Food security

In 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene a Food Systems Summit as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit aims to support transformation of the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food.

In writing about transformation in Blue Marble Evaluation, I quoted Million Belay, coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, who said: “At last there is a realization that change, fundamental change in the way we are living, is needed.” I met Million at

This report presents the key highlights and contributions from the conference ‘Monitoring and Evaluation for Inclusive and Sustainable Food Systems’. This conference was held on 3-4 April 2019 in Wageningen, the Netherlands and was the twelfth annual ‘M&E on the Cutting Edge’ conference. This event was organised by Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (WCDI) in collaboration with Wageningen Economic Research and the Food & Business Knowledge Platform.

Presenters: Michael Quinn Patton, Pablo Vidueira

Summary: Hear from the world's first Blue Marble Evaluator, Pablo Vidueira, about his work supporting the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, an alliance of mostly private foundations working to leverage their resources and networks to get sustainable food systems on the political, economic, and social agenda. 

Presenter: Claire Nickin & Marah Moore

Summary: Learn about an ongoing Blue Marble Evaluation of the Collaborative Crop Research Program. The McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) funds collaborative research between smallholder farmers, leading local researchers, and development practitioners to explore solutions for sustainable, local food systems.

The Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) funds 85 agriculture research projects in the Andes and Africa. CCRP’s work has an Agroecological Intensification (AEI) focus based on using ecological principles to sustainably cultivate land. The emphasis is on principles, because the actual practices will vary according to social and ecological contexts. AEI is part of a broader global movement on agroecology.