This strategy specifically targets the different types of the private sector from large national and multinational corporations, to financial institutions, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), industry and trade organizations and consortia which represent private sector interests, farmers and farmers’ organizations, producers’ organizations and cooperatives and philanthropic foundations. At the same time, it also targets FAO Membership, as well as the general public who wish to learn more about FAO's strategy and ways of engaging with the private sector.

Engagement with the private sector represents an opportunity for FAO to more efficiently deliver on its mandate, advance on the path to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and ensure better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind. This report covers the first year of implementation of FAO’s Strategy for Private Sector Engagement 2021-2025. It looks at the progress made since the strategy was approved during the 165th session of the FAO Council in December 2020, documenting changes in approaches to private sector engagement, key achievements and lessons learned, and outlines major priorities for private sector engagement in the year to come.

Unleashing the potential for inclusive agricultural growth and transformation in Africa requires coordinated and strategic public and private investment in the agriculture sector. [Author] Against a background of limited government resources and expertise, public–private partnerships are increasingly being promoted as a mechanism to pool resources, reduce risk, improve productivity and drive growth in the agriculture and food sectors. [Author] In line with this trend, many African countries have recently expressed an interest in further understanding the potential for public–private partnerships for agribusiness development (agri-PPPs) to deliver on these transformative goals. [Author] This publication aims to provide guidance to African policymakers and potential private sector investors on the core principles of designing and implementing agri-PPPs that will promote the transformation of Africa’s agriculture sector in an inclusive and sustainable way. [Author] This area of work is of particular interest to the African Union Commission (AUC) which has highlighted agri-PPPs as a key tool in the delivery of the results under the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth for Shared Prosperity and Livelihoods. [Author]

The publication "Guidance on core indicators for agrifood systems – Measuring the private sector’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals" aims to provide practical information on how food and agriculture companies’ contribution to the SDGs can be measured in a consistent manner and in alignment with countries’ needs relating to monitoring the attainment of Agenda 2030. The indicators are further intended to serve as a tool to assist governments in: improving private sector’s accountability mechanisms and assessing their contribution to SDG implementation, in particular on key transformative actions needed to achieve the SDGs; setting standards and policies for corporate sustainability reporting, establishing national private sector reporting mechanisms, and enabling the reporting on SDG Indicator 12.6.1 (Number of companies publishing sustainability reports); and potentially reusing the data reported by private entities to improve SDG monitoring at the national level. Available in a user-friendly format, the guidance begins with a quick guide that provides a brief overview of the indicators, the audience, scope, and data collection. It is followed by methodological guidance, which provides in-depth detail on the methodology behind each indicator and useful resources for capturing, measuring, and reporting on data for each indicator. Finally, in the annexes, there is a mapping of how the indicators align with various standards and guidance.

Harnessing science, technology and innovation (STI) is key to meeting the aspirations of efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems and leveraging emerging opportunities to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The FAO Strategic Framework 2022–2031 identifies STI as having enormous transformative potential and underlines the potential of emerging technologies. It also recognizes that STI can present substantial risks, such as reinforcing inequality and market concentration, or contributing to the degradation of natural resources. As one of four accelerators identified by the FAO Strategic Framework 2022–2031, technology is expected to “accelerate impact while minimizing trade-offs”. This report examines the technology accelerator trends across publicly available FAO knowledge reports, technical guidance and convening summaries. Leveraging AI-assisted classification of nearly 40 000 documents, this report offers a bird’s-eye perspective of six types of technology – digital technologies, biotechnologies, mechanization, irrigation technologies, renewable energy technologies and food processing technologies – as well as high-level trends for outcomes and social and demographic details about the communities using these technologies.

This book focuses on the contested nature and competing narratives of food system transformations, despite it being widely acknowledged that changes are essential for the safeguarding of human and planetary health and well-being. The book approaches food system transformation through narratives, or the stories we tell ourselves and others about how things work. Narratives are closely connected with theories of change, although food system actors frequently lack explicit theories of change. Using political economy and systems approaches to analyze food system transformation, the author focuses on how power in food systems manifests, and how this affects whom can obtain healthy and culturally appropriate food on a reliable basis. Among the narratives covered are agroecology, food sovereignty and technological innovation. The book draws on interviews and recorded speeches by a broad range of stakeholders, including international policymakers, philanthropists, academics and researchers, workers in the food and agricultural industries and activists working for NGOs and social movements. In doing so, it presents contrasting narratives and their implicit or explicit theories of change. This approach is vitally important as decisions made by policymakers over the next few years, based on competing narratives, will have a major influence on who will eat what, how food will be produced, and who will have a voice is shaping food systems. The overarching contribution of this book is to point toward the most promising pathways for achieving sustainable food systems and refute pathways that show little hope of achieving a more sustainable future. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers interested in creating a sustainable food system which will ensure a food secure, socially just and environmentally sustainable future.