Highlights from the Africa Food Systems Forum 2024

• The launch of AGRA ‘s annual Africa Agricultural Status Report (AASR) at the opening ceremony highlighted the leading role the private sector,- MSME’s in particular- in transforming Africa’s food systems. Governments and donors should focus on creating an enabling environment for MSMEs to scale up and ensure long term and comprehensive policy frameworks to enable multinationals to invest

• Key discussions at the forum included the coherence between climate and food systems policies, the urgent need to improve soil health to increase yields, avenues to scale regenerative agriculture and enabling free trade through the AfCFTA

• The potential of youth was stressed in nearly every session on the forum. A range of events at the Youth Dome, such as the Gogettaz Agripreneurship awards highlight the leading role of youth in innovating food systems and youth representatives demanded for inclusive policies that enable them to get access to finance, information and land.

• A growing number of Dutch and Dutch funded organizations know their way to the forum. Among others SNV, IDH, EastWestSeed Knowledge Transfer, WUR, IFDC, AKVO and AgriGRADE support food systems transformation in Africa by showcasing best practices and innovations and facilitating critical discussions at various parts of the forum. Together with the Inclusive Green Growth Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they exchanged ideas and experiences at the network drinks hosted by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Rwanda and NFP.

• In the closing session, UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed called for collaboration and joint action in implementation and confirmed the UN support for transforming food systems in Africa.

Whereas Africa faces enormous challenges related to food and nutrition security, climate impacts and biodiversity loss, AFS Forum 2024 is full of optimism, confidence and big promises. A good starting point to addressing the challenge of translating the intentions into concrete action. NFP is committed to leveraging this by connecting people, knowledge and experience to the needs arising from this process, among others through supporting the implementation of the national pathways to sustainable food systems across Africa.