Food pavilions to join forces, promoting Action On Food at COP29 and beyond

A new initiative to join together three food pavilions at COP into one Action On Food hub, representing the whole food systems community, has launched today at the Bonn Climate Conference SB60.

Last year at COP28, the Food Systems Pavilion, Food4Climate Pavilion and Future Economy Forum Pavilion all ran separate activities and thematic programmes. This year, in order to further increase collaboration and provide more opportunities for the food community to engage with the international climate negotiations, the three pavilions will be joining forces and will operate within one pavilion space, the Action on Food Hub.?

The Action on Food hub will actively engage with the international climate negotiations – ensuring food systems are seen as solutions to the climate crisis and support the development of specific policy outcomes which work to the transition to healthier, sustainable, just and resilient food systems for all.

Importantly, it will create an inclusive space for dialogues, collaboration and partnerships with stakeholders from across the entire food system, and actively elevate the voice of marginalised communities.

The Action on Food Hub will be divided into three main areas: a plenary space (managed by the Action On Food ), a roundtable space (managed by the Future Economy Forum ) and a policy zone (managed by the Food4Climate Community).

The Food Systems Pavilion is an activity of the Action On Food tnership, of which EIT Food is the secretariat. The Food4Climate Community is coordinated by ProVeg International , a global organisation promoting plant-based food systems. The Future Economy Forum is a multi-sector platform that advances regenerative agriculture, industry and finance solutions, of which NOW Partners Foundation is the secretariat.

How the Action on Food Hub Accelerates Systemic Change

Juliette Tronchon, Head of UN Affairs at ProVeg International said: “Policy engagement is incredibly important at COP, and with the creation of the new Policy Zone within the Action on Food Hub, we will be able to concentrate more effort on providing evidence-based resources about the role of food systems in climate adaptation and mitigation to negotiating parties, as well as ensuring the food community at COP can better follow and support these important negotiations.” ?

Merijn Dols, Co-founder of the Future Economy Forum said: “At COP27 and COP28 we proved that facilitating meaningful dialogues between key decision makers can lead to concrete outcomes in scaling regenerative agrifood solutions. ?Co-creating the Action on Food Hub in Baku allows us again to work with multistakeholder communities from around the world to identify and resolve the challenges we are facing in the transition to more regenerative food systems that integrate positive impact on people and nature with the economic success of farmers and other stakeholders.”

Dr. Lucy Wallace, Director of Global Engagement, EIT Food , the secretariat of the Food Systems Partnership said: “Food systems provide us with a key opportunity to have a real impact on climate change. The Action On Food Hub provides us with an excellent opportunity to build on the work we have all done over the last two COPs to elevate the role of food and food systems within the international climate negotiations at a time when creating multistakeholder spaces in which to problem solve and share solutions is becoming increasingly urgent.”?

Call open for expressions of interest for thematic programming

We are now accepting expressions of interest from multistakeholder consortia for programmatic themes for the plenary and roundtable spaces in the Action on Food hub. We are committed to inclusive dialogue and so will prioritise applications from multistakeholder consortia which are balanced and that actively involve actors from the global south, farming and youth communities in the development and delivery of the programme.

Applications for programmatic themes will be available as a package or as individual sessions. To reduce the financial cost of programming for each organisation, it is envisioned that the costs will be shared amongst the consortia members.

Expressions of interest should be submitted here before 5 July 2024. The Action on Food hub team will then be in touch to help consortia develop their applications. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScOLLQ-dh9blytHzSa0ihbVQ0lVUifnNm3PPQK5NhPQpHs7rg/viewform?pli=1

The closing date for applications following the expression of interest will be 4 August 2024 and we are planning to notify successful consortia before the end of August 2024.

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Programming and sponsorship costs

In order to pay for the space for the Action on Food hub, we are currently fundraising.

EIT Food, ProVeg International and Future Economy Forum are donating their time to convene and resource the space. The Action on Food hub is open to the whole food community at COP, and we do not want price to be a barrier to participation, and we hope that the requirement of multistakeholder consortia will enable organisations to share costs.

·????? Thematic programming package: including five plenary and two roundtable sessions = ?80k USD

·????? Thematic programming individual sessions: in the plenary space = 10k USD/hr

·????? Thematic programming individual sessions: in the roundtable space = 15k USD/1.5hr

We are also looking for high level sponsorship from foundations, funding bodies and NGOs, so please contact us if you would like to support this initiative.

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For further information please contact the secretariat of the Food Systems Pavilion at [email protected]

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