenge ahead is to move from successful local solutions to wider food-system transformation, ensuring that agroecology is supported not only in the field, but also through the policies, institutions, markets and investments that determine what food is produced, how it reaches people and whether everyone can access healthy, sustainable diets.