The Governance Challenge

Food governance structures, including at the global level, are no longer fit for purpose, and need to be redesigned to achieve deep systemic change in the food system. Responsibility for decision-making about the food system is shared between many different public, private and civil society organisations globally. This creates challenges for a more integrated and coherent approach to food policy. This brief uses a case study of global-level public sector decision-makers on food to illustrate these challenges. It describes who is involved in global food governance, how they are connected and the changes those involved in global governance believe are needed to help them work more effectively across food systems issues. The case study is based on a literature review and an informal round table discussion, held in Rome in October 2018. The round table was organised by the Centre for Food Policy to gain insights into the governance structures and processes in place at the global level and involved fourteen representatives from key United Nations (UN) agencies and other stakeholders from civil society and academia.