The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Economic Forum’s Food Systems Initiative are pleased to present this white paper on the role of innovation to enable country pathways for food systems transformation.

After nearly two years, the world is still struggling to address a pandemic that has destroyed and disrupted so many lives and livelihoods, deepening global challenges such as hunger, malnutrition, poverty and climate change. In response to these risks, innovation offers a powerful opportunity to improve global food systems towards more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable models for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind.  

On the occasion of the historic milestone represented by the first ever United Nations 

Food Systems Summit, in 2021, innovation was included as one of the four levers of change. In defining innovation, as this paper lays out, it is critical to adopt a wider, more holistic view – one that is inclusive of local and traditional knowledge, one that recognizes the importance of policy and institutional innovation, of multistakeholder partnership innovation, and of social innovation. The Innovation Lever, as part of the UN Food Systems Summit, brought together a diverse community of 75 organizational partners representing the public, private and social sectors in a commitment to make this wider view of innovation a significant enabling factor for food systems transformation and to support the objectives of the summit.